I knew a lady born in 1873, she went to my church, she said it covered the second story windows on one side. This was in Virginia. She passed away in 1975.
My great-grandmother was 12 and working in a factory at the time of the storm of '88. She was a small woman, so she must have been especially demure then. When done with work she tried to walk home. The snow was so deep it began to build up on her long overcoat, weighing her down to the point she felt she could not go on. She stepped into a doorway where the clumps of snow clinging to her coat bumped up against the door. Just at that time, someone living there was passing the door and opened it to find out what the sound was. They brought her inside, and the family took care of her until the storm passed. I never heard the name of the family, but I am sure grateful for their random act of kindness so long ago.
@@beadyeye2312 you also have to consider the fact that being charitable is becoming more difficult for people who’s wages haven’t adjusted for the last 30 years or inflation. Lots of people who have the heart to help dont always have the means
@@jrgenfarestvedt560 I am an old man, and yes, it is very possible. Here is a mind-bending fact: My great grandfather, the eventual husband of the girl, knew his grandfather who lived under Napolean. Now I tell stories I heard second hand from my great grandfather to my great grandson about his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather and my great grandson could live well into the 22nd century and tell his great grandchildren the same stories. The benefit of coming from a family with longevity. Take care of yourself, pass on heritage to future generations. That is the way roots grow deep. PS. That same great grandfather was born before there was a Germany.
My great grandfather, homesteading in northeastern what would become South Dakota, left his pregnant wife to take care of the farm animals during the blizzard there. He got lost and was never seen alive again. His body was found about 10 miles.from the farm in a farm shed in March 1889. His son, my grandfather, was born a few days after he disappeared.
Thank you for sharing that story. It is hard for us today with flashlights, snowplows, 4WD tractors and electric lights to imagine how bad it can get without these modern assets. I did some business with a farmer who told me about a couple on his farm in the 1890's. The wife left the barn in a storm to make dinner. The house was about 100' from the barn. When the husband got in from the barn she was not there. He tried to find her to no avail. She was found a few days later with her arms around a tree, frozen to death in the orchard.
@@rnedlo9909wow. What a story. And there must be thousands of stories similar from families much like yours. More Americans today would benefit from hearing these tales. Thank you, and thank everyome sharing similar tales. We all are better off from hearing how our recent ancestors lived and persevered.
New Englanders love to talk about the weather, and when I was growing up in Connecticut in the 1950s and 60s, the "Blizzard of '88" was the stuff of legends. Every year the New Milford (Connecticut) Times would run an article and photo spread commemorating that historic event ... an annual publication that would remind us all of just how bad a winter storm could be.
It's just too bad that corruption in Connecticut really has made it a very unpleasant place to live. Home of JP Morgan, who profited $90Million buying US bonds "to get the US out of debt" WTF. And he and Bruce Ismay sank the Titanic.
It's true lol. Always a good go to for rural folk. Plenty to talk about year round. Now in western Massachusetts we're getting more tornados and ice storms and six mud seasons on my dirt road 😂
I remember the blizzard of 1978. My friends and I were sitting oblivious to the weather in a pub, only to come out to completely buried cars parked on the street. We decided to dig out the one most likely to get us home safely, a trusty rear engine Volkswagen Bug. It was touch and go, but that bug got us to the friends house that was closest. We all stayed there and had the dubious pleasure of digging the other cars out the next day, plow buried and frozen over. Ahhh, the good old days…
@ stuart riefe I remember it well. I was living in Darien, Connecticut then and so much snow fell that when it stopped the snow was almost level with the soffit.
@Adam Loverin I still had my very first car, a rear wheel drive 1968 Pontiac LeMans. No good in snow. I think there was also a compact Toyota as well. There were four of us in total and a couple may have come in one car. Don’t underestimate the traction of a rear engine VW bug, especially with four people in it. I have a friend who converted one into a “dune buggy,” and that thing could go almost anywhere!
@@adamloverin231 As a teen in the 1980's I had a 1972 Super Beetle, and that thing would go through snow better than most four-wheel drives. Having the engine right over the rear driving wheels, and narrow tires that put the weight on a small surface area, combined to give it excellent traction in snow. Plus, the air-cooled engine had no radiator water to freeze, and the batteries were under the rear seat, rather than exposed to the cold of the engine bay. If you did get stuck, it was easy to push the light car out of a drift. On the downside, the window defroster didn't work, and there was no heat to speak of. Most Bug drivers have fond memories of using an ice scraper on the INSIDE of the windshield while driving in the cold.
I recall that blizzard, it was the one and only time school was closed early during my time in school for the weather. I didn't make it, the bus stopped a little less than a mile from my home because the road was no longer passable. A neighbor took me back to his home for the time being, until my mother was able to come and pick me up. IIRC, my father was unable to come home from work until the next day.
The March 4 '66 blizzard in Winnipeg was my first. I was horrified by my Dad's request to head out on a life or death errand to the pharmacy for, wait for it, a pack of smokes! Made it there and back, a whole 500 yards total and barely survived ( by my reckoning, the story gets more and more harrowing the older I get) the adventure.
We had a blizzard in Baltimore in February 1966 that immobilized the city for several days. As a result, my high school cancelled its mid-year exams, which saved me from failing chemistry class. Every cloud has a silver lining!
I lived through the Blizzard of 66 as well. No one has to exaggerate about how bad it was. It was just plain ugly without adding to it. I saw 12' drifts and places where whole buildings were covered.
It led you to your rank by toughening up a young lad. Thank you for your service to Canada. As a Texan allow me to also thank you for Canada's greatest export, RUSH.
My grandfather, a teller of great yarns told of his exploits during the Great Blizzard of 88’. After his death it was realized that he was but six months old during that event…great stories though.
I have heard of another great snowstorm in 1901 that he would have experienced. Truth was still not one of his strong points. He lied about his age so much that he missed out on three years of Social Security benefits. By the time I came along the wind had pretty much gone out of his sails. Although gone for over sixty years now his tales and indiscretions can still bring a smile or guffaw to those who knew him.
My grandfather told me he rode with Teddy Roosevelt. I had to have no more than 8 years old at the time. It wasn't til just a few years ago - I found out NOPE. But I liked his telling of it. lol
Old Mr. Adams, our next door neighbor, called me and his grandson onto his front porch where he opened what looked like a book. Inside was a photograph (tintype?) of a very young and handsome Mr. Adams sitting ramrod straight on the back of the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. A campaign hat held in place by a chinstrap...oh, he looked grand. I was far to young to know what a Roughrider was or to ask questions but both he and his horse are seared into my memory.
We had another few inches of snow here in Chicago heights Illinois last night and today, And as it sometimes happens everyone drove like they had never been in it before.
My great grandmother was 11 years old and remembered it well. She said it was something to see in her writings. She said they had no school for 17 days.
When I was growing up, old people would often talk about it. The grandmother of one of our college professors and Whitman were great friends. Lilacs bloomed in her dooryard and there they would sip tea together.
The greatest blizzard that I recall was the St. Patrick's Day blizzard of 1965 that dumped over 20 inches of snow, accompanied by heavy winds, across southern Minnesota (and probably neighboring states as well). The storm occurred on a Wednesday and school did not reopen until the following Tuesday. Fifteen foot snow drifts were not uncommon. With over 50 inches of snow in March alone, there was record setting flooding on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers that spring.
Born, raised and living in North Dakota I can tell many stories about blizzards… if you haven’t experienced one, there is quite literally nothing like it. The moniker “Great White Hurricane” is exactly accurate! I can’t imagine what these poor people went through without conveniences (requirements?) such as snowblowers or snow plows. The human effort involved in getting the region back to working order must have been staggering.
With winters such as the last two, it is really easy to forget how bad the weather can get at times. Fortunately the weather forecasting has improved, giving those who pay attention some advance warning.
Being over 60 yrs old, I remember going to grade school in the 1960s and riding a very cold school bus everyday to school. Our bus would sometimes get stuck in the snow on the not so well cleared country roads. Our bus driver would ask the junior and senior boys to get out and push while all the rest of us moved to the rear of the bus in order to add as much weight to the rear axle as possible.
My only blizzard experience is living through the Blizzard Of 1982 that struck St. Louis, Missouri. Having been raised in sunny San Diego, California, I wasn't ready!
I have a photo of a blizzard from just two years ago. Not a serious one but you could maybe see 50 feet ahead of you at most. After that everything became an indistinct whiteish gray.
Do you remember the winter of 67 in SD? Was in 2nd grade and it snowed in Fletcher Hills for a bit but did not stick. I dont believe that happened before or since.
And to think, this was the proverbial straw that broke the transit hub's back! Having been born and raised in The Bronx, New York, I've heard old timers tell of their own grandparents recalling the 1888 storm. Essentially, this storm would drive NYC politicians towards creating an underground transit system. The NYC Subway System as we know it today, in part, owes its existence to this very storm!
My Dad's grandmother lived with us when I was very young. She told us about that January 1888 blizzard - she was 11 at the time. They were snowed in without an adequate coal supply, and her father had to go to the small Iowa town of Coalville (it's still there) for more. There was so much snow that it took him two weeks to make the round trip. You can drive from there old farm to Coalville and back in a half an hour today. I know that's not the same blizzard The History Guy is talking about (it's the Children's Blizzard) but it was the same period and shows how isolated they were - only a few miles out of a sizeable town.
8:45 - Part of state lore in Nebraska. Earlier in 1888, the "Schoolhouse Blizzard" hit the upper Midwest. With relatively warm weather, kids went to school normally that day. Temperatures dropped from just above freezing to well below zero, followed by heavy snow and hurricane-force winds. There were 235 fatalities, and many stories of young teachers in one-room schoolhouses struggling to keep the children save as conditions quickly worsened.
I wonder if that wasn't the famous blizzard where the teacher and students broke up their oak school desks in order to keep their stove running, preventing them from freezing to death.
North Idaho here... it's been scary warm this year. 61 degrees for a week in a row now. Almost no snow is going to make this summer really bad for harvests and wildlife.
The record depth held even in Syracuse until 1993. I did not normally listen to or watch weather forecasts and found out that the '93 storm had broken a 100 plus year record while spending 4 days at Kmart (not as a shopper. As the overnight employee.)
I experienced the Blizzard of '77 here in Western NY, and it was no fun. Stores were barren of food, people froze, buried in their cars, and people everywhere took in those stranded on the roads. The ironic part is that there was not that much new snow; rather, it was accumulated snow piled up on a frozen Lake Erie, driven by hurricane-force winds. We have had other ones, but '77 is the one by which they are compared.
Yep. We were @ our hs in genesee county when the blizzard struck on a friday afternoon. Only a pin could be heard on our bus as our bus driver slowly moved through zero visibility conditions. We ended up in a ditch fortunately close enough to walk back to our school building.
I remember the blizzard of wny in 1977. I drove about 8 miles to pick up my sisters in Eden at the kazoo factory where they worked shortly after it began in earnest. On the way back to Angola where we lived, it was snowing and blowing so bad it caused the car to stall in the middle of a busy intersection and somehow managed to get it going again. We made it back to Angola barely and parked the car where it stopped in the parking lot where it stayed for a week. It was surreal,to say the least
Where I live Hurricane Sandy dropped like 2 feet of snow or more on Halloween, it was mostly all melted off by 3 days later. Basically an early fall cold snap collided with a hurricane and made it really cold and snowy for one day and night. Then the weather went back to being average for that time of year.
At 62 I've experienced just about all the bad weather I care to remember from blizzards to hurricanes and tornadoes to drought and wild fires. The one common theme is apparently every generation believes themselves to have lived through the absolute worst possible weather in all of history. After being rescued twice in my lifetime from probably just minutes away from freezing to death, two tornadoes, a hurricane and one close brush with wild fire..You ain't seen nothing yet. Point being is no matter how bad you believe it to be it's going to always be worse at some later date.
66 and you are SO right. Saved from snow while stationed in Germany. COLD for this Texas girl; FEET of snow. Hurricane while in training in MS ... (knocks on wood) no tornadoes yet.
I have a vague memory of being in grade school music class in Pennsylvania in the 1980s and having to sing some folk song about that blizzard. All I can remember, and perhaps not reliably now, was "the blizzard of 88 was something to behold."
I was ten in 1977. I was trapped at school in the Niagara Region Canada during the Blizzard of '77. Boy, do I have a story about my experience. I was possibly the last of the stranded students to make it home. I lived in a remote rural part in some hills. I remember jumping off our two stories house into 15 foot tall snowbank drifts that had piled up against our home. I remember walking out to our bus and not being able to see it in the whiteness until we we're about two feet away from it. I remember when they said we couldn't go home. I remember lots. The entire four days are burned in my memory.
We had it bad in Chicago too but that's a great story! My sister and her friend were jumping off the garage roof into snow drifts her friend's little brother tried it, got hung up on the clothes lines and broke 2 arms. They got in so much trouble with his mom. My mom figured it was stupid of him to do it when nobody was around.
Now the government locks you in your house to protect you from the sniffles The government locks your bank account for your safety. Lmao If anyone seized my private property I will execute them on site.
@@dr.floridaman4805 I'll agree with you about lockdowns. Maybe it's because I grew up in the 1970s, I never got the vaccine. Heck, back in the day, we didn't wear seatbelts, everybody smoked and the air was blue even in hospitals, and we only wore helmets on motorcycles. Now, we need to wrap everyone in bubble wrap and hover over our kids to make sure they're safe. Heck, we were allowed to roam free. I even got lost in the woods once and had to figure out how to save myself. I was seven, but I found my way out of the bush and found help. I don't fear much, and I think it's because I grew up tough.
My great grandfather Isaac Pixley was a fireman on the Lehigh Valley Railroad during this blizzard. They were bringing a freight train into Easton PA when the train derailed over a clift. When rescue workers arrived they found my great grandfather trapped and a steam pipe broke cooking his leg. He asked to be shot because of the pain. Instead they made him drink a full bottle of whiskey, sawed his leg off, stuck it in the fire box to corderize the blood vessels. He lived and went back to work for the Railroad in the office and retired in 1925. You can find this story in the actives of the former Easton Express, now known as The Express Times. I have my great grandfather's Isaac Pixley retirement watch from the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
4:26 Is that a 99 cent store those folks are standing in front of? It would be very interesting to see what was in one 130 years ago. Pretty cool photo.
I'm watching it snow as I listen to this. We've had beautiful warm days, full of sun, blossoming flowers and singing birds. Now the snow is back, at least it's not a blizzard.
Manitoba prairie dweller here. Lemme tell ya... wife spent the night at the neigbours last night after digging her car out of an 8 foot drift. Good thing she got stuck there. Bigger snowdifts down the road. Nother day in Manisnowba.
Even though I’m familiar with the blizzard of 1888 and how it encouraged cities to put their power lines and Communication cables underground along with creating a subway I find you’re telling to still be quite entertaining but that’s what you’re so well-known for.
One of the things my grandmother told me was the story of Minnie Freeman. There had been an earlier storm out in the mid west in January and Minnie roped together her students in the one room school house and walked them through the storm to the closest farm. My grandmother said her mother told her the east coast people made fun of the "hicks" and bragged they would never be so vulnerable. Minnie's story and the reactions would make a great companion piece to this video.
I have read that in Manhattan in 1888, the practice was for people to have just enough food in their homes for a day or two, and they would order deliveries from the grocery store when they needed more food. 'Just in time" shopping. Only the blizzard stopped the deliverymen. So, shortly, no food at home.
in my 70 years i have seen that much snow in michigan at least 3 times. a few years ago one weekend it snowed 60 inches in sault ste marie. when winter starts i make sure i have enough food to last 2 weeks.
Your delivery is outstanding, sir! I wish you were my history teacher back in the day. But I believe most of my classmates would rather have had their lessons in Swedish.
My grandfather was born in 1899 in Trenton NJ. His mother would have been running her saloon on S Broad St. in 1888. I wish I had known to ask Gramps about it before he died in '69. i just learned much more about it that I ever knew. Thank you. Speaking of NJ, I would love to hear an episode on the SS Morro Castle which burned at sea and ran aground in Asbury Park in 1934 on its way from Havana to NYC. I'm sure you could enhance what little I know about it. Not only are you a great historian, you could make a story about watching the grass grow a riveting experience.
Every day at the beginning of classes I give my students the news of the day--select events and famous birthdays. As it would happen, this blizzard was on yesterday's list. This timely video will make its appearance during social studies class next week. Thank you very much.
Better Days. The last good storm was the Blizzard of 78. Great time to be a ten-year-old! I fondly remember digging the mailbox out every time the plow went by! 😹
I was a military brat who had only lived in tropical locations. My family moved back to the Midwest that winter, and my first experience with snow was that blizzard of '78.
The blizzard happened to occur on the evening which George Henry Fait Doggett was permitted to sit in the parlor of the young woman he was courting, Leila Clara Phillips. Whether due to stubborn determination, or inspired by feminine charm, he was not about to let a storm get in his way, no matter how fierce. He marched several miles through the blizzard to accomplish his goal. They were married the next year. In 1892, Leila gave birth to a daughter, Ruth Josephine, who became my Grandmother.
You can tell by the lack of snow on the rooftops that nobody had good insulation in those days. Probably a good thing in this case, or roofs would have been caving in from the weight
And here in Virginia on the 134 anniversary of this storm we are getting a decent snow storm! It was damn near 70* yesterday and today it’s in the 20’s with three inches of snow!
I survived the blizzard of 1977 that rolled right through the Black Hills of SD, burying Spearfish and Rapid City under more than 5 feet of snow... very amusing now that I know that the Journal was so flippant 99 years earlier.
I remember the winter of 1986we didn't have any snow ❄️ but it was bone chilling cold ❄️ and my mom wanted me to get some wood in but I was too cold to get any but my dad was 😡 mad at me and I told him I was too cold 🥶 I think he got some in,he expected me to do it but I was frozen and could hardly move
Some where in the family papers is a news clipping of people walking under the Brooklyn bridge, because a ice flow cam down the Hudson and got pushed back up.
From DC area. Historically has had some tragic blizzard related history like the knickerbocker theatre collapse and Air Florida crash in the icy Potomac. Blizzards usually noreasters can wreak havoc when the time is ripe. They're has been many blizzards in DC prior to and after 1888. Many worse.
The climate always need to balance out in a given region or there would be huge year to year variations which don't typically exist. For instance, an unusually warm early winter will be averaged out by brutal cold snaps later on.
Growing up in Philadelphia I am familiar with snow storms, now living in Wyoming, they talk of the blizzard of 1949, crippled Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Seeing pictures of it, it amazes me that there were not more casualties.
Having grown up in Michigan, I undrstand completely how those folk felt, as there were at least three separate times in the ten years I lived there that we were covered in snow - the entire city of Grand Rapids was under several feet of snow and the front of our house (the neighborhood) was completely burried and the only way out of the house was through the back door. Took a week of shoveling to free the house from its grip. Think that may have been around '65/'66. I do not miss the snow and now live in my piece of sunny heaven called Monterey Bay, California.
My great Grandmother was 12 during the blizzard of 1888. She lived in Newburgh NY at the time. She was 100 yrs old when she told us about this blizzard.
Read about this in Yankee Magazine back in the ‘80s. Made me cold just reading about it. My older stepbrother got married in Aurora, IL on the weekend of the great Chicago Snow of 1967. My younger stepbrother and I had a fantastic weekend.
What a great accompaniment to today's annoying late storm. My grandmother used to tell me stories about this storm. She wasn't yet born but it so traumatized my great grandmother that any winter storm scared her and she told my grandmother all about it. They were in Hartford Connecticut. It's what triggered my interest in meteorology.
And it's been 50s the last two days in southern NH after snow the day prior. And what's coming tomorrow? Snow. I remember huge drifts nearly 70 years ago growing up in Westchester County. What surprises me is that I've found no mention in all the letters dating back to that time from my relatives past who lived in Brooklyn and on Long Island.
Oh, great, Lance. And the Northeast is scheduled for "Rain in the morning, then snow or rain in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1-inch. Windy, cooler with highs in the upper 40s. Gusts up to 40 mph in the afternoon." - Wilmington, DE area. Hopefully your episode today is not the equivalent of Walt Whitman's 1888 poem!
I live in a Buffalo, NY suburb but had worked in Lockport, NY, just a bit north. Well in 1977, I was stuck in Lockport for 4 days, because the drifts made the viaducts leading out, back home impassable. The first night we partied all night at a bar, and the last 3 days in a motel. I was sure glad I dated a lady I worked with, it actually turned out to be quite the event to remember. The good 'Ol Blizzard of '77.
Thanks for mentioning New Haven, my birthplace. Many famous things in this city. The world's first telephone exchange, phone book, and switchboard were in New Haven. Eli Whitney manufactured muskets for the Continental Army here with interchangeable parts. Take a look into the history of the proud home of Yale.
I wish you had been my history teacher in school? History Guy makes what had been presented as extremely boring back in the day...with his interesting subjects and presentation. Thank you, History Guy! You rock!
Late Jan - late Feb 2015 was bad in the Boston area. We received 90 inches of snow. Resulted in scenes somewhat similar to those in this video. Barely had anyplace left to put the snow the last couple of snowfalls. Was able to walk up onto my roof because of a snow drift at back of house which was convenient for me so I could shovel snow off the roof because of ice damns forming and because quite a few roofs were collapsing.
Wasn't that the winter when it just kept on snowing and snowing and snowing and I was glad I was in Florida? But I do remember the blizzard of 78. And April of '82 which I guess we got a little bit more warning for. At least we weren't home for an entire week. Then again in 78 I was not yet employed but already graduated. I was walking home from babysitting and the snow was stinging my face. Thankfully it wasn't a really long walk. And then I just went in the house and stayed there. At least the power didn't go out (like in 1965 when there wasn't any storm at all). We saw on TV, houses on the coast that were broken in half and washed out to sea And there I was, 18 years old and determined I would never live near the ocean! (Okay so I didn't realize when I was in Salem that I was 1 mi from the ocean. Now I'm in Florida and I'm 5 mi from the ocean. I'm not a beach girl... When it becomes warm I want to be warm!)
1:20 cool map, i can date that map because Lynchburg Virginia is on there. Lynchburg is still a notable sized city but was very much over shadowed by the interstate system showing preference to other cities. Modern maps of Va will often leave out Lynchburg as a major Virginia city. Although, Lynchburg has grown alot in the past 25 years due to the biggest Christian college being home there, Liberty University.
Walt Whitman worked as an orderly in a Union field hospital. I'm sure everyone knew that but I believe that experience alone made him into the celebrated Poet he is.
Really interesting video THG; actually, this reminded me of a book ("November's Fury" by Michael Schumacher) I read quite a while back about the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, which also was known as the "White Hurricane," that devastated the US Midwest and Southwestern Ontario during November of that year.
@@kfl611 I've heard of the Great Ice Storm of 1998 and the 2013 storm complex, but was there a more recent one? I know 2021 was rough winter for parts of the US Midwest and Canada too.
Thank you for another excellent bit of history. You mentioned this blizzard helping spur underground utilities and subway development. Have you done a video on the history of Boston's subways? The original Forest Hills Station was a gorgeous affair. Boston had good reasons for tearing it down thanks to modernization and expansion work, but it was still sad watching it go. It deserves to be remembered.
I lived through the 1978-79 blizzard. Lived in Orient Ohio. Snow was deeper than our two horse trailer. Couldn’t even see the top of it. Snow was over 20’ feet deep and at times was over 30’ - 40’ feet deep! Wow it was super cold and windy. Id say it felt like Alaska so no need to visit Alaska. Been there!
Looking at the comments I too have oddly fond memories of the blizzard of '78 which shut down Boston and brought us Governor Dukakis on TV dressed in a sweater. Me, I somehow made it a house with friends, two of whom were standup comics. One had recently appeared on Carson but would later succumb to alcohol. His girlfriend was gorgeous but a pathological liar - a talented one! Under those circumstances I advised my friends to simply listen to her tales as the truth of them was utterly irrelevant 🤣 NOT the experience of 1888 certainly.
Blizzard of 1993 in March was very intense. I was in Utica NY got 3 feet on top of what was in the ground all winter. White out. All traffic seized, no movement.
Robert H. Masterton mentioned @ 4:29 was a descendant of Alexander Masterton who started the Tuckahoe white marble quarry around 1820. Tuckahoe marble is high quality white marble used for construction of many famous buildings - NYC Federal Hall, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Washington Memorial Arch, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Tweed Courthouse as well as the Washington Monument and the old General Post Office in D.C. Several homes in the immediate area of the quarries still stand today built with Tuckahoe marble. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckahoe_marble BTW - there's a Masterton Road in Bronxville, NY
One of the deadliest blizzards in America with the quickest temperatures drops ever, along with the Armistice Day Blizzard that struck the Midwest 52 years later in November 1940.
This video is really appropriate now. I live at 4800 feet in the Blue Ridge in NC and our spring bulbs were already blooming in February. Even our irises. And we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow 12 Mar. 🥺 Six inches of partly cloudy?
There was a blizzard in Nebraska as well that year -- The blizzard of January 12, 1888, which became known as the “Children's Blizzard” because so many children died trying to go home from school, was one of the deadliest winter storms in the upper Midwest.
Yes but the death toll was lower for that one. About 250 people died mostly schoolchildren and teachers. It started out over freezing but dropped to 40 below and people were taken off guard.
Speaking of blizards, I'd like to hear you tell the story of Hazel Miner, the Angel of the Prairie. Being a South Dakota boy, you're surely aware of her.
I am reminded of a Mark Twain quote, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." It was true then and it is true now. We may think we can control the weather but nature just laughs at us.
@@glenchapman3899 ??? I have lived in one tornado alley; not entirely sure your meaning. I was referring to those who presume to manipulate weather, via microwaves and such technology. 🥀
Please consider doing an episode on the explosions onboard the Destroyer Escort Solar (DE 221) in Leonardo, NJ in 1946. There are many interesting details: the sailor who may have caused the first explosion was not hurt, the ship's dog turned up after the last explosion, and one of the officers was reported to have been "partially scalped," which may have been the first time the word "scalped' was used to describe ta serviceman's wound since the Indian Wars. One of the explosions rattled windows 30 miles away, and a lot of the munitions that were being unloaded from the ship were still sitting on the dock while large pieces of metal flew by. If nothing else, it is an interesting story.
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I knew a lady born in 1873, she went to my church, she said it covered the second story windows on one side. This was in Virginia. She passed away in 1975.
My great-grandmother was 12 and working in a factory at the time of the storm of '88. She was a small woman, so she must have been especially demure then. When done with work she tried to walk home. The snow was so deep it began to build up on her long overcoat, weighing her down to the point she felt she could not go on. She stepped into a doorway where the clumps of snow clinging to her coat bumped up against the door. Just at that time, someone living there was passing the door and opened it to find out what the sound was. They brought her inside, and the family took care of her until the storm passed. I never heard the name of the family, but I am sure grateful for their random act of kindness so long ago.
Great story!
Man of house to his wife: "Hey honey. Look what I found. Finders Keepers. 😉"
@@beadyeye2312 you also have to consider the fact that being charitable is becoming more difficult for people who’s wages haven’t adjusted for the last 30 years or inflation. Lots of people who have the heart to help dont always have the means
How old are you? Impossible that the great grandmother of a person living today was 12 in 1888. Sorry.
@@jrgenfarestvedt560 I am an old man, and yes, it is very possible. Here is a mind-bending fact: My great grandfather, the eventual husband of the girl, knew his grandfather who lived under Napolean. Now I tell stories I heard second hand from my great grandfather to my great grandson about his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather and my great grandson could live well into the 22nd century and tell his great grandchildren the same stories. The benefit of coming from a family with longevity. Take care of yourself, pass on heritage to future generations. That is the way roots grow deep.
PS. That same great grandfather was born before there was a Germany.
My great grandfather, homesteading in northeastern what would become South Dakota, left his pregnant wife to take care of the farm animals during the blizzard there. He got lost and was never seen alive again. His body was found about 10 miles.from the farm in a farm shed in March 1889. His son, my grandfather, was born a few days after he disappeared.
Gosh, that's incredible! Phew, I don't know how they done it back then. Tks for sharing 😊
Thank you for sharing that story. It is hard for us today with flashlights, snowplows, 4WD tractors and electric lights to imagine how bad it can get without these modern assets. I did some business with a farmer who told me about a couple on his farm in the 1890's. The wife left the barn in a storm to make dinner. The house was about 100' from the barn. When the husband got in from the barn she was not there. He tried to find her to no avail. She was found a few days later with her arms around a tree, frozen to death in the orchard.
@@rnedlo9909wow. What a story. And there must be thousands of stories similar from families much like yours. More Americans today would benefit from hearing these tales. Thank you, and thank everyome sharing similar tales. We all are better off from hearing how our recent ancestors lived and persevered.
It's so heartbreaking.
New Englanders love to talk about the weather, and when I was growing up in Connecticut in the 1950s and 60s, the "Blizzard of '88" was the stuff of legends. Every year the New Milford (Connecticut) Times would run an article and photo spread commemorating that historic event ... an annual publication that would remind us all of just how bad a winter storm could be.
Of course, if you don't like the weather in Conn., "just wait a minute".
It's just too bad that corruption in Connecticut really has made it a very unpleasant place to live. Home of JP Morgan, who profited $90Million buying US bonds "to get the US out of debt" WTF. And he and Bruce Ismay sank the Titanic.
Same thing across the border in New York. We both grew up during the same period. 👍😎
@@terracottaneemtree6697 Mark Twain loved it. But no one is forced to live there..."free country".
It's true lol. Always a good go to for rural folk. Plenty to talk about year round. Now in western Massachusetts we're getting more tornados and ice storms and six mud seasons on my dirt road 😂
My favorite humorous snow day sign was on a box filled with snow that read "Free Snowman (some assembly required)".
Love it!
I remember the blizzard of 1978. My friends and I were sitting oblivious to the weather in a pub, only to come out to completely buried cars parked on the street. We decided to dig out the one most likely to get us home safely, a trusty rear engine Volkswagen Bug. It was touch and go, but that bug got us to the friends house that was closest. We all stayed there and had the dubious pleasure of digging the other cars out the next day, plow buried and frozen over. Ahhh, the good old days…
@ stuart riefe I remember it well. I was living in Darien, Connecticut then and so much snow fell that when it stopped the snow was almost level with the soffit.
Multiple cars and the best option for driving in deep snow was a VW Bug? Now I gotta know what the other cars were! 🤣
@Adam Loverin I still had my very first car, a rear wheel drive 1968 Pontiac LeMans. No good in snow. I think there was also
a compact Toyota as well. There were four of us in total and a couple may have come in one car. Don’t underestimate the traction of a
rear engine VW bug, especially with four people in it. I have a friend who converted one into a “dune buggy,” and that thing could
go almost anywhere!
@@adamloverin231 As a teen in the 1980's I had a 1972 Super Beetle, and that thing would go through snow better than most four-wheel drives. Having the engine right over the rear driving wheels, and narrow tires that put the weight on a small surface area, combined to give it excellent traction in snow. Plus, the air-cooled engine had no radiator water to freeze, and the batteries were under the rear seat, rather than exposed to the cold of the engine bay. If you did get stuck, it was easy to push the light car out of a drift. On the downside, the window defroster didn't work, and there was no heat to speak of. Most Bug drivers have fond memories of using an ice scraper on the INSIDE of the windshield while driving in the cold.
I recall that blizzard, it was the one and only time school was closed early during my time in school for the weather. I didn't make it, the bus stopped a little less than a mile from my home because the road was no longer passable. A neighbor took me back to his home for the time being, until my mother was able to come and pick me up. IIRC, my father was unable to come home from work until the next day.
The March 4 '66 blizzard in Winnipeg was my first. I was horrified by my Dad's request to head out on a life or death errand to the pharmacy for, wait for it, a pack of smokes! Made it there and back, a whole 500 yards total and barely survived ( by my reckoning, the story gets more and more harrowing the older I get) the adventure.
At least you were allowed out the house. Lol
Kids today not so much.
Born in 70, wasn't even allowed in the house if it was nice out.
We had a blizzard in Baltimore in February 1966 that immobilized the city for several days. As a result, my high school cancelled its mid-year exams, which saved me from failing chemistry class. Every cloud has a silver lining!
Would make for a good ad. "Marlboro, a cigarette that tastes so good you'll sacrifice your children."
I lived through the Blizzard of 66 as well. No one has to exaggerate about how bad it was. It was just plain ugly without adding to it. I saw 12' drifts and places where whole buildings were covered.
It led you to your rank by toughening up a young lad.
Thank you for your service to Canada.
As a Texan allow me to also thank you for Canada's greatest export, RUSH.
My grandfather, a teller of great yarns told of his exploits during the Great Blizzard of 88’. After his death it was realized that he was but six months old during that event…great stories though.
I have heard of another great snowstorm in 1901 that he would have experienced. Truth was still not one of his strong points. He lied about his age so much that he missed out on three years of Social Security benefits. By the time I came along the wind had pretty much gone out of his sails. Although gone for over sixty years now his tales and indiscretions can still bring a smile or guffaw to those who knew him.
My grandfather told me he rode with Teddy Roosevelt. I had to have no more than 8 years old at the time. It wasn't til just a few years ago - I found out NOPE. But I liked his telling of it. lol
Old Mr. Adams, our next door neighbor, called me and his grandson onto his front porch where he opened what looked like a book. Inside was a photograph (tintype?) of a very young and handsome Mr. Adams sitting ramrod straight on the back of the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. A campaign hat held in place by a chinstrap...oh, he looked grand. I was far to young to know what a Roughrider was or to ask questions but both he and his horse are seared into my memory.
Oh, but he heard a great number of stories too.
I'm sure that his stories were indeed great even though they were embellished.
We had another few inches of snow here in Chicago heights Illinois last night and today, And as it sometimes happens everyone drove like they had never been in it before.
It's funnier when Texans do it because your last sentence is true for a lot of them.
My great grandmother was 11 years old and remembered it well. She said it was something to see in her writings. She said they had no school for 17 days.
When I was growing up, old people would often talk about it.
The grandmother of one of our college professors and Whitman were great friends. Lilacs bloomed in her dooryard and there they would sip tea together.
Oh, that's lovely! What a picture it formed in my mind...❤
The greatest blizzard that I recall was the St. Patrick's Day blizzard of 1965 that dumped over 20 inches of snow, accompanied by heavy winds, across southern Minnesota (and probably neighboring states as well). The storm occurred on a Wednesday and school did not reopen until the following Tuesday. Fifteen foot snow drifts were not uncommon. With over 50 inches of snow in March alone, there was record setting flooding on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers that spring.
Born, raised and living in North Dakota I can tell many stories about blizzards… if you haven’t experienced one, there is quite literally nothing like it. The moniker “Great White Hurricane” is exactly accurate! I can’t imagine what these poor people went through without conveniences (requirements?) such as snowblowers or snow plows. The human effort involved in getting the region back to working order must have been staggering.
I get a ton of snow where i live but blizzards are super rare here
With winters such as the last two, it is really easy to forget how bad the weather can get at times. Fortunately the weather forecasting has improved, giving those who pay attention some advance warning.
Being over 60 yrs old, I remember going to grade school in the 1960s and riding a very cold school bus everyday to school. Our bus would sometimes get stuck in the snow on the not so well cleared country roads. Our bus driver would ask the junior and senior boys to get out and push while all the rest of us moved to the rear of the bus in order to add as much weight to the rear axle as possible.
Read Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter
My dad though not living always spoke of this. The story passed down generations
Nebraska native and poet Willa Cather wrote a poem about the 1888 blizzard when it came through the MidWest.
My only blizzard experience is living through the Blizzard Of 1982 that struck St. Louis, Missouri. Having been raised in sunny San Diego, California, I wasn't ready!
I was in grade school just outside of STL that year!! I remember that we carved out igloos from the snow, it was so high!
I have a photo of a blizzard from just two years ago. Not a serious one but you could maybe see 50 feet ahead of you at most. After that everything became an indistinct whiteish gray.
Do you remember the winter of 67 in SD? Was in 2nd grade and it snowed in Fletcher Hills for a bit but did not stick. I dont believe that happened before or since.
And to think, this was the proverbial straw that broke the transit hub's back! Having been born and raised in The Bronx, New York, I've heard old timers tell of their own grandparents recalling the 1888 storm. Essentially, this storm would drive NYC politicians towards creating an underground transit system. The NYC Subway System as we know it today, in part, owes its existence to this very storm!
My Dad's grandmother lived with us when I was very young. She told us about that January 1888 blizzard - she was 11 at the time. They were snowed in without an adequate coal supply, and her father had to go to the small Iowa town of Coalville (it's still there) for more. There was so much snow that it took him two weeks to make the round trip. You can drive from there old farm to Coalville and back in a half an hour today. I know that's not the same blizzard The History Guy is talking about (it's the Children's Blizzard) but it was the same period and shows how isolated they were - only a few miles out of a sizeable town.
Great Documentary!!! Thanks for sharing.
8:45 - Part of state lore in Nebraska. Earlier in 1888, the "Schoolhouse Blizzard" hit the upper Midwest. With relatively warm weather, kids went to school normally that day. Temperatures dropped from just above freezing to well below zero, followed by heavy snow and hurricane-force winds. There were 235 fatalities, and many stories of young teachers in one-room schoolhouses struggling to keep the children save as conditions quickly worsened.
Hello from Omaha. The weather changes very quickly here and the winds can be very strong. At least we have better forecasting.
I wonder if that wasn't the famous blizzard where the teacher and students broke up their oak school desks in order to keep their stove running, preventing them from freezing to death.
@@wes326 Blair here...
That's well detailed in David Laskin's *The Children's Blizzard*
North Idaho here... it's been scary warm this year. 61 degrees for a week in a row now.
Almost no snow is going to make this summer really bad for harvests and wildlife.
:-(
Vermont didn't have Winter either.
The record depth held even in Syracuse until 1993. I did not normally listen to or watch weather forecasts and found out that the '93 storm had broken a 100 plus year record while spending 4 days at Kmart (not as a shopper. As the overnight employee.)
I experienced the Blizzard of '77 here in Western NY, and it was no fun. Stores were barren of food, people froze, buried in their cars, and people everywhere took in those stranded on the roads. The ironic part is that there was not that much new snow; rather, it was accumulated snow piled up on a frozen Lake Erie, driven by hurricane-force winds. We have had other ones, but '77 is the one by which they are compared.
I remember that winter. I was in college in central PA where we had snow but not as much as western NY.
Yep. We were @ our hs in genesee county when the blizzard struck on a friday afternoon. Only a pin could be heard on our bus as our bus driver slowly moved through zero visibility conditions. We ended up in a ditch fortunately close enough to walk back to our school building.
I remember the blizzard of wny in 1977. I drove about 8 miles to pick up my sisters in Eden at the kazoo factory where they worked shortly after it began in earnest. On the way back to Angola where we lived, it was snowing and blowing so bad it caused the car to stall in the middle of a busy intersection and somehow managed to get it going again. We made it back to Angola barely and parked the car where it stopped in the parking lot where it stayed for a week. It was surreal,to say the least
Where I live Hurricane Sandy dropped like 2 feet of snow or more on Halloween, it was mostly all melted off by 3 days later. Basically an early fall cold snap collided with a hurricane and made it really cold and snowy for one day and night. Then the weather went back to being average for that time of year.
I remember that storm in Southern Vermont. It tore our trees to pieces because there were still full green leaves on them.
At 62 I've experienced just about all the bad weather I care to remember from blizzards to hurricanes and tornadoes to drought and wild fires. The one common theme is apparently every generation believes themselves to have lived through the absolute worst possible weather in all of history.
After being rescued twice in my lifetime from probably just minutes away from freezing to death, two tornadoes, a hurricane and one close brush with wild fire..You ain't seen nothing yet. Point being is no matter how bad you believe it to be it's going to always be worse at some later date.
66 and you are SO right. Saved from snow while stationed in Germany. COLD for this Texas girl; FEET of snow. Hurricane while in training in MS ... (knocks on wood) no tornadoes yet.
The nice thing about blizzards is if you're in a good place like home you don't have to evacuate ☺
I guess the blizzard of '77 could be categorized as a hurricane considering the blowing and drifting snow.
OK Boomer
Sounds very similar to the blizzard of 1977 in New York state. It left some houses with only their chimneys sticking out of the snow.
Because of that storm, the word "blizzard" is rarely used in Buffalo weather reports. When they do, you know it's serious.
For real holy shit
I have a vague memory of being in grade school music class in Pennsylvania in the 1980s and having to sing some folk song about that blizzard. All I can remember, and perhaps not reliably now, was "the blizzard of 88 was something to behold."
Where I live it I 64 degrees Fahrenheit today, tomorrow's forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow. March weather is crazy.
What an amazing visual of the mass of utility lines in NY with snow on them, scary stuff
I was ten in 1977. I was trapped at school in the Niagara Region Canada during the Blizzard of '77. Boy, do I have a story about my experience. I was possibly the last of the stranded students to make it home. I lived in a remote rural part in some hills. I remember jumping off our two stories house into 15 foot tall snowbank drifts that had piled up against our home. I remember walking out to our bus and not being able to see it in the whiteness until we we're about two feet away from it. I remember when they said we couldn't go home. I remember lots. The entire four days are burned in my memory.
We had it bad in Chicago too but that's a great story!
My sister and her friend were jumping off the garage roof into snow drifts her friend's little brother tried it, got hung up on the clothes lines and broke 2 arms. They got in so much trouble with his mom. My mom figured it was stupid of him to do it when nobody was around.
Now the government locks you in your house to protect you from the sniffles
The government locks your bank account for your safety.
Lmao
If anyone seized my private property I will execute them on site.
@@dr.floridaman4805 I'll agree with you about lockdowns. Maybe it's because I grew up in the 1970s, I never got the vaccine. Heck, back in the day, we didn't wear seatbelts, everybody smoked and the air was blue even in hospitals, and we only wore helmets on motorcycles. Now, we need to wrap everyone in bubble wrap and hover over our kids to make sure they're safe. Heck, we were allowed to roam free. I even got lost in the woods once and had to figure out how to save myself. I was seven, but I found my way out of the bush and found help. I don't fear much, and I think it's because I grew up tough.
@@dr.floridaman4805 nobody was talking about that mr bot
A great tale of Whoa. Thanks, History Guy
My great grandfather Isaac Pixley was a fireman on the Lehigh Valley Railroad during this blizzard. They were bringing a freight train into Easton PA when the train derailed over a clift. When rescue workers arrived they found my great grandfather trapped and a steam pipe broke cooking his leg. He asked to be shot because of the pain. Instead they made him drink a full bottle of whiskey, sawed his leg off, stuck it in the fire box to corderize the blood vessels. He lived and went back to work for the Railroad in the office and retired in 1925. You can find this story in the actives of the former Easton Express, now known as The Express Times. I have my great grandfather's Isaac Pixley retirement watch from the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
I was stuck at my fraternity house in the winter of 78….for days we were stuck eating popcorn and drinking beer…..it was a harrowing time
My mom always told my sister and I about the great blizzard of 1888.Her mom lived through it.
4:26 Is that a 99 cent store those folks are standing in front of? It would be very interesting to see what was in one 130 years ago. Pretty cool photo.
I'm watching it snow as I listen to this. We've had beautiful warm days, full of sun, blossoming flowers and singing birds. Now the snow is back, at least it's not a blizzard.
I heard two mask protects against the cold.-CDC
Manitoba prairie dweller here. Lemme tell ya... wife spent the night at the neigbours last night after digging her car out of an 8 foot drift. Good thing she got stuck there. Bigger snowdifts down the road. Nother day in Manisnowba.
A chilling topic.
It leaves me cold. 🥶
Even though I’m familiar with the blizzard of 1888 and how it encouraged cities to put their power lines and Communication cables underground along with creating a subway I find you’re telling to still be quite entertaining but that’s what you’re so well-known for.
One of the things my grandmother told me was the story of Minnie Freeman. There had been an earlier storm out in the mid west in January and Minnie roped together her students in the one room school house and walked them through the storm to the closest farm. My grandmother said her mother told her the east coast people made fun of the "hicks" and bragged they would never be so vulnerable. Minnie's story and the reactions would make a great companion piece to this video.
Gives added perspective on how to handle things today. Adapt, Adjust, Overcome.
Interesting timing. Tempertures are supposed to plunge this weekend in Washington DC. Saturday is supposed to bring rain, storms, wind, and snow.
I have read that in Manhattan in 1888, the practice was for people to have just enough food in their homes for a day or two, and they would order deliveries from the grocery store when they needed more food. 'Just in time" shopping. Only the blizzard stopped the deliverymen. So, shortly, no food at home.
David Lasken wrote “The Children’s Blizzard” about this event.
A great book.
March is a weird weather month. It could be 50 degrees one day and then 10 degrees the next.
March....take your mother in law ice fishing month. 🤣
in my 70 years i have seen that much snow in michigan at least 3 times. a few years ago one weekend it snowed 60 inches in sault ste marie. when winter starts i make sure i have enough food to last 2 weeks.
Your delivery is outstanding, sir! I wish you were my history teacher back in the day. But I believe most of my classmates would rather have had their lessons in Swedish.
My grandfather was born in 1899 in Trenton NJ. His mother would have been running her saloon on S Broad St. in 1888. I wish I had known to ask Gramps about it before he died in '69. i just learned much more about it that I ever knew. Thank you. Speaking of NJ, I would love to hear an episode on the SS Morro Castle which burned at sea and ran aground in Asbury Park in 1934 on its way from Havana to NYC. I'm sure you could enhance what little I know about it. Not only are you a great historian, you could make a story about watching the grass grow a riveting experience.
Every day at the beginning of classes I give my students the news of the day--select events and famous birthdays. As it would happen, this blizzard was on yesterday's list. This timely video will make its appearance during social studies class next week. Thank you very much.
Better Days. The last good storm was the Blizzard of 78. Great time to be a ten-year-old! I fondly remember digging the mailbox out every time the plow went by! 😹
1878 or 1978?
@@HattieMcDanielonaMoon well my beard is mostly white, there's still a little pepper left, so 1978😸
I was a military brat who had only lived in tropical locations. My family moved back to the Midwest that winter, and my first experience with snow was that blizzard of '78.
The blizzard happened to occur on the evening which George Henry Fait Doggett was permitted to sit in the parlor of the young woman he was courting, Leila Clara Phillips. Whether due to stubborn determination, or inspired by feminine charm, he was not about to let a storm get in his way, no matter how fierce. He marched several miles through the blizzard to accomplish his goal.
They were married the next year. In 1892, Leila gave birth to a daughter, Ruth Josephine, who became my Grandmother.
George Henry Tait Doggett (durn spell check!)
You can tell by the lack of snow on the rooftops that nobody had good insulation in those days. Probably a good thing in this case, or roofs would have been caving in from the weight
And here in Virginia on the 134 anniversary of this storm we are getting a decent snow storm!
It was damn near 70* yesterday and today it’s in the 20’s with three inches of snow!
I survived the blizzard of 1977 that rolled right through the Black Hills of SD, burying Spearfish and Rapid City under more than 5 feet of snow... very amusing now that I know that the Journal was so flippant 99 years earlier.
The blizzrd of 1977 was the last straw for us. In 1978 we were living in Clearwater, FL.
I remember the winter of 1986we didn't have any snow ❄️ but it was bone chilling cold ❄️ and my mom wanted me to get some wood in but I was too cold to get any but my dad was 😡 mad at me and I told him I was too cold 🥶 I think he got some in,he expected me to do it but I was frozen and could hardly move
Some where in the family papers is a news clipping of people walking under the Brooklyn bridge, because a ice flow cam down the Hudson and got pushed back up.
From DC area. Historically has had some tragic blizzard related history like the knickerbocker theatre collapse and Air Florida crash in the icy Potomac. Blizzards usually noreasters can wreak havoc when the time is ripe. They're has been many blizzards in DC prior to and after 1888. Many worse.
The climate always need to balance out in a given region or there would be huge year to year variations which don't typically exist. For instance, an unusually warm early winter will be averaged out by brutal cold snaps later on.
Growing up in Philadelphia I am familiar with snow storms, now living in Wyoming, they talk of the blizzard of 1949, crippled Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Seeing pictures of it, it amazes me that there were not more casualties.
LOVE reminders from you and your pics are ALWAYS the most fantastic!!!
Having grown up in Michigan, I undrstand completely how those folk felt, as there were at least three separate times in the ten years I lived there that we were covered in snow - the entire city of Grand Rapids was under several feet of snow and the front of our house (the neighborhood) was completely burried and the only way out of the house was through the back door. Took a week of shoveling to free the house from its grip. Think that may have been around '65/'66. I do not miss the snow and now live in my piece of sunny heaven called Monterey Bay, California.
I think it's dreadful charging people a fee to be saved.
My great Grandmother was 12 during the blizzard of 1888. She lived in Newburgh NY at the time. She was 100 yrs old when she told us about this blizzard.
Read about this in Yankee Magazine back in the ‘80s. Made me cold just reading about it.
My older stepbrother got married in Aurora, IL on the weekend of the great Chicago Snow of 1967. My younger stepbrother and I had a fantastic weekend.
What a great accompaniment to today's annoying late storm. My grandmother used to tell me stories about this storm. She wasn't yet born but it so traumatized my great grandmother that any winter storm scared her and she told my grandmother all about it. They were in Hartford Connecticut. It's what triggered my interest in meteorology.
And it's been 50s the last two days in southern NH after snow the day prior. And what's coming tomorrow? Snow. I remember huge drifts nearly 70 years ago growing up in Westchester County. What surprises me is that I've found no mention in all the letters dating back to that time from my relatives past who lived in Brooklyn and on Long Island.
Best show on TH-cam! Hands down! Thanks for another amazing video!
Oh, great, Lance. And the Northeast is scheduled for "Rain in the morning, then snow or rain in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1-inch. Windy, cooler with highs in the upper 40s. Gusts up to 40 mph in the afternoon." - Wilmington, DE area.
Hopefully your episode today is not the equivalent of Walt Whitman's 1888 poem!
This could happen today!!
Woah, a storm covering NY State, NJ, up to Maine, Philly and out to Ohio and down south past Washington DC...that's one hell of a storm!
4:50 It's like the Day After Tomorrow. Great movie.
I live in a Buffalo, NY suburb but had worked in Lockport, NY, just a bit north. Well in 1977, I was stuck in Lockport for 4 days, because the drifts made the viaducts leading out, back home impassable. The first night we partied all night at a bar, and the last 3 days in a motel.
I was sure glad I dated a lady I worked with, it actually turned out to be quite the event to remember. The good 'Ol Blizzard of '77.
Thank you for your work, I love the modern historian.
Thanks for mentioning New Haven, my birthplace. Many famous things in this city. The world's first telephone exchange, phone book, and switchboard were in New Haven. Eli Whitney manufactured muskets for the Continental Army here with interchangeable parts. Take a look into the history of the proud home of Yale.
Went thru a number of blizzards in New England in the late 60's early 70's. An experience I still remember.
I wish you had been my history teacher in school? History Guy makes what had been presented as extremely boring back in the day...with his interesting subjects and presentation. Thank you, History Guy! You rock!
Late Jan - late Feb 2015 was bad in the Boston area. We received 90 inches of snow. Resulted in scenes somewhat similar to those in this video. Barely had anyplace left to put the snow the last couple of snowfalls. Was able to walk up onto my roof because of a snow drift at back of house which was convenient for me so I could shovel snow off the roof because of ice damns forming and because quite a few roofs were collapsing.
Wasn't that the winter when it just kept on snowing and snowing and snowing and I was glad I was in Florida? But I do remember the blizzard of 78. And April of '82 which I guess we got a little bit more warning for. At least we weren't home for an entire week. Then again in 78 I was not yet employed but already graduated. I was walking home from babysitting and the snow was stinging my face. Thankfully it wasn't a really long walk. And then I just went in the house and stayed there.
At least the power didn't go out (like in 1965 when there wasn't any storm at all). We saw on TV, houses on the coast that were broken in half and washed out to sea And there I was, 18 years old and determined I would never live near the ocean! (Okay so I didn't realize when I was in Salem that I was 1 mi from the ocean. Now I'm in Florida and I'm 5 mi from the ocean. I'm not a beach girl... When it becomes warm I want to be warm!)
1:20 cool map, i can date that map because Lynchburg Virginia is on there. Lynchburg is still a notable sized city but was very much over shadowed by the interstate system showing preference to other cities. Modern maps of Va will often leave out Lynchburg as a major Virginia city. Although, Lynchburg has grown alot in the past 25 years due to the biggest Christian college being home there, Liberty University.
Liberty University is "christian"?
Walt Whitman worked as an orderly in a Union field hospital. I'm sure everyone knew that but I believe that experience alone made him into the celebrated Poet he is.
Shock weather always seems to catch people by surprise.
I suppose it never hurts to be prepared, because you never know what could happen.
Really interesting video THG; actually, this reminded me of a book ("November's Fury" by Michael Schumacher) I read quite a while back about the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, which also was known as the "White Hurricane," that devastated the US Midwest and Southwestern Ontario during November of that year.
What about the great ice storm in Canada a few years ago?
@@kfl611 I've heard of the Great Ice Storm of 1998 and the 2013 storm complex, but was there a more recent one?
I know 2021 was rough winter for parts of the US Midwest and Canada too.
Thank you for another excellent bit of history. You mentioned this blizzard helping spur underground utilities and subway development. Have you done a video on the history of Boston's subways? The original Forest Hills Station was a gorgeous affair. Boston had good reasons for tearing it down thanks to modernization and expansion work, but it was still sad watching it go. It deserves to be remembered.
I lived through the 1978-79 blizzard. Lived in Orient Ohio. Snow was deeper than our two horse trailer. Couldn’t even see the top of it. Snow was over 20’ feet deep and at times was over 30’ - 40’ feet deep! Wow it was super cold and windy. Id say it felt like Alaska so no need to visit Alaska. Been there!
Looking at the comments I too have oddly fond memories of the blizzard of '78 which shut down Boston and brought us Governor Dukakis on TV dressed in a sweater. Me, I somehow made it a house with friends, two of whom were standup comics. One had recently appeared on Carson but would later succumb to alcohol. His girlfriend was gorgeous but a pathological liar - a talented one! Under those circumstances I advised my friends to simply listen to her tales as the truth of them was utterly irrelevant 🤣 NOT the experience of 1888 certainly.
I lived in Maryland and we missed school for a week. That blizzard was something!
Blizzard of 1993 in March was very intense. I was in Utica NY got 3 feet on top of what was in the ground all winter. White out. All traffic seized, no movement.
Excellent story...the History Guy never fails!
That blizzard sounds like the one that caused Santa Claus 🎅 to cancel Christmas 🎄. The Year Without a Santa Claus 🎅 🤶
So what you're saying is that weather forecasters have never had to be accurate. Amazing story. Thanks for sharing this piece of history.
Robert H. Masterton mentioned @ 4:29 was a descendant of Alexander Masterton who started the Tuckahoe white marble quarry around 1820.
Tuckahoe marble is high quality white marble used for construction of many famous buildings - NYC Federal Hall, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Washington Memorial Arch, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Tweed Courthouse as well as the Washington Monument and the old General Post Office in D.C. Several homes in the immediate area
of the quarries still stand today built with Tuckahoe marble.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckahoe_marble
BTW - there's a Masterton Road in Bronxville, NY
Well I'm getting ready and stocking up on flannels and fleeces for the next one.
KING OF TH-cam!
One of the deadliest blizzards in America with the quickest temperatures drops ever, along with the Armistice Day Blizzard that struck the Midwest 52 years later in November 1940.
The worst part, I am sure, is that the snow was heavy as heck and brutal to shovel. Warm nor-easter snowfalls are brutal.
Those heavy wet snows can also bring down buildings with it's sheer weight.
It snowed today in Maryland. At times it looked like a blizzard but just accumulated a dusting over the grass.
This video is really appropriate now. I live at 4800 feet in the Blue Ridge in NC and our spring bulbs were already blooming in February. Even our irises. And we’re supposed to get snow tomorrow 12 Mar. 🥺
Six inches of partly cloudy?
I was just talking about the Armistice Day blizzard in MN with my aunt the other day.
There was a blizzard in Nebraska as well that year -- The blizzard of January 12, 1888, which became known as the “Children's Blizzard” because so many children died trying to go home from school, was one of the deadliest winter storms in the upper Midwest.
He already mentioned that in the video
I read the book!
Yes but the death toll was lower for that one. About 250 people died mostly schoolchildren and teachers. It started out over freezing but dropped to 40 below and people were taken off guard.
Speaking of blizards, I'd like to hear you tell the story of Hazel Miner, the Angel of the Prairie. Being a South Dakota boy, you're surely aware of her.
I am reminded of a Mark Twain quote, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." It was true then and it is true now. We may think we can control the weather but nature just laughs at us.
I dont think anyone is claiming to control the weather. We do understand it better
@@glenchapman3899 They truly do not control it; BUT, that doesn't stop them from taxing you for their ill attempts to do just that! 😤
@@freeto9139 Come live in Tornado alley and see your tax dollars at work
"HOW DAAARRRREEE YOUUUU!!!"
@@glenchapman3899 ???
I have lived in one tornado alley; not entirely sure your meaning. I was referring to those who presume to manipulate weather, via microwaves and such technology. 🥀
Please consider doing an episode on the explosions onboard the Destroyer Escort Solar (DE 221) in Leonardo, NJ in 1946. There are many
interesting details: the sailor who may have caused the first explosion was not hurt, the ship's dog turned up after the last explosion, and one of the officers was reported to have been "partially scalped," which may have been the first time the word "scalped' was used to describe ta serviceman's wound since the Indian Wars. One of the explosions rattled windows 30 miles away, and a lot of the munitions that were being unloaded from the ship were still sitting on the dock while large pieces of metal flew by. If nothing else, it is an interesting story.