But the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm<\/a> watch from Saturday evening through Monday afternoon and said there is a 90% chance it will snow on Sunday. <\/p>\n As central Pennsylvania prepares for this first significant snow of the winter, here\u2019s a look back at the top 10 biggest snowstorms in terms of the amount of snowfall to hit our area. Some of these are still talked about to this day.<\/p>\n Jan. 22-23, 2016<\/p>\n 30.2 inchesThis was winter storm Jonas <\/a>that hit on a Friday into Saturday. On Friday, in advance of the snowstorm\u2019s arrival, the National Weather Service was estimating a 12- to 18-inch snowfall for central Pennsylvania. Later that day, it issued a blizzard warning. Soon forecasters were upping the snowfall estimates considerably. <\/p>\n Feb. 11-13, 1983<\/p>\n 25 inchesThis storm hit Friday through Sunday and buried areas along the Eastern Seaboard. The Patriot wrote, \u201cA \u2018dangerous and powerful\u2019 snowstorm packing 40 mph winds buried the city and much of the East Coast yesterday. By 10 p.m. the storm had dumped 21 inches of snow, a record for a single snowfall in the area.\u201d On Feb. 13, The Sunday Patriot-News reported the total from the National Weather Service was 25 inches – \u201cthe most the city has received from one storm in weather service history.\u201d<\/p>\n Feb. 17-19, 2003<\/p>\n 23 inchesThis President\u2019s Day weekend storm dumped as much as 4 feet of snow on parts of the Northeast, according to the Associated Press. Locally, The Patriot reported, \u201cA day after the region\u2019s worst winter storm in seven years, midstaters forged ahead to get out from under the elements that brought their lives to a standstill.\u201d Two deaths were reported in Lancaster County. Rising temperatures following the storm led to concerns about flooding. The Patriot reported the snow total was 23 inches for Harrisburg. The Patriot reported the highest amount locally was 31 inches in Enola. Jan. 8-9, 1996<\/p>\n 22.2 inchesThe Patriot\u2019s headline was \u201cBlast paralyzes midstate. The worst January snowstorm in the city\u2019s history.\u201d This blizzard dumped up to 4 feet of snow on some places on the East Coast. More than 30 inches of snow fell in Philadelphia, most of it coming in just 24 hours. A warmup later in the month led to massive flooding and on Jan. 21, part of the Walnut Street bridge floated away.<\/a><\/p>\n Jan. 16-17, 1945<\/p>\n 21 inchesThe Patriot reported that Harrisburg was \u201cburied\u201d during this storm. \u201cAlready in the midst of one of its worst winters in history, central Pennsylvania was snowed under yesterday by a record-shattering 21-inch snowfall which closed schools and business places, crippled transportation facilities for many hours and brought virtually everything to a standstill.\u201d<\/p>\n Feb. 19-20, 1964<\/p>\n 20.8 inchesOn Feb. 20, The Patriot reported that central Pennsylvania was \u2018caught off guard by the winter\u2019s worst snowstorm … The surprise storm, sweeping in from the south, dumped 20 inches of snow on Harrisburg.” Other areas around the state received up to 30 inches of snow from the storm. March 13-15, 1993<\/p>\n 20.4 inchesThis was known as the \u201cStorm of the Century\u201d<\/a> that included high wind that whipped the snow into drifts and created whiteout conditions. This storm \u201croared into the midstate\u201d with high winds and snow measured in feet rather than inches. \u201cDumping snow at the rate of 4 inches an hour, the storm threatened to surpass the worst midstate storm on record – one that dropped 25 inches on Feb. 11-12, 1983.\u201d<\/p>\n Jan. 20-21, 1961<\/p>\n 18.7 inchesThis storm included bitter cold during and after with temperatures not getting any higher than 20 degrees. The low during the storm was -1. The Patriot reported the \u201ctremendous\u201d storm brought \u201cthe biggest single snow in the city\u2019s history except for the 21 inches on Jan. 15-16, 1945. The Associated Press reported 33 people died on the East Coast, 15 of those in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Jan. 13-14, 1964<\/p>\n 18.1 inchesThis storm hit on the first day of the Farm Show. The Patriot reported, \u201cCrippling snowstorm closes city schools. The most crippling snowstorm of the fledgling year lashed at Harrisburg and central Pennsylvania last night and early today, slowing traffic everywhere and turning many main streets and highways into hazardous skidways.\u201d<\/p>\n Feb. 5-6, 2010<\/p>\n 18 inchesCentral Pennsylvania again was \u201cburied\u201d by snow with totals that were higher than expected. Forecasters had called for 6 to 12 inches of snow. Mechanicsburg had 22.5 inches and Newberry Twp. reported 21 inches. The biggest story during this storm was the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Several tractor-trailers jackknifed just west of the Somerset interchange. Several hundred cars might have been idled along a 5-mile stretch, and some drivers reported being stranded for 12 hours or longer. The National Guard was deployed to deliver water and meals to stranded drivers.The first half of February was called \u201cSnowpocalypse\u201d and \u201cSnowmageddon.\u201d <\/a>A second storm Feb. 9-10 dumped another 16 inches of snow on Harrisburg. Other notable storms:<\/p>\n March 27-28, 1891 – 18 inches<\/p>\n Feb. 19-20, 1921 – 15 inches<\/p>\n Jan. 19-20, 1936 – 14 inches<\/p>\n Feb. 4-5, 1920 – 14 inches<\/p>\n Jan. 28, 1943 – 12.2 inches<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you stocked up on milk, bread and eggs yet? For whatever reason, racing to the grocery store…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46435,46436,45041,46437,46438,10512,37,12779,539,5830,28,30,29,46439,46440,10526,46441,46442,46443,14832,14834,6592,7365,1133],"class_list":["post-94614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-46435","tag-46436","tag-blizzards","tag-briggs","tag-briggs-street","tag-ci","tag-harrisburg","tag-neighborhoods","tag-pa","tag-pedestrians","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-peter","tag-peter-r-rekus","tag-pn","tag-pn-ci-19960109","tag-r","tag-rekus","tag-roads","tag-snow","tag-storms","tag-street","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RA33GDSWJBDUXEYRUCIQY5SMHE.jpg\")
The residents of Briggs Street in
\nHarrisburg turn out to clean up their street and dig out after the storm, Jan. 9, 1996. (Peter R. Rekus, The Patriot-News, file)Harrisburg Patriot-News<\/p>\n![\"Storm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7ZBS755EYZC57LJK4SJQC3LLJU.jpg\")
The 1993 blizzard left 20.4 inches of snow in the area, March 13-15. (Allied Pix for The Patriot-News, file) Allied Pix for The Patriot-News<\/p>\n![\"Snow](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/43HZUELJ5JFINDLGM5CO3RPVPM.jpg\")
Joe Scheffey of Camp Hill clears a path in his driveway, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010. (The Patriot-News)THE PATRIOT-NEWS<\/p>\n