Major Long Duration Nor’easter – Friday-Saturday January 3-4, 2003. Coming only eight days after the severe Christmas day, 2002 nor’easter plastered the area with record amounts of snow ranging from 15″-25″ on average, the atmosphere reloaded with another knockout winter punch. A second powerful nor’easter hammered the Northeast with just about the same amount of snow as the Christmas day storm. The snow storm total of 20.8″ at Albany, only two tenths of an inch less than the Christmas storm, shattered records again. Exactly 12″ of snow fell on Friday, January 3rd, setting a new 24 hour snowfall record for the day, breaking the old record of 9.8″ that was set in a large storm in 1996. The 8.8″ of snow that then fell on Saturday, January 4, also broke the twenty four hour record for that date of 7.3″ set previously in 1942. The storm total of 20.8″ was good for the second all time heaviest January snow storm at Albany since records began in the mid 1800’s and was also heavy enough to fall right behind the Christmas storm ranking it as the 10th heaviest of all time.