The Great White Blizzard … of 1888
It started early on a Sunday morning, but there were no weather apps. There were no warnings. There were no snowblowers or plow trucks or highway crews at all. There was just snow. A seemingly endless amount. For days.
The Blizzard of 1888, also called the Great White Blizzard of ‘88 and the Great White Hurricane, brought “bone-chilling temperatures, hurricane-force winds, several inches of snow dropping per hour” across the Northeast, according to local historian Shannon Butler. “And it raged on for about a day and a half.”
The snow began during the early morning hours on Sunday, March 11, 1888, accumulating 12-inches by 7am, and up to 18-inches by noon. “The blowing snow reduced the visibility so much that it was impossible to see across the short distance from the barn to the house,” Hurley Historian David Baker noted. Gale force winds reached 60 miles-per-hour and left snowdrifts 10- to 20-feet high across the region.
Over 40-inches of snow fell in parts of the Hudson Valley. Gale force winds reached 60 miles-per-hour and left snowdrifts 10- to 20-feet high across the region. In Poughkeepsie, tunnels were dug along Main Street so people could walk down the sidewalks.
Telephone and telegraph lines were cut off due to the storm, and with no warning systems in place, especially since it was mid-March at the time, people were caught off guard and unprepared to get around in the snow. And with no snowblowers, no highway departments making their rounds, it was up to individual landowners to clear the snow. Traveling doctors abandoned their usual horse and carriage and trudged through the snow on foot to get to their appointments. To clear those stranded in their homes, a group of men went snow-covered door-to-snow-covered-door through the city to shovel out anyone in need. After the storm, that group of shovelers formed a club, dubbed “The Blizzard Men of 1888,” and held lavish dinners every year to commemorate surviving the historic arctic event.
In addition to the accumulating snow, the storm also created another phenomena, according to Baker: The gale force winds, blowing from the north-west, had blown the waters of the Hudson River down toward the sea, and that, coupled with the low tide, drained the Rondout Creek enough that boats were grounded on the creek bottom. The ferry boat went hard aground, and the steamboat Norwich was keeled over to one side.
The storm has been continuously noted as one of the worst snowstorms in history. For years, according to Butler, whenever another storm was brewing, anyone who experienced the Great Blizzard would brush it off, and simply say, “It’s not as bad as ’88.”
Further reading:
https://www.hurleyheritagesociety.org/history/blizzard-of-88/
https://poklib.org/the-blizzard-of-1888/
Photo captions + credits:
Image of the snow banks on Main St. after the blizzard of ‘88, by Vail Brothers (LH Collections)
“The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company,” snow tunnel built after the storm. (LH Collections)
Residence of R. Wilkinson, 297 Mill Street with unidentified shoveler pictured in foreground (LH Collections)
Shovelers lined up on Main Street, looking west from Little Smith St. (LH Collections)
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