A blizzard to remember
Matt Rigolini digs out his driveway in Huntington on Monday in order to get to work by 11 a.m. He delvers blood to hospitals across Long Island and New York City. Credit: Kathy M Helgeson
“The Blizzard of ‘26 will be remembered in meteorology circles,” said Jase Bernhardt, assistant professor in the Department of the Geology, Environment and Sustainability at Hofstra University.
“It’s a good guess we’re going to get into the upper 20 (inches), and maybe Islip is going to make a run at the lower 30s. This is going to be the number one storm for Islip.”
Some context: meteorologists often use airports as official observation stations, because aviation tends to yield strong, long-term historical data, Bernhardt said. In Islip’s case, the data only goes back to 1963.
Observations have been taken at JFK and LaGuardia Airports going back to the 1940s, and at Central Park, in Manhattan, since 1869. The record there is 27.5 inches, set January 22-24, 2016. The National Weather Service recorded a total of 15.1 inches by 7 a.m. Monday morning.
Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.
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