New York City Blizzard of 1947

Caption from LIFE: A snowbound automobile stands right in the middle of New York City's West 22nd Street between a long line of other cars buried at the curb.Andreas Feininger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images



According to Life Magazine LIFE in its Jan. 5, 1948, issue:

"At 3:20 in the morning it began to snow in New York City. By the time most New Yorkers were going to work the blanket lay three inches deep. But the city, used to ignoring all natural phenomena and reassured by a weather forecast of “occasional flurries,” went about its business. But as the day wore on this characteristic blasé attitude vanished. The air grew filled with snowflakes so huge and thick it was almost impossible to see across the street. They fell without letup — all morning, all afternoon and into the night.
Long after night fall the illuminated news sign of the New York Times flashed an announcement to little groups of people huddled in Times Square that the snowfall, which totaled an amazing 25.8 inches in less than 24 hours, had beaten the record of the city’s historic blizzard of 1880. A faint, muffled shout of triumph went up from the victims."

Manhattan snow storm, 1947, photo by Al Fenn for the New York Daily News

Digging out the car; a scene from New York City's historic blizzard of 1947. Associated Press