Editor's Note: Originally published in December 2020n
How do recent winters stack up against the worst snowstorms in Lancaster County history?
Here's a look back in Lancaster Newspapers' archive at the 10 biggest snowstorms in recorded history here.
This list is based on data provided by Millersville University meteorologist Eric J. Horst and the university's Weather Information Center, which compiles data on snowstorms since 1926. In some cases there are discrepancies between newspaper and Millersville records.
Lancaster Newspapers librarians Matthew Kashner and Ann Roberts researched the archives and provided historic newspaper pages. Staff photographer Richard Hertzler shot images of the front pages, and online journalist Joel Lehman produced the page.
Honorable mention: The storm that hit on March 18-21, 1958 had arguably the biggest impact of any storm ever to hit the Lancaster area. While only 13" of heavy wet snow accumulated in Lancaster city, 2 to 3 feet of snow fell across the higher terrain of northern and eastern Lancaster county. About 30" fell in the Ephrata/Adamstown area and an astounding 50" was measured at the Morgantown exchange of the PA Turnpike. Wide spread power outages took many days to restore and the PA Turnpike was closed for a number of days.
1. January 7-8, 1996 - 30"
2. January 22-23, 2016 - 26.7"
3. February 11-12, 1983 - 24"
4. February 16-17, 2003 - 24"
5. February 5-6, 2010 - 24"
6. February 15-16, 1958 - 20"
7. February 9-10, 2010 - 19"
8. March 13-14, 1993 - 18"
9. March 20-21, 2018 - 17.5"
A young Amishman cleared snow along a driveway on North Star Road north of Strasburg, as Lancaster County continued to be blanketed with snow from winter storm Toby on Wednesday, March 21, 2018.
10. (tie) January 16, 1945 - 17"
10. (tie) February 3-4, 1961 - 17"
Bonus
11. (tie) January 29, 1928 - 16"
11. (tie) February 20-21, 1947 - 16"
11. (tie) December 19, 2009 - 16"
Which Lancaster County snowstorms are the most memorable for you?
