The biggest snowstorms in Detroit history, and what made them so big

What was the biggest snowstorm in Detroit history?

The storm of April 6, 1886, which left 24.5 inches. NWS Detroit/Pontiac’s weather historian reconstructed it from the original weather journals. Snow began at 12:30 a.m., turned heavy around 4:30 a.m. and fell until 9 p.m., driven by a north gale that reached 40 mph and averaged more than 30 mph through the day. Drifts reached 12 feet, and snow in the streets lay 10 to 40 inches deep.

It was heavy snow, too: the historian puts its water content at 2.43 inches. An inch of water weighs about 5.2 pounds per square foot (heavy wet snow vs light snow), so that storm put about 12.6 pounds on every square foot, roughly 9,100 pounds on a 720-square-foot two-car driveway. Within days, temperatures climbed back into the 50s.

What are Detroit’s 25 biggest snowstorms?

This is NWS Detroit/Pontiac’s official list for the Detroit area, where snowfall records begin in 1880:

NWS Detroit/Pontiac, Detroit's heaviest snowstorms, as published in October 2026.

Twenty of the 25 began between December and February, four in March and one in April. Fourteen came before 1950 and seven after 1990. The most recent is December 11, 2016.

What made them so big?

NWS Detroit/Pontiac’s historian found the top two storms, 88 years apart, so alike that he called the second a "meteorological clone" of the first:

• A strong, persistent high to the north fed days of steady northeast wind and cold air.
• A storm approached from the south or southwest.
• Moisture streamed in from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, certainly in 1974 and likely in 1886.

The 1974 storm also beat the forecast. Models expected the low over the Ohio Valley to weaken while a new storm took over on the East Coast. Instead it strengthened and slowed, and a morning forecast of 1 to 3 inches became 18.4 inches by midnight and 19.3 in all.

February 2015 followed the same recipe. A slow-moving low tracked through the Ohio Valley while high pressure to the north kept northeast winds gusting around 25 mph, and snow fell for about 24 hours. Storms passing south of the city are the classic heavy-snow setup here; the winter storms that bring snow to Macomb County explains the types.

Why isn’t the Blizzard of 1978 on the list?

Because it was not that deep in Detroit. The Great Blizzard of January 26-27, 1978 left 8.2 inches here, after rain fell for a time. It is remembered for wind and cold: Detroit’s barometer fell to 28.34 inches, its lowest reading on record, and gusts over 35 mph built huge drifts across southeast Michigan. About 20 people in Michigan died as a direct or indirect result, most from heart attacks or traffic accidents, and about 100,000 cars were abandoned on Michigan highways, most in the southeast.

The lesson still holds for a driveway: wind can make an 8-inch storm harder than a 12-inch one, because drifts refill cleared pavement.

What did the recent big storms bring to Macomb County?

The February 1-2, 2015 storm is the modern benchmark. NWS storm reports from Macomb County showed 15.5 inches in Shelby Township, 11.7 near Richmond and 10.0 near Roseville, measured over 25 to 28 hours, with snow falling at up to an inch an hour in places. The air was in the low 20s, so the snow was powdery and drifted badly.

Four more storms since 2005 made the list: January 22-23, 2005 (12.2 inches), two in the 2013-14 winter (11.1 and 10.6) and December 11, 2016 (10.7).

What were Detroit’s snowiest winters?

NWS Detroit/Pontiac, top 20 snowiest seasons, Detroit area.

Big storms and big winters are different things. The record 2013-14 winter brought more than twice the 45.0-inch normal (Macomb County snowfall averages), yet its biggest storms ranked only 22nd and 25th. It got there with steady snow and almost no thaw: the ground held at least an inch of snow for 77 straight days, from December 31, 2013 to March 17, 2014, a Detroit record in data back to 1948. At a 2-inch trigger that winter would have needed about 21 plow visits, twice a typical one (how many plowable snows per winter).

What would a storm like that mean for plowing today?

A 16-inch storm is not one visit for anyone. Snow that falls all day passes a 2-inch trigger again and again, so routes run during the storm and again after it (how snow plow routes work). For residential snow removal, our trigger is over 2 inches, and past it every property on the route is dispatched without a call. Expect:

1. Passes during the storm, so nobody faces 16 inches at once.
2. A cleanup after the wind drops, because drifting refills cleared pavement.
3. A new ridge at the end of the driveway each time the road plow passes.
4. Heavy lifting for anyone with a shovel. Heart attacks were among the leading causes of death in the 1978 blizzard.