This month, the nation is experiencing a series of March storms, but none compare to the intense and widespread impacts of the ‘Superstorm’ that occurred in the 1990s. On March 12, 1993, a low-pressure system rapidly intensified in the Gulf, creating historic effects from Cuba to eastern Canada over the following weekend. Known as the “Superstorm” or the “Storm of the Century,” it began with a storm surge in Florida’s Gulf Coast, reaching up to 12 feet in Taylor County. Severe thunderstorms produced winds up to 109 mph and 15 tornadoes in Cuba and the Florida Peninsula.
Along the East Coast, winds reached 90 mph in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 81 mph in Boston, and 71 mph at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, causing coastal flooding and property damage. Significant snowfall was reported, with up to 6 inches in the western Florida Panhandle, 56 inches on Mt. LeConte, Tennessee, and 10-foot drifts in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Several states set all-time snow depth records.
The ‘Superstorm’ claimed 270 lives in 13 states and caused $12.2 billion in damage. Major airports and interstates on the East Coast were closed, and millions lost electricity. NOAA estimated that almost 120 million people in the East were affected by the snowstorm, with an immense amount of water equivalent to 40 days of the Mississippi River’s flow at New Orleans. This event is one of only two Category 5 East Coast snowstorms since 1950, according to the NESIS scale.
