A superstorm is a large, unusually-occurring, destructive

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

without another distinct meteorological classification, such as

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...

Origin and usage

Before the early 1990s, the phrases " storm of the century" or "

perfect storm A perfect storm is a meteorological event aggravated by a rare combination of circumstances. The term is used by analogy to an unusually severe storm that results from a rare combination of Meteorology, meteorological phenomena. Origin The Oxfor ...

" were generally used to describe unusually large or destructive storms. The term "superstorm" was employed in 1993 by the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

to describe a

Nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use ...

in March of that year. The term is most frequently used to describe a

weather pattern Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the tr ...

that is as destructive as a

, but which exhibits the cold-weather patterns of a

winter storm A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessa ...

Examples

Hurricane Patricia Hurricane Patricia was the strongest tropical cyclone on record worldwide in terms of wind speed and the second-most intense on record worldwide in terms of pressure, behind Typhoon Tip in 1979, with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 872 mbar ( ...

, strongest tropical cyclone by wind speed, with sustained winds at least 20 mph faster than its runner-up. *

Great Gale of 1880 The Great Gale of 1880 was an intense extratropical cyclone (possibly deeper than 955 millibars (mb) or 28.20") that impacted the Northwest United States on January 9, 1880. Gusts of an estimated 138 miles per hour hit the northwest coast. Bu ...

, northwest United States. * North Sea flood of 1953, A powerful system that triggered severe flooding in the British Isles and

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. *

Columbus Day Storm of 1962 The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 (also known as the Big Blow, and originally, and in Canada as Typhoon Freda) was a Pacific Northwest windstorm that struck the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States on October 12, ...

, Pacific Northwest windstorm. *

Great Storm of 1975 The Great Storm of 1975 (also known as the Super Bowl Blizzard, Minnesota's Storm of the Century, or the Tornado Outbreak of January, 1975) was an intense storm system that impacted a large portion of the Central and Southeast United States from ...

, central and southeast United States. * Braer Storm of January 1993, North Atlantic. *

1993 Storm of the Century The 1993 Storm of the Century (also known as the 93 Superstorm, The No Name Storm, or the Great Blizzard of '93/1993) was a cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993. The cold weather, heavy snowfall, high winds and s ...

, eastern North America. * Hanukkah Eve windstorm of 2006, Pacific Northwest windstorm. *

Great Coastal Gale of 2007 The Great Coastal Storm of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 4, 2007. The storms on Dece ...

, a series of three powerful Pacific Northwest storms. *

January 2008 North American storm complex The January 2008 North American storm complex was a powerful Pacific extratropical cyclone that affected a large portion of North America, primarily stretching from western British Columbia to near the Tijuana, Mexico area, starting on January 3, ...

, Pacific extratropical cyclone over North America. *

October 2009 North American storm complex The October 2009 North American storm complex was a powerful extratropical cyclone that was associated with the remnants of Typhoon Melor, which brought extreme amounts of rainfall to California. The system started out as a weak area of low pressu ...

, extratropical cyclone over western North America. *

January 2010 North American winter storms The January 2010 North American winter storms were a group of seven powerful winter storms that affected Canada and the Contiguous United States, particularly California. The storms developed from the combination of a strong El Niño episode, a ...

, a group of unusually-powerful extratropical cyclones that affected California and the Contiguous United States. *

October 2010 North American storm complex The October 2010 North American storm complex is the name given to a historic extratropical cyclone that impacted North America. The massive storm complex caused a wide range of weather events including a major serial derecho stretching from the ...

, extratropical cyclone that impacted North America *

November 2011 Bering Sea cyclone The November 2011 Bering Sea cyclone was one of the most powerful extratropical cyclones to affect Alaska on record. On November 8, the National Weather Service (NWS) began issuing severe weather warnings, saying that this was a near-record (o ...

, cyclone that affected Alaska. *

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

(informally referred to as a "superstorm" by the media), an Atlantic hurricane that became an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone over the Eastern United States. *

January 2013 Northwest Pacific cyclone The January 2013 Northwest Pacific cyclone was a powerful extratropical cyclone which caused heavy rainfall and a severe blizzard in Japan in January 2013. Forming northeast of Taiwan on January 13 and absorbing Tropical Depression Bising soon af ...

, extratropical cyclone. *

March 2014 nor'easter The March 2014 nor'easter was an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone that affected much of U.S. Gulf Coast, the eastern United States, eastern Canada, and Greenland. It was the most powerful winter storm of the 2013–14 North American wint ...

, an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone that acquired a wind field four times the size of Hurricane Sandy's. *

November 2014 Bering Sea cyclone The November 2014 Bering Sea cyclone (also referred to as Post-Tropical Cyclone Nuri by the U.S. government) was the most intense extratropical cyclone (also a bomb cyclone) ever recorded in the Bering Sea, which formed from a new storm develop ...

, extremely powerful extratropical cyclone in the Bering Sea *

January 2018 North American blizzard The January 2018 North American blizzard caused widespread severe disruption and blizzard conditions across much of the East Coasts of the United States and Canada in early January 2018. The storm dropped up to of snow in the Mid-Atlantic sta ...

, one of the most powerful extratropical cyclones recorded off the East Coast of the United States, brought blizzard conditions to much of the Eastern U.S. *

March 2019 North American blizzard The March 2019 North American blizzard was a powerful Colorado Low that produced up to two feet of snow in the plains and Midwest. Rapid snowmelt following the storm caused historic flooding, and some areas received hurricane-force wind gusts. C ...

, a powerful extratropical cyclone in the United States that drew comparisons to the 1993 Storm of the Century. *

Hurricane Dorian Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which became the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and tied for strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin. It is also rega ...

, an Atlantic hurricane that degenerated to an extremely powerful extratropical cyclone south of Atlantic Canada.

References

{{Cyclones Storm 1990s neologisms

Origin and usage

Examples

See also

References