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Worst winter in U.S. history?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Darrin Rasberry
  • Start date Start date
Good points about individual storms - also recall the arctic snap of 1899 that set all-time record lows country-wide. I also forgot about the volcanic winters back in the 1800's. Of course the Ice Age was bad, and as far as assured habitation in the Americas go the winters in the Little Ice Age were probably doozies, but I did qualify recorded history in my OP. Maybe I should say the worst in the last century and a half or so.

I've heard of the storms of the '70's here in Iowa, but IIRC the Dec. 8th blizzard beat those at least as far as single-storm depth. Keep in mind snow management/plowing may have not been as efficient back then, which may explain the lack of incredible drifts that I've heard older folks reflect upon.

I agree with Jayson - I'm looking forward to a comparison report after the winter is through ... definitely for Iowa, and maybe for the whole U.S. as well.
 
Darrin Rasberry said:
*Worst blizzard in Iowa history (December 8 IIRC).

*Worst snow to hit the East Coast in over two centuries.
Click to expand...

I know your talking about combining all of the events together to see if this was one of the worst years ever. In regards to the two snowstorms/blizzards you mentioned I am not sure Iowa saw it's worst blizzard ever. The one listed beloew sounds just as bad and as for the east coast storm it may have been the worst in two centuries but the Knickerboxer Blizzard could have been just as bad if not worse.

November 11, 1940. During the late morning and early afternoon, a strong cold front blew through the region. Behind the cold front the temperature plunged. Winds blowing 50 to 80 MPH whipped the snow into a blinding blizzard. All movement in Iowa came to a stop. Up to 17 inches of snow fell in Iowa. Drifts were 20 feet deep in some places. The blizzard claimed a total of 154 lives. It killed thousands of cattle in Iowa.

Worst storm to hit the east coast in two centuries? Allot of records were broking but I did not see any snow totals over 30". The east coast has had severe storms before that has dropped up to 30" of snow. In 1979, February 19, Washington DC saw 18.7 inches in 18.5 hours with a total depth of 23". The airport saw 20" of snow. January 27-28, 1922. 98 people are killed. 2-3 feet of snow fell. The Knickerboxer Theater roof collapsed killing everyone inside. 22,400 square miles of land are estimated to have been affected by this blizzard.

I also read online that 60-61 had atleast 3 major snow storms. Since my other posts are long and may be removed I want to add this winter still does not compare to the winter of 1888. That has to be the worst winter I have ever read about.
 
I know it's hard to imagine for the young folk, but there were a few winters in the late 70's and early 80's that were worse than this one with the winter of '77-'78 probably being the worst.
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I can't be considered to be the young folk. I remember the winters of the 70's as a child growing up in southern Wisconsin. Now I don't recall snow drifts higher than the rooftops. However, I do recall a favorite pastime during the winter was to climb up onto the house roof and jump off into the snow drifts. They were high enough that you could do this without fear of injury (although you might sink in so deep that you can't get out). I also remember the snow getting piled up so high along the sides of the driveway (higher than 6 feet at times) that we made a bobsled track running down off the top of the snow bank. We don't seem to get winters like that anymore, although they do seem to be trending in that direction as of the last few years.
 
Would it be safe to say that pretty much every state in the lower 48, at one point since the beginning of October saw over 3" of snow?

Didn't Houston have 5-6" of snow. They have never had that much that far south. Same with New Orleans who saw around 3".

If the predicting pattern holds out for March, parts of the Northern Plains and Midwest will set records for the snowiest winter season.

I think everybody who lives in the Plains knows that around March, it never fails someone gets one last wallop of snow before Severe Weather season kicks off. Last year it was Kansas who ended up getting upwards to 20" of snow. I wonder who it will be this year?
 
With some of the traditional major winter population centers(Chicago, Detroit, NYC, Boston) having average or below average snowfall and little in the way of ice, I dont see how you can call this the worst winter in history. Or even close.
 
It's too difficult to generalize any given winter as the worst for the entire country. Storm systems are generally not that large and hit some areas worse than others, certainly not an entire country.

I guess you could quantify worst U.S. winter as the number of storms of XX number of inches, or X number of official blizzards, or whatever criteria you want. But you'd have to specify those criteria, and even then it's likely to have only affected certain parts of the country.
 
Darrin Rasberry said:
Good points about individual storms - also recall the arctic snap of 1899 that set all-time record lows country-wide. I also forgot about the volcanic winters back in the 1800's. Of course the Ice Age was bad, and as far as assured habitation in the Americas go the winters in the Little Ice Age were probably doozies, but I did qualify recorded history in my OP. Maybe I should say the worst in the last century and a half or so.

I've heard of the storms of the '70's here in Iowa, but IIRC the Dec. 8th blizzard beat those at least as far as single-storm depth. Keep in mind snow management/plowing may have not been as efficient back then, which may explain the lack of incredible drifts that I've heard older folks reflect upon.

I agree with Jayson - I'm looking forward to a comparison report after the winter is through ... definitely for Iowa, and maybe for the whole U.S. as well.
Click to expand...


My first winter in Iiowa...freshman year at ISU...83-84...was every bit as bad as this one up there and arguably worse. Des Moines still has a ways to go to equal the near record season snowfall of 70 inches that occurred there that winter...snow was on the ground from Thanksgiving weekend to March. 2000-2001 had snow on the ground forever too.
 
High winds, ice events, extreme cold, freezes in citrus land, early and late storms affecting crops all contribute. It is a subjective decision. My vote goes with the Tambora volcano winters. I wouldnt rank this winter particular high so far. Florida had a good freeze and the DCA-PHL population corridor may well have their highest snow totals ever, but the average for the whole country looks pretty normal.
 
See I don't see this winter being so bad. I mean I'm certainly no meteorologist, but I can remember the winters always being like this when I was a kid. (I'm 48) I can remember my dad shoveling several times over the course of the winter season for several years. We would receive a few big snows a year and Ive actually been happy with this winter. We haven't had anything remotely close to what I call actual winter lasting an entire season for a long time out here in Western KS. If anything I've been unhappy the last 10 years or so at the lack of decent snowfall.
 
As far as Chicago and northern IL are concerned, this winter has been pretty easy going. Yeah a few big snows and some ice events, but the deep freezing bitter cold from last year is totally absent. Strings of below-zero/single digit highs have not happened here this winter, and it appears that they won't. Rochelle tied a state record of -30ishF for a low last year. It has not been nearly as cold. So I would say while the cold air has been widespread, since FL got a good dose of it, it has not been nearly as intense as the 2009 winter. 2009 also had repeated clipper systems with high liquid ratios repeatedly drop snow on the area causing it to pile up quickly and lead to near record totals for the winter. I think Rockford actually received over 100" for the season. Not this year, Chicago and northern IL, have had a fairly mild winter, and less snowy than last year.
 
Darrin Rasberry said:
Just a few things to keep in mind:

*Worst blizzard in Iowa history (December 8 IIRC).
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the blizzard of 8-10 April 1973 was worse in Iowa http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/15371426.html

I know this season certainly has set/smashed a lot of snow depth and snow fall records in Iowa, but I wouldn't call it the worst ever. It's definitely high up on the list in terms of snow, though. Temps have been pretty low at times, but haven't dropped to record low levels. I know in Ames, the lowest temp so far this year was -18F, a number bested by last year's -30F and tied with 2008's -18F. Although I think Spencer hit -37 in early January, which is pretty damn cold.
 
I thought it was interesting that the record for most snowfall in a winter for Des Moines, Iowa is 72 inches and Des Moines is currently at 52.4 inches. We are still in February and another snow storm is expected this weekend. I would not be suprised if we saw 20+ more inches of snow breaking the record.
 
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