Sunday's snowfall total marks a record for the region - most snow dumped in southern New Jersey by one storm in more than a century.
The total: 20.1 inches at Atlantic City International Airport, measured at 3:45 p.m.
But the storm's historical context is murky.
According to the National Climatic Data Center, the previous record was a March 12, 1947 snowstorm which dropped 20.0 inches in Atlantic City.
Or not.
The Atlantic City Press archives from March 1947 show sunny skies ... slight wind ... no snow.
There was no March 12, 1947 snow storm.
Officials with the National Climatic Data Center were unable to explain the error Monday.
Snow did fall along the East Coast on Dec. 26, 1947 - 63 years to the date of Sunday's storm, in a blizzard that parallels our current situation.
Forecasters originally predicted that storm would stay at sea, according to newspaper reports, but like Sunday's storm, the storm swung in at the last minute. Atlantic City received six inches from that storm. New York City wasn't so lucky, registering 25.4 inches.
According to the next day's Press, "The all-time record here was 18 inches, Feb. 17, 1902."
From 1947, you have to fast forward 32 years to find another storm of this magnitude. A Feb. 19, 1979 blizzard - "a massive nightmare of a winter storm," according to the Press - brought 65 mile-per-hour winds and more than 16 inches of snow to southern New Jersey. The blizzard knocked out power to thousands of homes while blanketing Connecticut to Virginia in snow.
Yes, last year was the snowiest on record in southern New Jersey, with 58.1 inches of accumulation measured between December 2009 and March 2010.
And yes, some of those storms paralyzed southern New Jersey, none more so than a Feb. 6 storm that left tens of thousands of Cape May County homeowners in the dark, forcing the county to open emergency shelters.
But in terms of snowfall, only 14.6 inches fell that day - the sixth largest snowfall total ever recorded in the Atlantic City area.
The key word there is 'only' - as regardless of the record-keeping, the Dec. 26, 2010 storm has brought more snow accumulation for southern New Jersey than any storm in the past century.
Contact Dan Good:
609-272-7203
