As a result many radio and television stations were not confident enough to forecast too much snow to the southeatern United States public, until it was on more solid ground by surface reports.Īs the storm system deepened, temperatures over much of the eastern United States began to fall quickly. This coupled with the fact that it doesnt get very cold in the south this time of year anyway added to the disbelief. On the social side of matters, temperatures across the south were rather mild for March and this raised doubts among the public that cold air move in so quickly, much less heavy snowfall in the near future. NWS personnel were confident enough to allow several northeastern states to declare a State of Emergency before the snow impacted the region. However, NWS models and personnel did recognize the risk with this phenominal storm system. The system developed so far south in the Northern Gulf before hitting Florida with a central pressure of 975 millibars. The weather models were not able to accurately predict how deeply the system would intensify. Between 4:00 and 5:30 am on Saturday, a storm surge as high as 12 feet in some places came ashore. As the storm blew ashore, it created 15 tornadoes over Florida that had overturned mobile homes and launched trees and other debris. The deployed had rescued 235 as well as more than a hundred boats in the Gulf of Mexico.
By the time that the Super Storm had passed, the Coast Guard had deployed more than a hundred planes, helicopters, and boats. The sea was so powerful that a 200 foot freighter sunk 70 miles off Fort Myers, Florida. Some of the sea bouys had sustained hurricane force winds. According to the Petty Officer Rob Wyman, he told the Washington Post that the sea conditions looked like a big washing machine. The United States Coast Guard reported that the sea conditions in the Gulf were absolutely unbelievable.
The system developed into a very potent storm system which began tracking across the Gulf toward Florida. By that evening the two systems had merged with the strong jet stream. On Friday, March 12, a strong complex of thunderstorms had developed in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and then merged with a narrow band of snow and rain that was moving in from the western United States. The development began when a blast of cold arctic air (a strong dip in the strong jet stream structure) pushed down through the Plains into the Gulf of Mexico before pushing back up the eastern seaboard. The storm system was an anomaly in nature. The storm system resulted in three days of heavy snowfall, rough seas, blizzards, coastal flooding, tornadoes and very cold temperatures. The system developed when three independent weather patterns merged in the Gulf of Mexico. At the peak of the storm, its affects stretched from Canada to Central America with its main impact across the Eastern United States and Cuba. It was an anomaly of nature because of its intensity, size and far reaching affects. The storm was called by some people "The Storm of the Century". A Look Back at March 12-15, 1993 Superstorm
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