The white stuff could be seen
for miles, from Bristol up to
Perkasie. Traffic was staggered,
the schools were closed
and the horizon was obscured
in a sea of snow. Bucks County
received a gargantuan amount
of snowfall in just a short twoweek
period, making the
month of February one of the
snowiest months for Bucks in
37 years.
Blizzard conditions choked
the Northeast, with Bucks
County in line to bear the brunt
of the storm.
The expectations were 12 to
18 inches, with almost an inch
an hour predicted to fall.
Residents of the county locked
themselves inside their homes
and prepared to hunker down
as the county declared a state
of emergency, warning all residents
to stay indoors and off
the roads.
In the aftermath, the numbers
were crunched and the totals
were tallied. Philadelphia
International Airport reported
16 inches of snowfall.
According to the New Jersey
Weather Service, Bucks
County was trailing just behind
the city of brotherly love with
snowfall coming in at an estimated
15 inches average.
For Philadelphia, the new
blizzard tipped the scale for the
largest snowfall in the city’s
history. The previous wearer of
that belt was the infamous
“Blizzard of ’96” which
wreaked havoc on Philadelphia
and its neighboring suburbs
with a total snowfall of 65.4
inches, just 6 less than this
year’s total accumulation.
The maelstrom of nasty stuff
has been attributed to a high
pressure system off the coast of
Greenland which pushed down
the conditions to produce powerful
winter storms farther
south than they usually go.
While the city saw a new
record buster, Bucks County
received considerably less.
Reports from the local branch
of the National Weather service
indicated that total precipitation
tallying just shy of 49
inches, considerably less than
the ’96 blizzard’s record.
Even though the worst is
behind us, future blips on the
radar force the region to be
reminded that the winter storm
season is still upon us.