The REALLY big one began five years ago today
A few flakes fell on Baltimore on this date five years ago. It wasn't much - just 2.4 inches by the time it ended. But it turned out to be just a prologue to the worst snowstorm since they began keeping snow records for Baltimore in 1883.
The first snow fell on a Saturday - the weekend before President's Day. It was a nuisance, but the city handled it well. It was the forecast that worried us more. Meteorologists said a new storm was gathering steam, and threatened to dump another 7 inches or so the next day. They were a tad off in the guesstimate.
By the time that Sunday, the 16th, ended, there was another 21.8 inches of snow on top of the first storm's leavings. The airport was buried. The roof on the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore had collapsed. Cars were buried everywhere. Highways and streets were narrow, rutted paths if they were open at all. It would take most residents days to dig out, and often even more time waiting for plows to show up. And when they did, they resealed everyone's laboriously dug openings to the outside world.
And even that wasn't all. The next two days - Monday and Tuesday - saw another 4 inches accumulate, bringing the four-day total to 28.2 inches. By the time the long, snowy month finally ended, the February total came to 40.5 inches. It was the snowiest month since records began, and the second-snowiest season on the books.
You can re-read some of The Sun's coverage of the Presidents Day Weekend Storm of 2003 by clicking here. There is also a gallery of Sun photos of Marylanders battling the storm. For a listing of the greatest snowstorms on record for Washington and Baltimore, click here. There are some narratives of great Maryland winters, and a wealth of winter statistics from the NWS, here.
And we invite you to share your recollections of The Big One, by entering a comment, below.
Comments
My family relives the Big One of 2003 every year when we celebrate my son's birthday. He was born at 1:30am on 2/14/03 and, knowing a big storm was on the way, we left the hospital at 11am later that morning amid a few flakes and a dusting on the ground. After all the snow had fallen, we were glad to be snowed-in at home instead of the hospital!! We spent the next few days at home with our newborn son, with a good excuse to not go anywhere! Unfortunately, my husband had to shovel the driveway all by himself! It took him three days!
Posted by: Kristen | February 15, 2008 9:04 AM
That was a great storm...I was in school at the University of Maryland at the time and I think they closed school for several days.
Posted by: Dave | February 15, 2008 10:27 AM
My son's 5th b-day was 2/14/03 and his party was to be the next day - needless to say, no party. And my mother had come in from FL for the festivities - so, 4 days later after hubby and mo--in-law were stuck in house with 5 yr old and 9 month old, it's amazing anyone survived!
Posted by: Lynne | February 15, 2008 12:27 PM
If it weren't for the snow storm, I don't know if my wife and I would have gotten married . . . we had just started dating and were in the "getting to know each other" phase. Getting snowed in together for almost a week really allowed us to speed that process :-)
Posted by: Brendan | February 15, 2008 2:42 PM
We were living in a townhouse then, and shoveling the driveway was an adventure. I ran out of places to put the snow!
Posted by: Joe C | February 18, 2008 9:42 AM
And people who had decided to take advantage of the long weekend for a quick vacation, found their vacations becoming unexpectedly longer. Yeah, there are worse things than being stuck in Florida for an extra 4 days; once we finally got through to someone who could reschedule our canceled flight, washed laundry, found a hotel room....
Posted by: Corine Schramke | February 18, 2008 10:34 AM
My wife and I were in an apartment complex in Columbia, with 34" on the ground. I had to report to work on Tuesday, and my neighbors and I pitched in to clean the parking lot.
My pickup truck became a dump truck, as mountains of snow were loaded into the bed, and then pushed down the hill onto the Hobbit's Glen Golf Course... :)
Posted by: David R | February 19, 2008 3:42 PM