New Jersey doesn’t get to enjoy a gorgeous White Christmas every year. In the Garden State, snowfall on December 25th is an uncommon sight. But one extraordinary occurrence sticks out: the Great Blizzard of 1947.
Beginning on Christmas Day, this amazing snowfall moved through New Jersey and the Northeastern United States. It didn’t come with very high gusts, but the amount of snowfall was really remarkable.
Snow was falling at an amazing three inches per hour at its heaviest, transforming New Jersey into a wintry wonderland. Snowdrifts piled up to an amazing four feet height in some places!
Although many people have clear memories of the Blizzard of 47, not everyone remembers the amount of snow that fell on Christmas Day of that year. Not even my mother, nine years old at the time, remembers the snow.
There was an incredible amount of snowfall in New Jersey on December 26 and 27, 1947. An amazing 29.7 inches of snow fell on the state in a single day. This snowfall record is still unbroken, making it the highest snowfall total in New Jersey history for a single day.
Even though there have been numerous snowstorms around Christmas in the years since, none have nearly reached the Blizzard of 47’s extreme intensity. Here’s a look at a few notable snowfall incidents that occurred around New Jersey:
Newark, New Jersey Area
- December 26, 1947 25.9 inches
- December 26, 2010 17.7 inches
- December 26, 1933 8.0 inches
New Brunswick, New Jersey Area
- December 24, 1912 12.0 inches
- December 26, 1947 12.2 inches
- December 27, 2010 19.5 inches
- December 26, 1909 12.0 inches
Atlantic City Region
- December 26, 2010 18.4 inches
- December 24, 1966 6.4 inches
Even while these snowstorms have left their marks, none come close to matching the Blizzard of 1947’s extreme ferocity, which rightfully claims the title of being the most important Christmas snowstorm in New Jersey’s history.