Winter Storms Can Be Extremely Expensive, Recent History Shows

Satellite view of "Storm Of The Century, March, 1993
the most expensive winter storm on record in the U.S.  

I don't envy the number crunchers in the Boston, Massachusetts Department of Public Works, or anyone in any public works department in southern New England.  

It costs a lot of money in overtime, equipment, salt and sand to get rid of all the snow that's covering streets.

With yesterday's storm, some eastern Massachusetts communities have had nearly six feet of snow in the past week or so.

I don't think anybody has fully tallied up how expensive the storms of the past week and a half have been, but it will be a lot of money.

If you combine the snow with strong winds, coastal surges, ice, building collapses, intense cold and other hazards, you can get some extremely expensive mega-disasters.

Wired magazine recently ran a list of the most expensive winter storms in the United States since 1980.

Easily topping the list of really bad storms is the so-called Storm Of The Century in March 1993.

Sweeping from Florida to Maine, it killed 270 people and caused $9 billion in damage, says Wired.

The March, 1993 storm touched off a dozen or so tornadoes in Florida, a devastating storm surge in that state's west coast, wind gusts exceeding gale force all along the storm track, and a huge area of two feet or more of snow from North Carolina to Maine.  

Water and ice invade downtown Pittsburgh, Pa
during the snow/thaw/flood of January, 1996 

Every major airport on the East Coast closed for the storm, the first time that had happened.

The weather right after a snowstorm can make winter weather expensive.

The second worst winter storm disaster, according to Wired, was in January, 1996, which started with a huge dump of snow in the Northeast. Then, days later, the temperatures soared to record highs, and heavy rain moved in. 

The resulting flood from the rain, snowmelt and warmth were by far the biggest contributor to the 187 deaths and $5 billion in damage with that storm.

Sometimes, a winter storm disaster doesn't involve all that much precipitation.

Wired's 7th worse winter weather disaster came on January 17-20, 1994. An incredible cold wave swept into the eastern United States, dropping temperatures to 36 below in Indiana, a state record, and 37 below in Kentucky, also a state record.

Much of the damage came in Florida, where crops froze. But there was a lot of building damage throughout the East, especially toward the south, when water pipes froze and burst, flooding many homes and business.

The 1994 cold wave killed 70 people and caused about $2 billion in damage, Wired said. 

An icy, battered Scituate, Mass. after last week's blizzard
and storm surge in New England. It's not yet clear
how expensive this latest bout of winter weather will be.
Photo by Michael Dwyer/AP

I don't know if this bout of winter weather in the Northeast will wind up in the most expensive catagory.

It depends on  how you measure it, I guess. If you just take the blizzard last week in New England, it probably won't end up as one of the most expensive winter storms in history.

But if you take the entire weather pattern starting about 10 days ago, with repeated strong winter storms, and forecast of more for the next week, this could turn out to be a billion dollar disaster.

It's really hard to tell at this point.

Still, if you add up the coastal flooding the repeated necessity to clear streets, the traffic crashes, the scattered structural damage over a vast and heavily populated part of the United States, you start talking real money.

We'll have to see where this ends up.