8 years ago
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Virginia’s Cold History: Have You Heard of the “Washington & Jefferson” Snowstorm?
Our Founding Fathers were notorious weather watchers. Their diaries detail Virginia's harsh winters, giving NOAA 18th-century records.
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From Dr.Jeff Master's blog. "If the present storm ends up toward the highest-end projections, we may have to go back to colonial days for a historical precedent. In his book “Early American Winters,” eminent weather historian David Ludlum chronicled the Washington-Jefferson Snowstorm of Jan. 27-29, 1772. The District of Columbia hadn’t yet been created, but future president George Washington measured snow at Mt. Vernon, VA, that was “full three feet deep everywhere.” About 100 miles to the southwest, another future president, Thomas Jefferson, called the accumulation “the deepest snow we have ever seen. in Albemarle it was about 3 [feet] deep.” Ludlum also cites the Maryland Gazette (Annapolis): “tis’ supposed the depth where not drifted is upwards of three feet, and it is with utmost difficulty people pass from one house to another.”