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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 2: show that charts the storms of history one day at

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Speaker 2: a time. I'm Gay Bluesiery, and in this episode, we're

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Speaker 2: talking about an infamous day in New York City when

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Speaker 2: the weather outside was truly frightful. The day was December

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Speaker 2: twenty sixth, nineteen forty seven, a record breaking snowstorm wreaked

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Speaker 2: havoc in post holiday New York City. The snow began

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Speaker 2: falling without prediction in the early morning, and by the

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Speaker 2: time it stopped less than twenty four hours later, accumulation

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Speaker 2: had reached twenty six point four inches in Central Park.

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Speaker 2: Snowdrifts exceeded ten feet in some places, and because of

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Speaker 2: the city's lack of snowplows, many of the streets and

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Speaker 2: about thirty thousand abandoned cars remained buried for several weeks.

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Speaker 2: The snowstorm, dubbed the Great Blizzard of nineteen forty seven,

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Speaker 2: also exacted a heavy toll on New York's most vulnerable residents,

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Speaker 2: with seventy seven deaths attributed to the icy conditions and

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Speaker 2: freezing temperatures. The historic storm caught New Yorkers off guard,

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Speaker 2: as the Weather Bureau had only warned of cold winds

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Speaker 2: and flurries. That's because, unlike most snowstorms in the region,

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Speaker 2: this one had arrived from the Atlantic Ocean rather than

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Speaker 2: flowing over land from the west to the east. There

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Speaker 2: were numerous weather stations that would have detected the storm's

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Speaker 2: advance had it followed the typical path, but there weren't

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Speaker 2: any weather stations in the Atlantic Ocean. The surprise storm

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Speaker 2: impacted several parts of the northeastern US, including New Jersey

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Speaker 2: and Connecticut, but the bulk of its force was centered

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Speaker 2: squarely on New York City. The snow began falling in

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Speaker 2: the early morning and continued steadily throughout the afternoon and

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Speaker 2: into the evening, at a rate of three inches per hour.

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Speaker 2: The sheer quantity of snow, more than ninety nine million

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Speaker 2: tons by some estimates, would have been hard enough to

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Speaker 2: contend with, but the flakes themselves were also exceptionally large,

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Speaker 2: greatly reducing visibility while still in the air. NYC's mass

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Speaker 2: transit systems were crippled. As a result, subway service was

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Speaker 2: halted completely. Thousands of cars and buses were stranded in

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Speaker 2: the streets and train stations incurred delays of up to

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Speaker 2: twelve hours. At one point, bus company officials reported that

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Speaker 2: they had lost track of some two thousand vehicles. The

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Speaker 2: whereabouts of those buses, as well as that of their

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Speaker 2: drivers and passengers, was temporarily unknown. Overwhelmed communication systems added

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Speaker 2: to the city wide confusion. There simply weren't enough people

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Speaker 2: on staff to manage the inundated phone lines, making it

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Speaker 2: difficult for city officials, business owners, and the general public

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Speaker 2: to coordinate responses to the storm. The city's night life

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Speaker 2: was snarled by the storm as well, but some people

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Speaker 2: tried to enjoy themselves anyway. A few went skiing in

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Speaker 2: Central Park, while one intrepid pair tried out their skis

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Speaker 2: on snowbound Madison Avenue. And while many restaurants and stores

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Speaker 2: had closed by sunset, if they'd been able to open

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Speaker 2: at all, the Monte Carlo Club took its chances. The

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Speaker 2: popular spot should have been jumping on the night after Christmas,

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Speaker 2: but since most people were snowed in, eight lucky patrons

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Speaker 2: had the whole club to themselves. Most New Yorkers had

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Speaker 2: never encountered a storm like the one in nineteen forty

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Speaker 2: seven but some old timers were reminded of another mammoth snowstorm,

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Speaker 2: the Great Blizzard of eighteen eighty eight. It was one

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Speaker 2: of the most severe ever recorded in American history, with

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Speaker 2: sustained winds of more than forty five miles per hour

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Speaker 2: and temperatures as low as just six degrees. An estimated

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Speaker 2: four hundred people lost their lives in the Blizzard of

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Speaker 2: eighteen eighty eight, making it far more deadly than its

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty seven counterpart. In fact, the Great Blizzard of

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty seven wasn't technically a blizzard at all, as

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Speaker 2: its wind speeds never exceeded the thirty five mile per

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Speaker 2: hour threshold to qualify for the title. Nonetheless, there was

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Speaker 2: at least one metric in which the forty seven storm

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Speaker 2: outranked its predecessor, the quantity of its snowfall. The news

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Speaker 2: that the storm had broken that all time record was

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Speaker 2: reported that very evening on December twenty sixth, providing exhausted

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Speaker 2: New Yorkers with something to cheer about. According to Life

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Speaker 2: magazine quote, long after nightfall, the illuminated news sign of

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Speaker 2: the New York Times flashed the announcement to little groups

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Speaker 2: of people huddled in Times Square that the snowfall, which

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Speaker 2: totalled an amazing twenty five point eight inches in less

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Speaker 2: than twenty four hours, had beaten the record of the

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Speaker 2: city's historic blizzard of eighteen eighty eight. A faint, muffled

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Speaker 2: shout of triumph went up from the victims. The nineteen

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Speaker 2: forty seven storm held its standing all the way until

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Speaker 2: two thousand and six, but during that year's major snowstorm,

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Speaker 2: the accumulation in Central Park was measured at twenty six

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Speaker 2: point nine inches, beating the previous record by just half

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Speaker 2: an inch. Strangely enough, that means three of New York's

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Speaker 2: snowiest snowstorms each occurred exactly fifty nine years apart, eighteen

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Speaker 2: eighty eight to nineteen forty seven and nineteen forty seven

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Speaker 2: to two thousand six. Unfortunately, for fans of symmetry, that

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Speaker 2: pattern would be broken just a decade later, when the

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Speaker 2: blizzard of twenty sixteen left New Yorkers with twenty seven

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Speaker 2: point five inches of snow. And yes, that one was

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Speaker 2: a genuine blizzard. I'm Gabe Lucier, and hopefully you now

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Speaker 2: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 2: If you'd like to keep up with the show. You

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Speaker 2: can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI

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Speaker 2: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 2: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 2: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays

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Speaker 2: for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 2: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in

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Speaker 2: History class