Worst winter storms in Boston: Looking back at Blizzard of ’78

A winter storm hit the Boston area Thursday, projected to bring 2 to 4 inches of snow. But, 47 years ago, the region ground to a halt during the infamous Northeast Blizzard of 1978, the "benchmark of winter storms" that brought record-high snow levels and caused millions of dollars in damages.

From February 5 to 7 of 1978, the blizzard struck the Northeast coast.

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Boston was hit with over 2 feet of snow, the largest on record until the Presidents' Day storm in 2003. Providence, Rhode Island, was similarly blanketed by 28.6 inches, its greatest snowfall to this day, according to NOAA records.

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The snow started falling in Boston early in the morning of February 6. As the inches accumulated, accidents on the roads halted traffic, preventing the highways from being cleared. People were instead forced to abandon their cars, and first responders attempted to free those trapped in their vehicles. Across New England, there were 5,400 cars left behind.

Car owners, MDC workers and the National Guard dig out cars buried in snow on Day Boulevard in South Boston after the "Blizzard of 78."
Credit: William Ryerson/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The storm also brought hurricane-force winds, gusting at over 55 miles per hour. The strong winds swelled already high tides, flooding coastal roads and homes in the region. 11,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, according to the National Weather Service.

Despite the limits of technology at the time, the storm was relatively well-forecasted. The Weather Service Metrological Observatory in Boston issued a winter storm watch early in the morning of February 5, the day before snow began to fall.

Many helping hands join to push a car out of a snowbank on Route 195 eastbound in a scene repeated many times throughout Providence as the cleanup from the "Blizzard of '78" began.
Credit: © Richard Benjamin / USA TODAY NETWORK

Still, the blizzard left $500 million of damages in its wake in Massachusetts, with $50 million lost in Maine and $14 million in New Hampshire. Nearly 100 people died and over 4,500 were injured or became ill due to the storm.

It was "one of the worst of the century," according to the Natural Disaster Survey Report conducted after the storm.