The Great Snow of 1717 was a series of snowstorms between February 27 and March 7, 1717 (

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years d ...

) that blanketed the

colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...

and the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

colonies with five or more feet (1.5 or more meters) of snow, and much higher drifts. Snowfall may have occurred elsewhere, but settler population was sparse outside of

at that time. The Great Snow is considered one of the benchmark storms in New England, often compared to the

Great Blizzard of 1888 The Great Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great Blizzard of '88 or the Great White Hurricane (March 11–14, 1888), was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in American history. The storm paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake ...

in severity. The Great Snow, depending on the source, began on February 27 or March 1. On February 27 a typical New England

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...

passed through, with snow falling on some areas and other places receiving a mix of snow, sleet, and rain.Zielinski and Keim, pg. 181 The first major snowstorm occurred on March 1, with another on the 4th, and a third, the worst among the three, on the 7th. At some points, the snow would lighten and stop, but the sky would remain cloudy, showing no signs of clearing. Some of the oldest Native Americans had said that even their ancestors never spoke of a storm of this magnitude.Perley, pg. 33 Boston received around of snow, while some places north of the city reached up to . In Hampton, New Hampshire, the snow was so deep that people could only leave their houses from the second floor on the

lee side Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

of the house, implying actual snow depths of as much as or more. Many single-story homes were buried completely, without even the chimney showing. On the larger residences, drifts reached the third-story window on the windward side. Large expanses of snow were deep, with some significant drifts deep. The post roads were impassable until at least March 15, with the mailmen describing snow drifts from Boston to Portsmouth more than a week after the storm. Travel was also impossible for a time from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Boston. The geographic scope of the storm is unknown, due to the scarce population and poor record-keeping of the day. Most information is known only from private diaries. The snow was known to be several feet deep around

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsm ...

.Perley, pg. 35

Damage and losses

Many livestock lost their lives, either starving or freezing to death under tremendous drifts of snow. As many as 90–95% of the

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

in the area died, either from starvation or predators, leading to many towns appointing "deer- reeves" to ensure their preservation.Perley, pg. 34 Many orchards were damaged, since the snow covered even the tops of many trees, and animals would graze among the upper branches where they usually could not.

References

Book references

* * * Thoreau, Henry D. (1894).

Walden ''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...

. Ticknor and Fields: Boston. * {{DEFAULTSORT:1716120117170301 1717 natural disasters 1717-2 18th-century meteorology 1717 in the Thirteen Colonies 1717 in Connecticut 1717 in Massachusetts 1717 in New Hampshire 1717 in Pennsylvania