Historic blizzards have caused fatalities, major damage, and lasting infrastructure changes.
The US is experiencing a potentially historic winter storm.
As Winter Storm Fern sweeps across the country this weekend and into the start of the week, more than half of the US states are expected to be impacted by severe wintry weather, including ice, heavy snow, and dangerously cold wind chills.
The worst snowstorms in the US since the 1920s have killed hundreds of people, caused billions of dollars worth of damage, and, for many who lived through them, been impossible to forget.
Many of them have been blizzards. Meteorologist David Stark told The New York Times that means winds are at least 35 mph and visibility is less than 1/4 mile.
As we wait to see the impact of this weekend’s monster snowstorm, here are some of the worst snowstorms in recent US history.The Knickerbocker Storm of 1922
From January 27 to January 29, this blizzard, which traveled up from the southeast US and centered on Washington, DC, dropped 24 inches of snow.
Residents had no warning of the storm. On January 26, the Washington Times had predicted fair weather with slowly rising temperatures, per the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The snowstorm was named Knickerbocker after the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, which collapsed because of the snow’s weight on the theater’s roof. The collapse killed 98 people who were inside watching a silent film called « Get Rich Quick, Wallingford », and left another 133 injured.
Afterward, building codes were updated to require stronger roof support structures.The Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940
On November 11, a fierce winter storm battered the Upper Midwest. Without much warning, temperatures suddenly dropped, snow began to fall, and the « winds of hell » — as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — began to blow.
As much as 26.6 inches of snowfall were recorded, the National Weather Service said.
According to a hunter who was stranded during the storm, only the tops of telephone poles could be seen above the snow, the St. Cloud Times reported.
It came suddenly, catching people unaware, killing 49 people in Minnesota, per the Minnesota Star Tribune, and 150 in total. It also killed 1.6 million turkeys.
The storm had lasting repercussions. To help with accuracy, local weather forecasting moved out of cities like Chicago to be more local so they could provide better predictions.The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950
Starting November 24, 22 states felt the wrath of this slow-moving blizzard that the called a « meteorological powerhouse. » It’s also been called the Great Thanksgiving Storm.
The snowstorm covered an area from West Virginia to Pennsylvania and buried parts of it under as much as 62 inches of snow, per the National Centers for Environmental Information.
High winds with gusts of up to 160 mph knocked over trees and caused almost 1 million power outages.
It killed at least 383 people, caused hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage (in today’s money), and became a weather prediction case study. Two cyclone researchers said it was the « benchmark » storm against which all other major 20th-century storms could be compared.The six-day snowstorm on Mount Shasta in 1959
Beginning on February 13, and going for six days, 189 inches (about 16 feet) of snow fell on Mount Shasta, California.
It holds the world record for the most snow falling in a single snowstorm, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Since it fell on an uninhabited mountain, no deaths occurred.The Chicago Blizzard of 1967
On January 26 and 27, Chicago saw its highest snowfall on record, with 23 inches, along with 53 mph wind gusts.
The storm caught the city off guard, as it had experienced warm temperatures only two days earlier.
The sudden, heavy fall left 50,000 cars abandoned, shops looted, and 650 students sleeping at school because buses couldn’t get through the snow. Twenty-six people died, the Chicago Tribune reported.The 100-hour snowstorm of 1969
From February 24 to February 27, snow fell in the northeast for 100 hours — or four days — straight, as reported by WBUR.
On the first day, 4 feet of snow fell on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. Another 4 feet fell over the next few days. Boston was hit with 26.3 inches, and Portland, Maine, had 26.9.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rated this the worst snowstorm of the century based on factors including the amount of snow, the area affected, and the number of people affected.
