Great Blizzard of 1888

[Jim Eshelman]

March 11-14, 1888, beginning "in earnest" just after midnight March 12.
20"-60" of snowfall and winds up to 45 mph across New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with drifting up to 50'. "Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week." The entire Northeast was shut down for days.
Over 400 died (200 in NYC), damages of $25 million (= $660 million in 2015) simply from fires that immobilized fire departments could not reach. After the snow melted, areas (especially Brooklyn) experienced severe flooding.
Also called the Great White Hurricane.

To have an anchor of time and place, I'll start by checking March 12, 1888, 0:00 AM LMT, New York City (where half the deaths occurred, and more or less at the center of the effect). - Notice that, at the time the blizzard began "in earnest," Pluto was setting and Jupiter rising, with an approaching New Moon straddling the IC in the general area. [LATER" When I work this up for publication, I should use NYC as a solid location, and bump the time slightly later to, perhaps 12:30 AM to be more rigorous about the "just after midnight" report.]

Year: Capsolar (Dormant.)

Year: Cansolar
(The theme is "record breaking," including winds.)
Pluto on IC (1°49')
Mercury on Dsc (5°48') (stationary)
Moon-Sun sq. (1°48' in mundo)

Bridge
t. Saturn op. Capsolar Moon 2/27-5/1
t. Mars sq. Capsolar Moon 2/15-3/20
t. Pluto conj. CanQ Moon 2/29-6/27
t. Jupiter conj. Cansolar MC 2/7-5/4
EVENT WINDOW: Feb 29 to Mar 20
(Notice how the Jupiter transit is irrelevant to the timing. It all works out the same whether it is there or not.)

Quarter: Libsolar
(Not a great chart... but I wonder if there was a baby boom 9 months after the blizzard.)
Venus on WP, sq. MC (< 2°), on Dsc (1°26')
Mars on Dsc (5°10')
Moon-Sun conj. (1°08')

Month: Caplunar (Dormant.)

Week: Liblunar
(The lunar ingresses do not give us the precipitation factors we want to see.)
Uranus on Dsc (0°11')
Moon & Mars more widely foreground
Moon-Mars conj. (1°20' in mundo)

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits
(Here we get the savage severity & precision timing.)
p. Asc sq. t./s. Neptune (0°)
p. MC sq. t. Venus (0°)
----------------------------------------
t. Saturn op. s. Moon (0°24')
t. Mars sq. s. Moon (0°20')
-- t. Mars-Saturn sq. (0°04')

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits
p. MC conj. t. Saturn (1°01' ap.), sq. t. Mars (0°57' ap.)
p. Asc sq. s. Sun (1°22'), p. Sun (0°44'), s. Saturn (1°11'), p. Saturn (1°16')
t. Pluto conj. p. Moon (0°41')
---------------------------------------------
t. Jupiter conj. s. MC (0°37')
t. Mercury sq. s. MC (0°54')
-- Mercury-Jupiter sq. (0°17')


SUMMARY
Year (Capsolar): (Dormant.)
Year (Cansolar, +1): Pluto (Mercury). Moon-Sun.
Bridge (+2): Mars Saturn (Cap). Jupiter Pluto (Can).
Quarter (-1): Venus (Mars). Moon-Sun.
Month: (Dormant.)
Week (+1): Uranus (Moon Mars). Moon-Mars.
Day (Capsolar): Venus Neptune (CapQ, -1). Moon-Mars-Saturn (transit, +2).
Day (Cansolar): Sun Mars Saturnx2 Moon-Pluto (CanQ, +2). Mercury Jupiter Mercury-Jupiter (transit, 0).