26.9 inches of snow in Manhattan yesterday.
That's the new record. They've been keeping track since the mid-1800s.

The thing is, this storm doesn't feel nearly as bad as the great winters of 1993 and 1996. Talking about it at the office, we think it is because those winters had continuous snow, all winter long.
One big snowstorm (not even officially a blizzard) in the middle of February doesn't feel as bad.
Thankfully, the storm hit on a weekend, which allowed the City to clear things up by Monday morning. Which the City did, admirably.
So this one doesn't feel anything like those storms in the 1990s.

(Here are my stories of those storms:

1993: I was in Miami Beach with Walter and Matzinger. I stood in line in Miami International Airport for 8 hours on that Sunday, waiting to book a new ticket: got the earliest available: the next Thursday. Thankfully, W&M were staying another week in Miami Beach, so I was able to sleep in their hotel room. Many, many others were not so lucky.
The day after the storm was Sanjay's infamous break-in into our head dorm RA's room (through the ceiling!). The breakers-in were ratted out by one of their members and they all went on academic probation and Sanjay couldn't join a fraternity...

1996: The storm hit a day or two before I flew back from Hong Kong (via Germany!). Took the bus from Newark to Allentown. No cabs available, so my stubborn ass walked the couple-hour trek through the snowy sidewalks, carrying 3 bags, back to my room. Upon arrival, I had 12 messages from Grossmutter, who was practically having a heart attack at my not calling her back. She thought I had expired in a snowdrift somewhere. Called her and calmed her down.
The next week, Sanjay and I went tearing around the Allentown alleyways in his beat-up Honda Accord, smashing into snowdrifts left and right, powersliding through intersections, etc. Incredible fun!
Now those were real storms....
Long parenthetical over!)

P.S. When the meme has reached Newsweek, you know it's true:
The Decline and Fall of Europe
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 2/13/2006 02:42:00 PM