Thirty years ago, the Blizzard of ’96 dropped blankets of snow across the Atlantic Coast, shutting down the region for a week and causing up to $3 billion in damage.
Following the warmest Christmas on record, with possibly more unusual winter weather to come in 2026 due to the effects of La Niña, Lawn Love ranked America’s Snowiest Counties.
For the 213 U.S. counties with data available, we included average monthly historical snowfall rates from November through April from 1991 to 2020 (the most recent data available), single and 3-day historical snowfall records, and access to snow removal services, among 8 total metrics.
Shovel through our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities and where we found our data, see our methodology.
County rankings
See how each county fared in our ranking:
Top 5 snowiest counties
Check out for highlights on each of our top 5 snowiest counties.
No. 1: Coos County, New Hampshire | Biggest city: Berlin | Overall score: 68.66
Average Monthly Historical Snowfall (November – April): 41.22 inches (or 3.4 feet) | Rank: 1
Record Historical Snowfall in a Single Day: 49.3 inches (or 4.1 feet) | Rank: 2
Record Historical Snowfall Over 3 Days: 91.1 inches (or 7.6 feet) | Rank: 2
Average Historical Annual Temperature: 43.3°F | Rank: 22
Average Historical Number of Extremely Cold Days: 238 days at or below 32°F | Rank: 5
Local tips: Take a trip to Bretton Woods, a resort for both Alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and scenic gondola rides.
Ride The Cog — the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway — for panoramic views from Mount Washington of the Presidential Range.
Upcoming winter events include the Jackson Invitational Snow Sculpting Competition from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 and the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest on Feb. 5–8.
No. 2: Erie County, New York | Biggest city: Buffalo | Overall score: 50.62
Average Monthly Historical Snowfall (November – April): 15.75 inches | Rank: 8
Record Historical Snowfall in a Single Day: 47.5 inches | Rank: 5
Record Historical Snowfall Over 3 Days: 86.5 inches | Rank: 3
Average Historical Annual Temperature: 51°F | Rank: 69
Snow Removal Services and Equipment: 55 businesses | Rank: 14
Local tips: Take a ride on the historic toboggan chutes in Chestnut Ridge Park, go ice skating, or take a spin around in ice bumper cars.
Be a spectator for the local pond hockey tournament, Buffalo Backyard Classic, from March 28–29.
Average Monthly Historical Snowfall (November – April): 11.93 inches | Rank: 20
Record Historical Snowfall in a Single Day: 44 inches | Rank: 7
Record Historical Snowfall Over 3 Days: 60 inches | Rank: 13
Average Historical Annual Temperature: 32.8°F | Rank: 7
Snow Removal Services and Equipment: 79 businesses | Rank: 6
Local tips: Celebrate the Fur Rendezvous, aka “Fur Rondy,” from Feb. 26 to March 8. This iconic winter festival features outhouse races, snowshoe softball, and a running of the reindeer (there will even be a pickleball tournament).
Fur Rondy is home to the Open World Championship Sled Dog Races, but there are also dog sledding tours available from October through March.
Other big festival highlights include the Alaska State Snow Sculpture Championship, World Championship Outdoor Hockey Tournament, and the Big Fat Ride, a 5-mile spin around the city on fat bikes.
Average Monthly Historical Snowfall (November – April): 23.93 inches | Rank: 2
Record Historical Snowfall in a Single Day: 30 inches | Rank: 34
Record Historical Snowfall Over 3 Days: 40.8 inches | Rank: 42
Average Historical Annual Temperature: 34.8°F | Rank: 9
Average Historical Number of Extremely Cold Days: 157 days at or below 32°F | Rank: 49
Local tips: This rural Alaskan borough is known for its glaciers and surfing culture.
Go visit the 76-mile-long Hubbard Glacier, the longest tidewater glacier in North America. This county is also home to Malaspina Glacier, spanning over 1 million acres.
Average Monthly Historical Snowfall (November – April): 21.25 inches | Rank: 3
Record Historical Snowfall in a Single Day: 36 inches | Rank: 20
Record Historical Snowfall Over 3 Days: 42.9 inches | Rank: 36
Average Historical Annual Temperature: 50.5°F | Rank: 59
Snow Removal Services and Equipment: 69 businesses | Rank: 9
Local tips: Celebrate Syracuse Winterfest from Feb. 12–22, featuring chili and chowder cookoffs, a treasure hunt with a $2,000 prize, and a Human Dogsled Race.
Enjoy a spin around the Clinton Square Ice Rink until March 2.
Key insights
It’s no secret that Alaska and counties around the Great Lakes like Erie County, New York (No. 2), Onondaga County, New York (No. 5), and Chippewa County, Michigan (No. 17), see the most flurries in a typical year. A lake effect causes snow clouds to form and expand over the Great Lakes, forming snow bands that can drop 3+ inches of snow per hour on nearby communities.
Alaska claims the top 13 coldest counties based on average historical annual temperature. Among the counties in our ranking, North Slope Borough (No. 63) is the most frigid, where about 11,000 locals deal with an average annual temperature of 18.4°F and 314 days of the year at or below 32°F.
Snowy surprise: The record for most snowfall over 3 days among the counties in our ranking goes to Coconino County, Arizona (No. 6), with almost 8 feet of snow in 2010. Flagstaff is the biggest city in Coconino County.
The Chicago region is most prepared to weather the storm with 170 snow removal services operating in Cook County, Illinois (No. 15). Meanwhile, residents in wintry rural areas like Coos County, New Hampshire (No. 1), and Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska (No. 4), are out there shoveling their own snow with few registered snow removal businesses.
Southern counties like Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (No. 137), Richmond, Virginia (No. 133), and Jefferson County, Kentucky (No. 127), had explosive growth in searches for snow-related terms like snow plowing between 2024 and 2025. Mecklenburg — home to Charlotte — saw the highest jump nationwide, with searches increasing by nearly 600% year-over-year. The Charlotte region saw its first snowfall in 2025 after a nearly 3-year drought.
Snowiest counties by region
Out of the counties represented in our ranking, here are the snowiest by region (excluding Alaska):
Year in review: Historic snow events of 2025
- Last year, a Gulf Coast Blizzard broke snowfall and temperature records from Texas to Florida, with all-time records set in Pensacola, Florida, with 8.9 inches (a statewide record), New Orleans — Orleans Parish (No. 198) — with 8 inches a couple of weeks before hosting the Super Bowl, and Mobile County, Alabama (No. 201), with 7.5 inches.
- Winter Storm Blair led 10 states — from Kansas to Virginia — to declare a state of emergency due to heavy snow and ice accumulation.
A look back at the Blizzard of ’96
From Jan. 6–8, 1996, a blizzard struck 20 Eastern states, impacting over 58 million residents. Considered one of only two U.S. snowstorms ranked “extreme” by the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale, the Blizzard of ’96 significantly impacted the Southeast, Ohio Valley, and Northeast regions.
- The blizzard cost an estimated $3 billion in damages.
- The storm and its aftermath — including widespread flooding from rapid snowmelt — led to 184 deaths.
- 60 reported deaths occurred during the storm itself, 29 of which were caused by heart attacks from shoveling snow.
- Wind gusts blew up to 81 mph, which is considered hurricane-force winds.
- NYC schools closed for the first time in almost 2 decades.
Counties most impacted by the Blizzard of ’96
Personal recollections of the Blizzard of ’96
The Blizzard of ’96 occurred before my time, but I reached out to some folks who were around to hear their memories of the disaster.
My father was ice fishing with some friends and family members on Fourth Lake in the Adirondacks when snow started piling up so quickly that it took just 30 minutes for their tip-ups to disappear.
“We got to the old Rear Wheel Drive van, and it would not start,” he says. “At that time, a gentleman was plowing out the local garage parking lot. He actually had the part we needed to get the old van running. It was so cold in the van that we fired up the Coleman stove to keep warm for our long ride home.”
A family friend heard that the school would be keeping students in for the night due to the blizzard, but “Momma wasn’t having that,” says Crystal Jenkins Miner, so they “got in the ole Nissan and headed for the schools,” then brought the boys over to a friend’s house where both families were snowed in for 2 days.
“When we got home, there was a wall of snow at the driveway entrance, so we went crotch deep in snow to get to the front door. It took HOURS to dig it out enough to even get the truck in the yard. What a storm!” Miner says.
“Jumping off the front porch roof into the snow” was a highlight for Nicole Samantha, who recalls, “I believe it was right around the same time my brother spinal fractured his leg from hip to ankle on one of those jumps! Those were the days!”
Expert take: Safe snow removal
Snow and ice can be dangerous to deal with. I learned this the hard way as a kid when I slipped on an icy road after getting off the school bus, breaking 4 of my front teeth and prompting an emergency trip to the dentist.
Slipping, car accidents, and falling icicles aren’t the only hazards: Snow shoveling can create the perfect storm of cardiovascular stress to cause heart attacks. Arm-intensive exercise can be harder on the heart, while cold winter air constricts blood vessels, slowing blood and oxygen movement to the heart.
- About 11,500 people end up in the ER due to snow shoveling injuries each year.
- 100 people die each year on average due to shoveling snow.
- Increased cardiac risk begins at age 45.
- A study based in Quebec found that heavy snowfall of 7–8 inches has been correlated with up to a 34% increased risk of death for men.
Methodology: How we ranked the snowiest counties
To rank the Snowiest Counties, we compared 213 U.S. counties across 8 metrics.
Our metrics covered 3 main themes:
- Historical Snowfall (60%): We considered each county’s average monthly historical snowfall for the months of November through April from 1991 to 2020, in addition to record historical snowfall in a single day and over 3 days.
- Climate (15%): We factored in the average historical annual temperature and average historical number of extremely cold days (aka days below 32°F).
- Snow Removal and Preparedness (25%): We considered the number of registered businesses offering snow removal services and equipment, local Google searches for snow-related terms, and the year-over-year difference in Google searches for snow-related terms.
For each of the 213 U.S. counties with available data, we then gathered data on each metric from the sources listed below.
Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each county to determine its rank in each metric, each category, and overall. A county’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all metrics and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Snowiest” (No. 1) and the lowest “Least Snowy” (No. 213).
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This article originally appeared on Lawnlove.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
