Great '88
1888 was a year for bad blizzards. In January what came to be known as the "Schoolhouse Blizzard" devastated the Great Plains. Arriving on a relatively warm day, the storm caught people unprepared, resulting in upwards of 500 casualties. Two months later, the "The Great Blizzard of '88" struck the Eastern states, shutting down railroads, downing telegraph wires and paralyzing the coastal cities. This storm would become the benchmark against which all others would be judged.

• Snowpocalypse part 2