Blizzard of 2006
To start, the Blizzard of 2006 wasn't a blizzard at all. A big snowstorm, yes, but not a blizzard by definition. For New York City this was the biggest snowstorm on record. Central park measured 26.9" beating the old record of 26.4" set in 1947. Compared to storms of the past it may be easily forgotten though. The heavy snow fell in a narrow band across Manhattan, it was dry & light, and there was little drifting.
For Darien, CT it was nothing more than a very large, yet tranquil snowfall of 20.2". The blizzard of 1996 easily eclipsed this storm with over 27" of snow in Darien and drifts greater than 10' in several places. Even the President's Day storm of 2003 was more severe with only 15"-18" of snow.
It was still a historic nor'easter. Snow began late Saturday evening on the 11th of February. It was light most of the night and it looked like snowfall would be on the low end of the forecasted range. Everything changed around 6 a.m. Sunday morning when most of the tri-state region was awakened by loud thunder. An intense band of snow setup just inland. Over the next 7 hours it hammered the area with snowfall rates of 2-4" per hour as the band slowly drifted east. Nearly a foot fell during this time, with a two hour period receiving close to 6" of snow.
