Weather Talk: Ash Wednesday storm was one to remember for East Coast

Our region has the "Blizzard of '66;" the modern day bar against which any snow storm is to be compared. The Middle Atlantic region has the Ash Wednesday storm of 1962.Snow fell from Alabama to New England, but blizzard conditions were concentrated from North Carolina to Connecticut. Coastal areas were battered by 25 foot waves. The storm lasted three days, resulting in six rounds of high tides which left beach front communities in ruins, especially North Carolina's Outer Banks, Virginia's Chincoteague Island, and coastal New Jersey. A portion of the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed. A 500 foot tanker was destroyed at sea.Just as with the 1966 storm in the Northern Plains, a blocking pattern at the Jet Stream level caused the storm to stall, so the same region was pounded continuously for an unusually long period of time.