List of Regional Snowfall Index Category 5 winter storms

The Regional Snowfall Index (RSI) is a system used by NOAA to assess the societal impact of winter storms in the United States. The system is a replacement for the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS) system which, unlike the former; assesses winter storm impacts outside of the Northeastern United States. Since its initiation the NCDC has retroactively assigned RSI values to over 500 historical storms since 1900.

Storms are ranked from Category 1 to 5 on the scale; with the former being classified as Notable and the latter as Extreme. The impact of the storms is assessed in six different regions of the United States: the Northeast, Northern Rockies and Plains, Ohio Valley, South, Southeast and the Upper Midwest.[1] A Category 5 Extreme ranking is indicated by a numerical score of 18 or higher on the scale.

Out of the over 500 historical storms assessed since 1900, only seventeen storms have been given a Category 5 ranking. The highest ranking storm on the list is the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 which scored a value of 32.31. The most recent storm to receive a Category 5 ranking is the Northeast January Blizzard of 2016. The following list orders the storms chronologically.[1][2][3]

List of Category 5 events

Year Date Max. RSI Region
1921 February 17–21 22.88 South
1927 April 4–9 27.58 Rocky Mountains and Plains
1929 December 18–23 18.29 South
1950 November 11–21 32.31 Ohio Valley
1969 February 21–27 26.42 Northeast
1978 January 22–27 25.84 Upper Midwest
1984 April 24–27 21.44 Rocky Mountains and Plains
1985 February 6–14 19.53 Upper Midwest
1985 November 27 – December 1 19.66 Upper Midwest
1988 January 4–8 21.93 South
1991 October 30 – November 3 20.99 Upper Midwest
1993 March 11–14 24.67 Ohio Valley
1993 November 20–28 19.26 Rocky Mountains and Plains
1996 January 5–8 20.99 Southeast
2009 December 21–28 18.67 Rocky Mountains and Plains
2011 January 31 – February 3 19.81 Ohio Valley
2016 January 22–24 20.14 Northeast[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Regional Snowfall Index (RSI)". NOAA: National Centers for Environmental Information. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Regional Snowfall Index and Societal Impacts". Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  3. ↑ "NOAA Product Highlight: Regional Snowfall Index". Retrieved 2014-11-18.
  4. ↑ "Putting the January 22–24 Snowstorm in Historical Context". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. February 18, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.