Weather Image Archives

The blizzard of February 1983 delivered a large amount of snow from the mid-atlantic states through southern New England in a relatively short amount of time. Heavy snow fell all day long over the mid-atlantic states, but slowed its northward progress during the morning of Friday, February 11, 1983. All morning and through early afternoon it was a windy, bitter cold day on Long Island with a solid gray overcast giving the appearance that snow would commence at any moment. When the leading edge of the snow did at last resume its northward movement, the first flakes very quickly transitioned into a heavy wind blown snowfall, beginning between 1 PM and 2 PM over western Long Island and progressing northeastward during the balance of the afternoon.

The sudden onset of heavy snow before the evening rush hour created chaos on the highways and gave birth to lasting stories of commutes taking over 10 hours... assuming the driver made it home at all. As snow quickly piled up around barely moving traffic many cars and their occupants became stranded. Scores of motorists were "rescued" via snowmobile and given overnight shelter in local firehouses, evoking memories of the legendary Blizzard of 1978 just 5 years earlier. In fact many more motorists were stranded during this storm because of the timing of the onset of the snow, as well as the relative vagueness of the weather forecasts leading up to the storm. While a significant snowfall was forecast, there was considerable uncertainty over how severe the storm would be this far north. In the end, snowfall totals approaching as much as two feet occurred over Long Island in roughly a 15 hour period and strong winds accompanying the storm produced blizzard conditions island-wide.

Here are some photographs taken in Syosset, Long Island during the Blizzard of 1983 and its aftermath. Snowfall began in Syosset at 1:35 PM; the photos below from Friday afternoon were taken between 2:30 and 3 PM. Click any of the images to view a higher resolution version. There are also some images from Riverdale, in the Bronx, NY taken on Saturday February 12. Riverdale photos are courtesy of T. Earley.