Tuesday, February 16, 2010

4th Greatest Snowfall in Tyler Last Week



Last week's snowfall across East Texas produced snowfall amounts many areas have not seen in over 20 years. So I thought I would dig through the record books to see how this snow compared to some of the greatest snowfalls in East Texas history. The official records for Tyler go back to 1883. However, there are a few holes in the data. The winter months are missing from 1883 through 1889. Also, the years 1906-1939and 1951-1954 are missing entirely. So my findings cannot be 100% accurate but from the data available, last week's snow will go down as the 3rd greatest snowfall off all time. Here is a list of the 5 greatest snowfalls in Tyler on record:

#1 Jan 14th, 1982 8.0"
#2 Jan 30th, 1949 7.5"
#3 Feb 11-12th, 2010 6.0"
#4 Jan 14th , 1944 6.0"
#5 Feb 1-2nd 1985 5.5"

Looking through the missing data years at other East Teas locations I found on December 21st, 1929 a strong snow storm covered most of East Texas with 10 to 16 inches of snow including 14 inches in Longview. So I have a hard time believing that Tyler did not receive at least 10 inches of snow during this event which would make last week's snow the 4th greatest of all time. There of course were other snow events during the missing data years but by judging what occurred around Tyler, I feel pretty confident these events did not eclipse the 6 inch mark. This snow event will also go down as the greatest amount of snow for the month of February in Tyler.

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