"This storm is by no means as violent as others which have occurred in the eastern part of the United States. It is noted, however, as being one in which the unusual amount of snow fell, which drifted by high winds caused by the advance of an anticyclonic area in rear of the storm depression, did an enormous amount of damage to the railways in Massachusetts, southern New York, and New Jersey.

"The storm centre was first noticed in the North Pacific on March 6th; whence it passed southeast from the Oregon coast to northern Texas by the 9th. The centre instead of maintaining the usual elliptical form, gradually shaped itself into an extended trough of low pressure, which covered the Mississippi and Ohio valleys during the loth. On the morning of March 11th the barometer trough extended from Lake Superior southward to the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico; in the northern section over Lake Superior, and the southern part, over Georgia, distinct centres, with independent wind circulation, had formed.

"The northern storm centre moved northeastward, passing off the Atlantic coast near Cape Hatteras. The pressure on the afternoon of March 11th was about 29.07 at the centre of both the northern and southern storms, but during the night of the 11-12th the Pressure decreased in the southern storm centre, and the area instead of continuing its easterly direction moved almost directly to the north, and on the morning of March 12th was central off the New Jersey coast.

"The causes which underlie the decrease of pressure and consequent increase in the violence of storms are, as yet, undetermined, ... It should be pointed out, however, that the very heavy rainfalls from Philadelphia southward to Wilmington during the 11th, and even the heavier ones over the lower valley of the Hudson and in Connecticut during the 12th, may have exercised a potent influence in depressing the barometer at the centre of this storm. However this may be, it is certain that the storm remained nearly stationary with steadily decreasing pressure until midnight of March 12th, at which time it was central between Block Island and Wood's Hole, with an unusually low barometer of 28.92 at each station. During this day the winds were unusually high along the Atlantic coast from Eastport to Norfolk; the maximum velocities at the various stations ranging from 48 miles at New York City and New Haven to 60 miles at Atlantic City and 70 miles per hour at Block Island. These winds, though high, are not unprecedented, and if they had been accompanied only by precipitation in the form of rain, the damage on land would have been inconsiderable, but unfortunately for the commercial interests of New York and other neighboring great cities, the passage of the low area to the eastward was followed by a cold wave of considerable severity and of unusual continuance. The northern storm centre, which had passed eastward on the 11th, had had the usual effect of drawing in a large quantity of cold air from British America; a cold wave following the wake of this storm, as is usual during the winter season. This usual effect was intensified by the advance of a second, and more violent, cyclonic centre northward, the effect of which was to augment the cold wave already in progress by drawing in a still larger amount of cold air to re-enforce it.

"As has been already alluded to, the quantity of snowfall was unusually great. The easterly and northeasterly winds had drawn a large amount of aqueous vapor from the Atlantic over New England in advance of the low area. The sudden change of temperature precipitated by far the greater portion of the aqueous vapor in the air, with the result of an almost unprecedented fall of snow over Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the valley of the Hudson.

"Professor Winslow Upton, Secretary of the New England Meteorological Society, has gathered estimates of snow from 420 different observers, which go to show that 40 inches or more of snow fell over the greater part of the districts named.

"The deepening of the area of low pressure and the augmentation of the cold high area advancing from British America resulted in barometric gradients of unusual intensity; there being gradients in excess of 6, when gradients of 5 rarely occur either in the United States or Great Britain. The high winds caused by these unusual gradients had the effect of drifting the snow to an unusual extent, so that, as is well known, nearly every railroad in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts was snow-bound; the earliest and most prolonged effects being experienced in Connecticut, which doubtless received the full benefit of the heavy snowfall in the Hudson River valley in addition to that in the western part of that State.

"It is thought by some that the storm re-curved and passed northwest into Connecticut; an opinion in which I cannot concur. The international map and reports tend to show that this storm passed northeastward and was on the Banks of Newfoundland on the 17th of March. The peculiar shape of the isobars, while the storm could be clearly defined from observations at hand, was such that it is not unreasonable to believe that the change of wind to the south of Block Island was due simply to an off-shoot of the storm from the main centre, in like manner as the storm its-elf was the outgrowth of a previous depression.

"The track of this storm across the, sea is left to Professor Hayden. These remarks are I necessarily imperfect, as my official duties have been such as to prevent any careful study or examination of the storm apart from that possible on the current weather maps or the Signal Service."

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE VOLUME 1. 1888 No. 1.