A blizzard swept through northeast of the country over Christmas and dumped over 50 inches of snow in Pennsylvania in two days, shattering many records.
Erie, Pennsylvania was hammered by a lake-effect snowstorm on Christmas day until Tuesday, Dec. 26, and received 34 inches of snow on Christmas day alone smashing Erie’s daily snowfall record. The previous record was 20 inches set on Nov. 22, 1956. It then picked up another 19 inches of snow within six hours of the next day which brings the snow total to an incredible 53 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
The heavy onslaught of snow continued into late Tuesday morning, adding a further inch and a half, bringing the total to a whopping 54.5 inches of snow since Christmas day, becoming the greatest 2-day record in Pennsylvania. The previous record was 44 inches, set between March 20 and 21, 1958 at Morgantown.
Even more impressive was that Erie picked up more snowfall in less than 36 hours than its 13-day snowfall record of 52.8 inches between Dec. 31, 1998, and Jan. 12, 1999.
Residents of Erie may be used to heavy snowfall, but 55 inches in just two days—which is close to the average of December and January snowfall—is something they have never seen before, reported the weather news station.
