List of Northeast snowfall impact scale winter storms
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The Northeast snowfall impact scale (NESIS) is a scale used to categorize winter storms in the Northeast United States.[1] The scale was developed by meteorologists Paul Kocin and Louis Uccellini, and ranks snowstorms from category 1 ("notable") to category 5 ("extreme"). Only two historical blizzards, the 1993 Storm of the Century and the North American blizzard of 1996 are rated in the 5 "extreme" category. The scale differs from the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale and Fujita scale, which are used to classify tropical cyclones and tornadoes, respectively, in that it takes into account the number of people affected by the storm.[2] The scale, as devised, is intended chiefly to assess past storms rather than assist in forecasts. This scale takes into account population size of the Northeast, and thus snowfall amounts are often not that high. [3]