Italian village slammed with Charlottetown-like levels of snow

Tuesday, March 10, 2015, 1:31 PM - Stop us if you've heard this one already this season.

Hours and hours of relentless snowfall have paralysed transportation, shut down services and left residents all but buried in their homes.

Charlottetown? Boston? Buffalo? 

Amazingly, no. This extreme snow story comes to us from the Italian village of Capracotta, in central Italy, after a massive storm dropped more than 2 m of snow over the weekend.

There appears to have been a fair bit of wind also. Snow banks are reportedly three metres deep in some spots, such that some residents could only leave their homes by either burrowing out or just climbing out a top-storey window.

Local officials told media it was the region's worst snowfall since 1956.

How bad was it? The Telegraph reports a total of 256 cm fell in the worst-hit areas, and Capracotta's mayor told Italian news agency ANSA that it all fell in 16 hours.

If that's true, it would be the single snowiest 24 hours ever recorded on Earth, beating out Silver Lake, Colorado, which got 193 cm in a single day in mid-April 1921.

However, it's probably a good idea to treat the claim with some skepticism. The main website reporting that figure, MeteoWeb, cites local 'enthusiasts' as the source.

Still, even if the claim is never verified, the town, and its nearby neighbours, has some pretty solid winter sports cred.

SOURCE: Telegraph | ANSA | MeteoWeb | National Weather Service

MEANWHILE IN CANADA: Check out this drone's eye view of a terrifyingly huge snowmound near Moncton, N.B.