The Great Snow of 1717

During the height of winter when the snow’s piled high, and there’s not even the slightest encouraging sign that temperatures will rise anytime soon to usher in the splendors of spring, it’s depressing to think how much more will have to be endured before things improve. While our present storms may seem especially intense and inconvenient, they are nothing compared to what the colonial inhabitants of the Northeast, and New England in particular, had to deal with one winter season almost three centuries ago. The winter of 1716-1717 was especially severe, producing the largest quantities of snow the eastern seaboard has received in recorded history. A series of snowstorms in late February and early March of the latter year produced a blanket of snow of truly biblical proportions, which henceforth went down by the name of the “Great Snow of 1717.”

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Author: Harlem Valley News