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January 2000 North American blizzard

Winter storm in North America

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ6155838 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Carolina Crusher was one of the most powerful winter storms on record in parts of North Carolina, USA. The storm impacted the Greater Richmond Region on January 25th, 2000, causing thousands of power outages and leaving 11 in (280 mm) of snow in Richmond, Virginia, and 20.3 in (520 mm) at Raleigh-Durham International Airport before moving out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Meteorological history

The storm began forming during a mild winter with below-average snowfall across much of the East Coast. Snow first started falling on Wednesday, January 19th, the major storm portion began on Friday, January 21st, 2000.

Initially, computer models suggested that an area of low-pressure would develop and, after getting energy from another low-pressure system in Canada, track up the East Coast. But over the weekend, some computer models no longer showed a strong storm. By Monday, January 24th, forecasters called only for "snow flurries" and "up to an inch of accumulation on the ground."[3]

Some meteorologists considered classifying the event as part of the Big Storm which was occurring in Canada at the time. The North American storm's low-pressure system originated over the northern Great Lakes, then entered over Appalachia where it strengthened considerably. Following this, it went into the North again to collide with the warm front that was approaching.

Progression of the storm

A dip in the jet stream had created a trough, which caused rain in northern Florida and snow in Georgia. By the morning of the 24th, the storm was located in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico near Apalachicola, Florida.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “January 2000 North American blizzard” as winter storm in North America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where January, North and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as winter storm in North America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6155838. Authority coordinates are 37.476, -77.432. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2000.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “January 2000 North American blizzard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.