Top 10 January snowstorms in Philadelphia history

Philadelphia could see double-digit snowfall totals for the first time in 10 years Sunday, as a massive storm makes its way across the Northeast.

But as large and disruptive as this storm will likely be, it will have a difficult time cracking the list of the top 10 January snowstorms in Philly history.

A decade ago, almost to the day, 22.4 inches of snow fell in Philly, the fourth-largest snowstorm in city history. The blizzard basically forced SEPTA and the rest of Philly to shut down and blasted through the city’s budget.

Nothing compares to what happen 30 years ago, when the so-called Blizzard of 1996 dropped nearly 31 inches of snow on Philly over a two-day span. Vehicles were left stranded across the city and highways across the region closed in what The Inquirer described at the time as the “Snowstorm of the Century.”

This storm isn’t that, though thanks to a dangerous component of sleet and ice it will impact a large swath of the country, from West Texas to Maine.

It would take 12.3 inches of snow for this latest storm to make its way on to the list of the snowiest January storms in Philly history. That would match a 1922 event dubbed the “Knickerbocker storm” because snow caused the collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C., killing 98 people, which remains the worst natural disaster in the city’s history.

Here’s the full list of top Philly snowfalls in January history:

Staff writer Anthony R. Wood (who literally wrote the book on snow) contributed to this report.