Within a few hours, the advancing cold front caused a temperature drop from a few degrees above freezing to −20 degrees Fahrenheit (−40 °F in some places). This wave of cold was accompanied by high winds and heavy snow. The fast-moving storm first struck Montana in the early hours of January 12, swept through Dakota Territory from midmorning to early afternoon, and reached Lincoln, Nebraska at 3 p.m.
What made the storm so deadly was the timing (during work and school hours), the suddenness, and the brief spell of warmer weather that preceded it. In addition, the very strong wind fields behind the cold front and the powdery nature of the snow reduced visibilities on the open plains to zero. People ventured from the safety of their homes to do chores, go to town, attend school, or simply enjoy the relative warmth of the day. As a result, thousands of people—including a significant number of schoolchildren—got caught in the blizzard. The death toll was 235.
The mercury fell within twenty-four hours from 74 degrees above zero to 28 degrees below it in some places, and in Dakota went down to 40 degrees below zero. In fine clear weather, with little or no warning, the sky darkened and the air was filled with snow, or ice-dust, as fine as flour, driven before a furious wind. Men in the fields and children on their way from school died before they could reach shelter; some of them suffocated from the impossiblility of breathing the blizzard.
Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3 p.m., they had run out of heating fuel. Her boarding house was only 82 yards away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and all the children froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated.
Etta Shattuck, a schoolhouse teacher, got lost on her way home, and sought shelter in a haystack. She remained trapped there until her rescue 78 hours later by Daniel D. Murphy and his hired men. She soon died on February 6 around 9 A.M. due to complications from surgery to remove her frostbitten limbs.
Minnie Freeman safely led thirteen children from her schoolhouse to her home at a boarding house, one half mile away.
The Great Blizzard of 1888, Great Blizzard of '88, or the Great White Hurricane, (March 11 – March 14, 1888) was one of the most severe blizzards in United States' recorded history. Snowfalls of 40-50 inches fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and sustained winds of over 45 miles per hour produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet.
The "Great White Hurricane," as it was called, paralyzed the East Coast. Telegraph and telephone wires snapped, isolating New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington for days. Two hundred ships were grounded, and at least one hundred seamen died. Fire stations were immobilized, and property loss from fire alone was estimated at $25 million. Overall, more than 400 deaths were reported. On March 10, temperatures in the Northeast hovered in the mid-50s. But on March 11, cold Arctic air from Canada collided with Gulf air from the south and temperatures plunged. Rain turned to snow and winds reached hurricane-strength levels. By midnight on March 11, gusts were recorded at 85 miles per hour in New York City.
Up to 15,000 people were stranded on the elevated trains; in many areas, enterprising people with ladders offered to rescue the passengers for a small fee. In addition to the trains, telegraph lines, water mains and gas lines were also located above ground. Each was no match for the powerful blizzard, freezing and then becoming inaccessible to repair crews. Simply walking the streets was perilous. In fact, only 30 people out of 1,000 were able to make it to the New York Stock Exchange for work. Wall St. was closed for 3 days. Severe flooding occurred after the storm due to melting snow, especially in the Brooklyn area. In the wake of the storm, officials realized the dangers of above-ground telegraph, water and gas lines and moved them below ground. In New York City, a similar determination was made about the trains, and within 10 years, construction began on an underground subway system that is still in use today.
The Great Blizzard of 1899, aka The Snow King, The Great Cold Wave, The Greatest Cold Snap in American History, or The Valentine's Blizzard started out on February 11 as a severe cold wave in which every part of the East Coast from Georgia to Maine received sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures. In Santuc, Union County, SC the recorded temperature was -11 degrees Fahrenheit. In Atlanta, GA it got down to -9 degrees. In Erasmus, TN it was -30 degrees. In Tallahassee, FL it was -2 degrees.
Snowball fight on the steps of the capitol steps of Florida in Tampa, FL.
On February 12, snow started falling from Fort Myers and Tampa in Florida and then headed west towards New Orleans. Blizzard conditions were reported north of Tampa along the west coast of Florida due to ocean-effect snow. The storm crossed the Florida peninsula and intensified as it rapidly moved up the Eastern United States. The Mississippi River froze its entire length down to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, some ice even flowed into the Gulf.
Fayetteville, NC
The Knickerbocker Storm was a blizzard that occurred on January 27–28, 1922 in the upper South and middle Atlantic United States. The storm took its name from the resulting collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C. shortly after 9 p.m. on January 28 which killed 98 people and injured 133. The Knickerbocker Theatre was the largest and newest movie house in Washington, D.C., built in 1917 and owned by Harry Crandall. The roof was flat, which allowed the snow which had recently fallen to remain on the roof. During the movie's (Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford) intermission, the weight of the heavy, wet snow became too much for the roof to bear. The roof split down the middle, bringing down the balcony seating as well as a portion of the brick wall. The theater's architect, Reginald Wyckliffe Geare (1927), and owner, Harry M. Crandall (1937), later committed suicide.
An estimated 22,400 square miles of the northeast United States were affected by 20 inches of snow from this cyclone, which was over one-fifth of the total area that received over 4 in of snow. Snowfall was quite heavy in Maryland and Virginia. Richmond, Virginia recorded 19 inches. Baltimore, Maryland was paralyzed as it received the most snowfall within 24 hours since 1872. The measured snow depth at the main observing site in Washington, D.C. reached 28 inches. The storm responsible for the record snowfall formed east of South Carolina on the morning of January 27 and moved slowly north to a position well east of Cape Hatteras on the morning of January 28. It then drifted slowly east-northeast out to sea.
The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 was also known as The Big Blow, The Freshwater Fury or The White Hurricane. It was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario from November 7 through November 10, 1913. The Great Lakes Storm killed more than 250 people, destroyed 19 ships, and stranded 19 others. The storm originated as the convergence of two major storm fronts, fueled by the lakes' relatively warm waters—a seasonal process called a "November gale". It produced 90 mph winds, waves over 35 feet high, and whiteout snowsqualls. November gales have been a bane of the Great Lakes, with at least 25 killer storms striking the region since 1847. During the Big Blow of 1905, twenty-seven wooden vessels were lost. During a November gale of 1975, the giant ore bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank suddenly, without a distress signal. The Great Lakes storm, however, raged for more than 16 hours, with an average speed of 60 mph. Historically, storms of such magnitude and with such high wind velocities have not lasted more than four or five hours.
On November 6th to 8th 1913, a weak storm was moving eastward across the southern U.S. An Arctic front was moving southward through Canada and hit the northern Great Lakes on November 7th. This brisk front brought extremely cold air and the temperatures quickly plunged. Ahead of the Arctic front, there were strong southwest winds and then they changed to the northwest as the front passed over.
On November 6th to 8th 1913, a weak storm was moving eastward across the southern U.S. An Arctic front was moving southward through Canada and hit the northern Great Lakes on November 7th. This brisk front brought extremely cold air and the temperatures quickly plunged. Ahead of the Arctic front, there were strong southwest winds and then they changed to the northwest as the front passed over.
It was best summed up in a report by the Lake Carriers Association in the wake of the Great Lakes " white hurricane":
"No lake master can recall in all his experience a storm of such unprecedented violence with such rapid changes in the direction of the wind and its gusts of such fearful speed! Storms ordinarily of that velocity do not last over four or five hours, but this storm raged for sixteen hours continuously at an average velocity of sixty miles per hour, with frequent
spurts of seventy and over."
Approximately 235 people lost their lives ships with most of them from eight large freighters that sunk on Lake Huron. They include the John McGean, Isaac M. Scott, Argus, Hydrus, James Carruthers, Wexford, Regina and Charles S. Price.
The Argos
Most sunk over central and eastern Lake Huron, in Canadian waters. Horrific stories of dead sailors being washed ashore during the days following the storm came from Southern Ontario. A farmer, along the Canadian shoreline,told how the first dead body came floating ashore, "announcing" the arrival of the grisly scene to follow. It was truly an eerie and ghastly sight when, out of a dense fog, he saw a man bobbing in the water with his arms stretched out as though he were waving to him! It was a sailor from the Wexford and his shipmates quickly followed. The scene of bodies floating to shore was like out of some horror movie script in the book by Robert J. Hemming titled, "Ships Gone Missing." In it, he graphically describes the ghastly sight in the thick fog...
"Singly and by twos and threes they drifted in, as if coming to be present at some ghastly muster, shrouded in life jackets bearing the names of ships gone missing. The Wexford, Argus, McGean, Hydrus, Scott, Regina, Carruthers and Price had all sent representatives to shore to announce to everyone that they foundered, that their crews were all dead. Stiff, bloated and battered, their heads capped in ice, they floated in, rolled and pitched by the combers crashing on the beach. They came draped over life preservers, they came wrapped in each others arms, they came frozen together in clusters. All week long they came, to be collected by area farmers who sometimes had to dig half-buried bodies out of the sand that was trying to cover them."
Some strange tales also arose from this tragedy, such as, the sailor who washed ashore from the Charles S. Price...with a life preserver from the Regina!
The upturned Charles S. Price
Another tale surrounded a unidentified sailor with the initials J.T. on his arm. After reading about it in the paper, Mrs Edward Ward, telegrammed her
father, Thomas Thompson of Hamilton, Ontario, telling him his son (her brother) John, must be the unidentified man. John Thompson had been on the Carruthers, like the unidentified man and also had a tattoo with the initials J.T. on his arm. Therefore, Thomas rushed to the funeral home to identify the body. The body was badly battered but the facial features, similar to John's, were still largely recognizable. Other similarities were compelling, the feet had crossed toes, just like John's, the tattoo was on
the left arm, like John's and a scar on the nose and leg matched John's perfectly. Not to mention, the body's teeth had the same teeth missing as John's! There was, however, a puzzling fact that didn't match...the hair color. The corpse's hair was light brown, while John's was almost black! The undertaker dismissed this fact, figuring the body, being immersed in cold water for a long time could have caused the hair to be lighter. In light of all the remarkable similarities, they went ahead with the funeral.
You guessed it, it wasn't John. Right in the middle of John's memorial service, in walks John! You could have knocked over the mourners with a feather as they stood there, stunned as the resemblance was uncanny! Evidently, John had jumped ship to be on a ship called the Maple and waited out the storm in Toronto, where he read about his "death." Thinking it would be a real good joke, he said nothing to his family and friends and thus, walked in on his own funeral!
Another seaman, Milton Smith, having been bothered by a persistent bad foreboding that something terrible would happen to him if he stayed aboard the freighter Price. He told his superior officer of the foreboding, and he tried to persuade him to stay but Milton was more determined than ever and left as his shipmates laughed.
The Armistice Day Blizzard occurred on November 11, 1940. It was a blizzard that overtook Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Up to 27 inches of snow fell, resulting in the deaths of 154 people. A lot of them simply froze to death, but perhaps the most tragic of the deaths were the 66 people who died in Lake Michigan when three freighters and two smaller boats sank under the weight of the snow.
The morning of 11 November 1940 brought with it unseasonably high temperatures. By early afternoon temperatures had warmed in lower to middle 60s degrees Fahrenheit. As the day wore on conditions quickly deteriorated. Temperatures dropped sharply, winds picked up, and rain, followed by sleet, and then snow began to fall. An intense low pressure system had tracked from the southern plains northeastward into western Wisconsin, pulling Gulf of Mexico moisture up from the south and pulling down a cold arctic air mass from the north. The result was a raging blizzard that would last into the next day. Snowfalls of up to 27 inches, winds of 50 to 80 mph, 20-foot snow drifts.
Along the Mississippi River several hundred duck hunters took time off from work and school to take advantage of the ideal hunting conditions. Weather forecasters had not predicted the severity of the oncoming storm, and as a result many of the hunters were not dressed for cold weather. When the storm began many hunters took shelter on small islands in the Mississippi River, and the 50 mph winds and 5-foot waves overcame their encampments. Some became stranded on the islands and then froze to death in the single-digit temperatures that moved in over night. Others tried to make it to shore and drowned. Duck hunters constituted about half of the 49 deaths in Minnesota. Those who survived told of how ducks came south with the storm by the thousands, and everybody could have shot their daily limit had they not been focused on survival. Casualties were lessened by the efforts of Max Conrad, a pioneering light plane pilot and one of his students (John R. Bean) both based in Winona, Minnesota, 25 miles upriver from La Crosse. They flew up and down the river in the wake of the storm, locating survivors and dropping supplies to them.
The Minnesota State Climatology Office rated the Nov. 11, 1940 snowstorm as the No. 2 weather event of the 20th century. Only, the 1930s’ dust bowl outranked it.
The Nebraska Blizzard of 1949 started November 18, when a blizzard roared into the state with heavy snow, sleet and winds of 50 - 70 miles per hour. Roads were blocked, schools closed, snow drifted over rooftops and livestock were stranded. Travelers filled hotels to overflowing. Trains were stuck, and telephone service was disrupted.
Some of the snow melted before the next storm hit around Christmas. After a brief warm spell, the next storm started on January 2. Rain began to fall, then the temperature and barometer dropped as the storm got worse. The blizzard lasted for almost three days across western, central and northern Nebraska. Winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour drove snow on top of what had fallen earlier in the winter. The last two weeks of January brought sub-zero temperatures and then freezing rain and more snow. The last week in March another storm hit around North Platte, dropping 20 more inches of snow. The storm caused train derailments and flooding. The Big and Little Nemaha Rivers flooded because of ice jams. On April 14, the last of the big storms hit south central and eastern Nebraska, with 12 inches of snow.
During the Nebraska winter of 1948-1949, parts of the state had received more than 100 inches of snow. One area in Antelope County had drifts that reached about 30 feet and didn't melt until June. Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming all suffered through the blizzards.
One Saturday afternoon a group of men finally got through to save Mr. and Mrs. George Harris of Riverton, WY, who had been snowed in their car on Highway 20 since the previous Thursday afternoon. The car's gasoline supply had given out in the early hours Friday morning and the couple had bundled up for more than 30 hours in their heatless car to keep from freezing.
In the January storms, across the Great Plains, over 100,000 travelers were marooned, and more than 100 perished. In the communities, people volunteered to rescue people trapped in their cars and brought them in for the townspeople to take care of. Private homes opened up to take in the temporary refugees. People cooked and served the stranded and provided places to sleep.
Airplanes flew and dropped bales of hay for livestock and boxes of groceries for ranch families.
On January 26, 1967, 23 inches covered Chicago and the suburbs, the largest single snowfall in the city's history. It was called the Chicago Blizzard of 1967. The snow fell continuously on Chicago from 5:02 am on Thursday, January 26 until 10:10 am Friday.
Thousands were stranded in offices, in schools, in buses. About 50,000 abandoned cars and 800 Chicago Transit Authority buses littered the streets and expressways. All most people wanted to do was get home. One woman who worked downtown and lived on the city's North Side--normally a 35-minute commute--spent four hours making the trip.
In south suburban Markham, 650 students in four schools camped out in libraries and gymnasiums because school buses could not get through.
Looting was rampant. Long lines formed at grocery stores, and shelves were emptied in moments. As a result of the record snow, 26 people died, including a 10-year-old girl who was accidentally caught in the cross-fire between police and looters and a minister who was run over by a snowplow. Several others died of heart attacks from shoveling snow.
50,000 automobiles abandoned on the city streets and expressways. The blizzard closed both Midway Airport and O'Hare Airport. Ten-foot drifts covered the runways at Midway. Thousands of travelers and airport workers were stuck in the terminals by the storm.
The Chicago area started to recover from the extreme snowfall over the weekend, then it snowed 4 more inches on Wednesday, February 1. The following Sunday, February 5, another storm dumped 10 inches.
The Blizzard of 1977 was a deadly blizzard that hit upstate New York and Southern Ontario from January 28 to February 1, 1977. Daily peak wind gusts ranging from 46 to 69 mph. Weather conditions during the months prior to the blizzard allowed the blizzard to have the impacts that it did. November's, December's and January's average temperatures were much below normal. Lake Erie froze over by December 14. Lake Erie was covered by a deep, powdery snow; January's unusually cold conditions limited the usual thawing and refreezing, so the snow on the frozen lake remained powdery. The drifted snow on roadways was difficult to clear because the strong wind packed the snow solidly, almost like a form of cement. The combination of bitter cold, high winds, and blowing snow paralyzed areas affected by the storm. Lake Ontario does not freeze over, which meant that northern New York had to deal with considerable lake-effect snow, which when coupled with the existing snow cover and wind, created paralysis.
On Thursday, January 27, an Arctic front had swept southward through the northern Great Plains to the Midwest. Between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Friday, January 28, a wall of snow accompanied the cold front passage through Indianapolis, Indiana, along with a temperature drop of almost 25 degrees. That morning observers on the 16th floor of the M&T Bank Building in Buffalo watched as a gray wall covered the city; it appeared white as it came closer. A blast of wind hit the building that caused the floor to move and the glass window to creak, and then the wall of white enveloped the building. It was 11:10 a.m.
The 12 inches of new snow associated with the cold front, along with the snow that had previously accumulated on land and on the frozen Lake Erie, was all blown by the strong winds and created drifts of over 25 ft in metro Buffalo. Authorities estimated 13,000 people were stranded Friday night in downtown Buffalo, NY.
Looting broke out and items stolen included radios and firefighters' clothing from fire trucks, as well as more than $1,500 in medical supplies from a stuck ambulance. Cigarettes, liquor, beer, coffee, meat and refrigerators were stolen from abandoned semi-trucks. 114 There was also looting from factories, stores (including a couple jewelry stores and a furniture/appliance store) and homes. 114 Nearly 100 people were arrested for looting.
There were 23 total storm-related deaths in Western New York, with 11 in the City of Buffalo, plus seven more in the rest of Erie County, three in Wyoming County, and one each in both Niagara and Orleans County. At least nine were found buried in cars, while others involved heart attacks while shoveling snow and car accidents.
The Northeastern United States Blizzard of 1978 was a catastrophic and historic nor'easter that brought blizzard conditions to the New England region of the United States and the New York metropolitan area. The Blizzard of 1978 formed on February 5, 1978 and broke up on February 7, 1978. Boston received a record 27.1 inches of snow, as did Providence, Rhode Island with 27.6 inches of snow. The storm killed approximately 100 people in the Northeast and injured around 4,500. The storm's power was made apparent by its sustained hurricane-force winds of approximately 86 mph with gusts to 111 mph.
Many people were stranded in their cars along roads and highways throughout the New England region. People perished on Interstate 95 outside Boston as snow piled high enough to prevent the exhaust from escaping from their idling vehicles. Interstate 95 eventually had to be evacuated by cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. More than 3,500 cars were found abandoned and buried in the middle of roads during the clean-up effort.
On the evening of the blizzard, two Brown students who were also Red Cross volunteers were able to make their way on snowshoes to the Providence office of the Red Cross. All the regular Red Cross disaster staff were stranded at their homes. People from throughout the city called the office to ask for food and other supplies. Many of these people had abandoned their cars on I-195 and found their way to makeshift shelters in various buildings near the highway. At 2 a.m., the two students loaded backpacks full of supplies from the Red Cross stockrooms and headed out toward the shelters. They encountered high winds and cars covered in feet of snow. One Providence fire truck was stranded across an intersection in Fox Point, its red lights spinning and firemen asleep in the cab. The students were able to reach shelters with food and supplies, and headed back to the Red Cross office. At 5 a.m., they borrowed snowshoes and skis from the Brown Outing Club and contacted the media to recruit neighbors and students who were skilled in winter travel. More than 500 students and neighbors took shifts around the clock delivering supplies to private homes and makeshift shelters across Providence. At one point, a National Guard helicopter landed on the school's athletic field to refresh the Red Cross supplies. These volunteers were part of a larger effort of citizens taking care of each other for days, awaiting rescue by National Guard units from the Carolinas who came equipped with front-loaders large enough to begin moving snow off the streets of Providence.
Fifty four people were killed, many from fallen electric wires. Ten-year-old Peter Gosselin, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, disappeared in the deep snow just feet from his home's front door but was not found until three weeks later.
The Chicago Blizzard of 1979 was a major blizzard that affected northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, U.S. on January 13-January 14, 1979. On top of 7-10 inches left over from a New Year's Eve storm, 20.3 inches of new snow fell--setting a record for total snow on the ground.
Transportation came to a standstill for several days. Deployment of plows was significantly delayed and when they finally appeared they struggled to keep up with the snowfall. Much of the snow remained unremoved throughout the next 2 months, causing ongoing public transit delays and significant problems with trash collection. The city's inadequate response to the blizzard was blamed primarily on mayor Michael Bilandic.
The Halloween Blizzard was a period of heavy snowfall and ice accumulation that affected parts of the Upper Midwest of the United States, from October 31 to November 3, 1991. Between the blizzard and the ice storm 22 people were killed and over 100 were injured. By the time the snow ended on November 3 the storm had dropped 36.9 in on Duluth, the largest single snow storm total in Minnesota history at that time. The Twin Cities received 28.4 in, setting a single storm record for the metropolitan area. In all, at least one foot of snow fell in a swath approximately 100 mi wide from south central Minnesota, northeastward into northwestern Wisconsin and into the Minnesota Arrowhead. A more narrow band of 2+ ft of snow fell from the Twin Cities to Duluth and northward. Southern Minnesota and Iowa did not see as much snow, but instead saw a major ice storm. Though the precipitation started out as snow in these areas, it changed over to ice during the day on October 31 continued falling over the next day. Ice accumulations as high as 2–3 in were recorded in these areas before the precipitation changed to snow. Up to 10 in of snow proceeded to fall on top of ice accumulations from the previous day, making travel even more treacherous.
The Storm of the Century, also known as the ’93 Superstorm, or the Great Blizzard of 1993, was a large cyclonic storm that occurred on March 12–13, 1993, on the East Coast of North America. Described as one of the largest and most intense storms in a century, the March 12-14,1993 blizzard paralyzed the eastern seaboard with record cold, snow, and wind. Southern cities not accustomed to severe winter weather like Birmingham, Alabama, Atlanta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee were buried by paralyzing snows and frozen by unseasonable cold. The severe cold following the storm preserved much of the snow. The combined effects of high wind and heavy wet snow downed thousands of miles of power lines leaving millions of people in the dark for up to a week in some cases over the south.
Winds estimated up to120 mph blasted the Florida west coast early Saturday, March 13, producing a six to ten foot storm surge. Winds up to 100 mph over the mountains of North Carolina Saturday afternoon, March 13, drifted snow to depths of five to ten feet. And, 81 mph winds measured at Boston's Logan International airport Saturday evening, March 13, closed the facility and aided in the shut down of the city.
a tornado outbreak developed and devastated parts of Florida. An estimated twenty seven damaging tornadoes touched down across the state killing four people and injuring many others. The combination of extremely heavy snow and high wind produced widespread white-out conditions (zero visiblities) along with very rapid snow accumulations. As a result, New York and the six New England States all declared disaster emergencies during the height of the storm. All major highways, such as the Northway, I-88, Thruway, and Massachusetts turnpike were closed by Saturday afternoon, March 13. Approximately 285 fatalities nationwide can be directly attributed to the storm.
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