Basketball has its March Madness.

Sometimes Mother Nature, though, has its own form of March Madness.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of The Blizzard of ’93, which was a monster of a storm dumping enormous snow totals from the deep South to New England. Locally, the Lehigh Valley International Airport recorded 25 inches of snow and winds of 55 mph. Kidder Township had 30 inches of snow. East Stroudsburg saw winds of 72 mph. The Jim Thorpe measurement of snow was 20 inches.

It was termed by the National Weather Service and historians as the “Storm of the Century” and, according to the National Weather Service, “the first true blizzard since 1888.”

Meteorologist Steve Porter of the National Weather Service said a blizzard is officially defined as a storm with winds over 35 mph and snow falling at the rate of one to two inches per hour or better. “You can’t have one without the other and call it a blizzard,” Porter said.

Speaking of the Blizzard of 1888, that also happened March 12-13.

With the blizzard of ’88, the region was paralyzed for at least a week by high snow drifts that the terrific gale caused to form. Passenger trains came to a dead stop in the snow. Mark Twain was in New York at the time and was stranded at his hotel for several days. P.T. Barnum entertained some of the stranded at Madison Square Garden.

The blizzard began without warning. In New York City, rain fell on March 11 but around midnight the rain changed to heavy snow, which then fell uninterrupted for the next 36 hours.

Many towns ran out of coal, their primary heating fuel.

The Jim Thorpe Times News reported snow drifts of 15 feet deep on the surrounding mountains.

The 1993 blizzard happened on the date of the 150th anniversary of Carbon County. A toast to kickoff a spring and summer celebration went on as scheduled at the Carbon County Courthouse.

During the 1993 blizzard, the Carbon County Telecommunications Center (911 Center) handled more than 2,000 telephone calls from a Saturday night to Monday morning.

The good news is that it’s just a little over a week for the official arrival of Spring.

But don’t get too excited. There’s always a chance for more snow.

In 1958, 21 inches of snow fell on March 20 in the Panther Valley area.

Then, in 1982, a freak snowstorm dumped up to 12 inches of snow throughout the local area.