- Camac Street, Philadelphia
January 6-8, 1996
The great blizzard of 1996 nearly paralyzed the city of Philadelphia for days, followed by a second major storm on January 12, 1996.
A grand total of 30.7 inches fell in Philadelphia, the most snow fall in any city along the storms path. It was the city’s all-time greatest snowstorm. Majority of the 30 plus inches of snow, 27.6 to be exact, fell in just a short 24 hour time period, a new record for the city. Of course a state of emergency was declared by the mayor, allowing only emergency personnel to be on the roadways.
- Trucks dumped snow into nearby rivers
For three arduous days city trucks removed and dumped snow into the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers later causing major flooding issues. Due to the massive amount of snow City officials were forced to haul the snow to the nearby rivers for disposal. This method of disposal later resulted in flooding. On January 19th, a warmer temperatures (streaming from the Gulf of Mexico) caused a rapid melt, followed by thunderstorms,bringing approximately three inches of rain to the region. An astonishing 20 inches of snow melted in one day! Philadelphia saw its worst flooding in twenty years just after days before experiencing the worst snow storm in history. In the end damages were estimated to reach $1 billion, a major loss for the city of Philadelphia.
Don’t get caught in the mist of a terrible snow storm this year, check out our Snow Removal Tips article
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