- Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton War
- Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton Street
- Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Nebraska
- Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton Silver Dollar
- Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton Oswalt
It was Jan. 31, 1977, when this poor freezing man appeared on the cover of TIME. The story inside, which detailed the effects on the United States of what the publisher’s letter called “the bitterest cold spell in memory.”
This was the scene along the Massachusetts coast last week, as a mammoth blizzard–the worst since 1888–slammed the Northeast, dropping from 1 to 4 ft. Of snow in the latest blast from a winter. Of the many accounts of fierce storms and blizzards during the latter half of the 19th Century the deadly storms of 1888 stand out. In the West, January 12, 1888 saw the Children’s Blizzard of 1888. It’s called the Children’s Blizzard because it ambushed so many rural children walking home from school, and as many as 400 people died.
THE CHILDREN’S BLIZZARD storm, it had to do with sleet-covered sugar plantations in the Deep South, not frozen children on the prairie. It was the Gilded Age. Disaster meant financial ruin. Abs Even in a region known for abrupt and radical meteorological change, the blizzard of 1888 was unprecedented in its violence and suddenness. Blizzard of 1888 in New York City. 200 dead in NYC. 200 dead in other locations. Wires broke from weight of ice. March 11-14, 1888. This blizzard is actually one of the reasons New York buried most of its wires. The government saw a problem, allocated money to fix it, and now it isn’t a problem. It was also an impetus for the subway system.
The first-ever reported snow fall in West Palm Beat, Fla., had shocked residents. Buffalo had been buried under more than 120 in. of the white stuff that season. And, ironically, areas that needed snow — the ski resorts of Idaho, for example — had to rely on snow-making machines despite the cold temperatures. Record lows were reported in cities nationwide. The natural-gas industry went into crisis mode. Maryland declared a state of emergency as the state’s seafood industry was shut down by a frozen bay.
But, of course, 1977 wasn’t the only year that the U.S. suffered under snow — and, right now, the Northeast is bracing for what promises to be a major blizzard.
Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton War
Here are the stories of seven other noteworthy storms from American history, as told by TIME:
From the Nov. 25, 1946, issue: Blizzard on the Prairie
When a major storm hit Colorado, ranchers found that feeding and protecting their herds was more difficult than ever:
Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Resourcesteam Patton Street
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From the Jan. 5, 1948, issue: The Big Snow
Though New Yorkers “disregard nature until it makes more noise than the subway,” a storm at the turn of 1948 got their attention:
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From the Feb. 17, 1961, issue: The Cause of the Snow
Blizzards in 1961 were, TIME reported, due to a vicious cycle of weather, in which storms kept the ground from warming, which allowed cold air to get up under warmer winds, causing further storms. The result was a string of bad weather nationwide:
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From the Feb. 3, 1967, issue: The 24-Million-Ton Snow Job
When Chicago was hit with a record 23 inches of show in 1967, it shut down the city almost entirely:
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From the Feb. 6, 1978, issue: Now It’s The Midwest’s Turn
A blizzard in early 1978 struck the East first, before turning bringing the Midwest to a stand-still and costing the auto industry an estimated $130 million:
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From the Feb. 20, 1978, issue: Blizzard of the Century
The bad weather of 1978 continued as Providence received 26 inches of snow, coastal landmarks in Massachusetts were destroyed and temperatures even in the South plunged down to well below freezing:
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Children's Blizzard Of 1888 Nebraska
From the Jan. 22, 1996, issue: The Blizzard of ’96
A more recent blizzard drew complaints from some New Yorkers that there were “no trains, no cabs, no nothin’ — just snow”:
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