Weather PastCast: Snowy Spectacle in 1893 and 1948

Agromeck, 1948

Students pushing car out of the snow bank, Agromeck, 1948.

Blog post contributed by Allison Hall, Special Collections Graduate Assistant. 

Since we are moving rapidly through the winter months, we thought it would be fun to look into snowy weather events from Raleigh’s past. In January 1893, one of the earliest years of recorded weather in the North Carolina’s capital, 20 inches of snow fell in Raleigh! This was the largest monthly total in the city for over 100 years. This record held strong until January 2000, when the city received just over 20 inches of snow. 

It snowed a significant amount over the course of seven days during January 1893, with the biggest daily total (on January 19, 1893) reaching 11 inches. Piling onto the snow that had fallen in the previous few days, the 11 inches that fell on January 19th created an accumulation of 13.5 inches on the ground. Snow remained on the ground through the end of the month, inspiring reminiscences of previous snow days in the city’s newspapers.

Summary of weather statistics for Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 1893 (From Weather Bureau Meteorological Reports Vol. 4)
Summary of weather statistics for Raleigh, N.C., Jan. 1893 (From Weather Bureau Meteorological Reports, Vol. 4).

Another big snow in Raleigh occurred in February 1948. In fact, the Weather Bureau Meteorological Reports reveal strange weather throughout that month. On the 1st, 8 inches of snow fell in Raleigh, followed by another 8 inches on February 9-10. The Weather Bureau records report a total of 16 inches for month. This is even more remarkable considering that on February 28 the temperature reached a whopping high of 80 degrees! While hitting a maximum temperature in the 80s in February was rare but not unheard of, 16 inches of snow in the same month sure was.

Holladay Hall, snow
Holladay Hall, 1940s.

Students at NC State memorialized this heavy snowfall in the Agromeck for the 1947-1948 school year, devoting a page to student life photographs of the event, including snowball fights, sledding, and funny snow sculptures.

Agromeck, 1948
Agromeck, 1948.

In this edition of PastCast, we’ve explored snow spectacles in NC State’s history. Interested in learning more about weather events in NC State's history? Stay tuned for our next post in the PastCast blog series, or read previous posts in the series!

If you have any questions or are interested in viewing Special Collections materials, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online. The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week.