Looking Back at the 1969 100-hour New England Snowstorm! (credit: This Day in Weather History)

2/24/2017

DISCUSSION: As we step back to February 22-28th, 1969, weather history was most certainly changed forever in a very profound way. This one-week period marked the occurrence of one of the longer snowstorms in recorded history across the New England section of the northeastern United States. The famous "100-Hour Storm" began across the greater Boston, Massachusetts metropolitan area during the earlier parts of this 7-day period. Snow fell much of the time between early on the 25th of February and right through noon on the 28th of February. The 26.3 inches of new snowfall reported at Boston Logan International Airport still remains to be the 2nd largest single snowstorm snowfall total in Boston's history. The 77 inches which fell at Pinkham Notch Base Station in New Hampshire brought their February total to 130 inches along with their snow cover on the 27th being a remarkably high depth of 164 inches. Meanwhile, during the entire month of February 1969, Mt. Washington, New Hampshire received 172.8 inches of snow. Thus, it goes without saying that this particular snowstorm was one of the more impressive winter blasts felt across the New England area throughout recorded history with many remembering it quite well.

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©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz

4 Comments

Linda Osborne

10/27/2018 07:53:28 pm

Besides the big snow storm in the last days of February 1969, it snowed on all the other days of February in Boston. I lived there. Snow was piled on each side of the sidewalk about 8 feet high.
The city ran out of space to dump snow so they trucked it to the ocean and dumped it into the Bay.

Jane cripps tumminelli

8/27/2020 07:42:26 am

I think you were my neighbor!!! I was just telling my husband about this yr!!!

Sal Parrinello

12/17/2020 07:51:26 am

In 1969 it started snowing before February 22 it was so bad a snow plow got stuck on my street which was a semi circular street . There were two women on that street that were due to give birth around the 22nd.my wife gave birth on the 22nd it snowed all day .. The week before we 24 inches and shortly after we had another 24 inches of snow..I thought that was one of the worst snow storms ever other than blizzard of 1978 !!

Kathleen Johnson

2/12/2023 08:52:58 pm

Oh wow, lol, I never knew it had a name! I only heard the story of how after my birth, my father had to dig a tunnel to get us from the car to the door of the house. If I remember correctly, he said the snow was higher than the door. I was born at Fort Devens Massachusetts in the town of Shirley.

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