While residents of New England are still digging out from Nemo, the snowstorm rank in history is pretty low, according to a Feb. 11 Wood TV report. The snowstorm that dropped from two to three feet of snow in some places was ranked 16th and 25th in the history of the Northeast by two separate scales, which seems strange for sure.
The blizzard was ranked a three on a scale of five. Three is "major." However, level four and five storms are "crippling" and "extreme" respectively. Part of the reason for Nemo's low historical ranking is due to the fact that only about 190 square miles had snow of 30 inches or more.
National Climatic Data Center meteorologist Mike Squires said,
"I was a bit surprised; I thought it would have been a 4 or a 5. The footprint of really heavy snow over populated areas was relatively small compared to other storms we have looked at."
Of course, people who live in the region and are dealing with digging out from the blizzard feel differently. For them it was a difficult storm to weather. Of course, the fact that the winds of Nemo reached hurricane force was not included in the data for the snowstorm rank in history. The roaring wind and piles of drifting snow made this storm hard to deal with for those in the path.
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