Other holiday storms that banger Boston and New England

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No one likes rain on a parade. Still, as holiday storms go, nor’easter that struck Southern New England over the Indigenous Peoples/Columbus Day weekend was relatively mild. The storm dumped more than 6 inches of rain and brought gusts of up to 65 miles an hour to Cape Cod. But there have been few reports of major damage, power has mostly been restored, and the storm is set to peter out today.

The recovery hasn’t always been so swift. Here’s a look back at seven other storms that dampened, damaged, or delayed New England’s holiday spirit over the years, with a little help from the Globe’s archives.

This storm holds the record for dumping the most snow on Boston, ultimately depositing more than 27 inches. Yet as a front-page Globe story at the time put it, the storm “was more disruptive than destructive.” Because of the holiday, many residents were already at home and off the roads.

April Fool’s may be more joke than holiday, but this powerful nor’easter was no laughing matter. It started as heavy rain before rapidly intensifying off the coast, dropping more than 2 feet of snow on Boston. Winds roared to over 70 miles per hour, knocking out power to 700,000 people in New England and snapping one of the USS Constitution’s masts in the Charlestown Navy Yard. See photos of the aftermath.

A low-pressure system stalled over coastal New England over Mother’s Day weekend, unleashing months’ worth of rain in just a few days. Rivers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts overflowed, damaging buildings and roads. York County, Maine, alone got more than 15 inches of rain, doing more than $12 million in damage in today’s money.

Globe meteorologist Dave Epstein has called it one of his worst forecasts. While working in Hartford, he predicted a dusting of snow. It ended up being the region’s biggest Thanksgiving snowstorm in 64 years, with more than a foot accumulating on Cape Cod. The storm created treacherous driving conditions for holiday travelers and canceled high-school football games across Eastern Massachusetts.

In Dave’s defense, Thanksgiving weather is notoriously unpredictable. In 1938, sleet, hail, and ice killed 11 people across the region. Three years later, the year Congress made Thanksgiving a federal holiday, temperatures in Boston reached 71 degrees.

Initially called the No-Name Storm, this nor’easter and hurricane combo canceled trick-or-treating and flattened hundreds of buildings across the region. The storm is immediately better known by the nickname Sebastian Junger gave it in his 1997 book about a Gloucester fishing vessel that sank during the storm with all hands. See photos of the devastation.

This March nor’easter did its worst damage on the first day of Lent, giving rise to its holy-day moniker. Although it caused the most havoc across the mid-Atlantic and the South, the storm also sent big waves crashing into Southern New England.

Normally a good thing, a snowy Christmas can come with costs. A freak snowstorm on Christmas Day in 1974 made “dreams come true and holiday traveling a nightmare,” the Globe reported, snarling traffic and causing at least eight deaths in Massachusetts. In 1947, a surprise storm deposited another few inches on best of the 17 already on the ground in some places. In 1909, a windy snowstorm reached hurricane force and flooded coastal areas.

For more on the weekend’s nor’easter, read my colleague Ken Mahan’s updates and see photos from the storm.

🧩 2 Down: Layered cookie | ☔ 59° Showers linger

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Student loans: Years of policy whiplash under the Biden presidency and both of Trump’s have left millions of borrowers unsure of which repayment plan they should enroll in, what their monthly bills will be, and whom to ask for help.

Material fact: A proposed 12-story affordable-housing apartment building in Cambridge would be built almost entirely from laminated wood, which is more cost effective and energy efficient.

ICE in Massachusetts: ICE arrested a 13-year-old in Everett last week and sent him to a Virginia detention facility. Trump officials claim the boy had a gun and a knife. Meanwhile, Massachusetts police are caught between state law and federal authorities who want them to do more to detain undocumented immigrants.

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By David Beard

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Thanks for reading Starting Point.

This newsletter was edited by David Beard.

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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.