NYC Area Blizzard

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

For a non-east coaster, can someone explain why this is such a big deal to be nation wide news. 16" is a nice amount of snow but I just don't get it.

When a storm like this happens in Michigan we just look outside and say "oh, it's Tuesday."

It's a combination of population density and the type of snow.

There are 4.6m people living within ~30 miles of Boston*, so even a 4" snow storm hitting during weekday rush hour causes massive traffic congestion and limits road plowing.
In the coastal areas of New England we get very wet snow which tends to down trees and take out overhead power lines. One day of travel difficulty is disruptive but tolerable - however a week of no power/heating followed by burst pipes is disastrous.

I couldn't easily find typical storm amounts for Michigan but I see that last winter the 3rd largest storm ever recorded in Flint dumped 17" of snow. Perhaps 20"+ isn't that typical for the more populated parts of the state.

But I agree we get it easy on the East Coast. A good friend of ours lives in Valdez, Alaska the snowiest town in the US where 40"+ storms are not unheard of.

* For comparison that's 15 times the population of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in less than 25% of the area.