On this date in 1962, the infamous Ash Wednesday storm was ravaging the Mid-Atlantic coast. No other East Coast winter storm since then has destroyed more homes or taken away more land, the U.S. Geological Survey wrote.. The slow-moving storm walloped the coastline for three days (March 5 through 7) and over five high tide cycles. The storm unleashed winds of 60 to 70 mph and produced 25-foot waves in Ocean City, Maryland. Damage to the Maryland and Delaware beaches was described as “catastrophic” by the Delmarva Daily Times.
“It killed 40 people and injured a thousand more; the storm also caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage in six states,” the National Park Service wrote.
The Ash Wednesday storm became legendary because of both its intensity and persistence. A powerful nor’easter stalled off the East Coast, repeatedly battering beaches from Virginia to New Jersey with pounding surf, severe coastal flooding and extreme erosion. Entire rows of dunes vanished. Boardwalks were ripped apart, homes collapsed into the ocean and roads disappeared beneath sand and seawater. In some communities along the Maryland and Delaware coast, recovery took years and permanently reshaped the shoreline.
The storm also spread heavy precipitation inland. D.C. tallied 4 inches of snow and the equivalent of 1.33 inches of rain from March 5 to 7. Daytime highs ranged from 37 to 40 with overnight lows from 28 to 33. While precipitation in the city was more nuisance than crippling, conditions worsened dramatically west of the Blue Ridge.
Toward the mountains, crippling snow amounts mounted. Big Meadows, southeast of Luray, Virginia, received a state-record 42 inches of snow. Heavy snow and fierce winds stranded travelers, closed roads and isolated mountain communities across parts of western Virginia and the Appalachians.
Read more about this storm:
- Ash Wednesday storm of 1962: 50-year anniversary (Capital Weather Gang)
- Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 (National Park Service)
- Ocean City: The Great March Storm of 1962 (mdhistory.org)
- What if the Mid-Atlantic’s worst nor’easter on record struck today? (Yale Climate Connections)
And on this day in 1941, a calendar-day record 8 inches of snow fell; the storm total reached 10.1 inches counting snow that fell the previous day, the most in March in 32 years. The Washington Post reported that the snowstorm paralyzed traffic in the area. “On slippery snow-cloged streets and highways, transportation was crippled throughout the Washington area, and one man left dead and scores injured as the result of automobile accidents in and near the District,” The Post wrote.
Here are other notables for the day:
- Average high: 53
- Average low: 36
- Record high: 80 (2022)
- Record low: 13 (1890)
- Record precipitation: 1.32 inches (1880)
- Record snowfall: 8.0 inches (1941)
