Winter Weather

Winter is the time to talk about winter events. We have seen a lot of wild weather in the northern part of the world so far this winter. And, of course, there has been lots of news reports about how we can expect such occurrences to become the norm in the future.

In actual fact, the weather has not been any different that has been experienced in past decades and centuries. People’s memories tend to be short. Children often remember only the highlights of last summer’s warm days or the fun they had sliding down a snow-covered hill. The excess heat or cold does not impress the young as much as it does their parents. And what about those adults? Their perspective is generally limited to their lifetimes. History books studied in school rarely reference weather and climate, so people can be influenced by what opinions they might hear on the news, not necessarily the facts.

In North America we have had the Polar Vortex sweep over most of the continent, with more regions suffering under severe cold, accompanied in some areas, by significant snow. It is very cold where I live right now, as can be attested to by our new puppies.

The extreme cold temperatures many of us are experiencing are not rare or unusual. They have occurred many times in the past. Cold days were certainly endured by our parents and grandparents as well as our ancestors way back in time. How they coped and whether the circumstances Mother Nature dished out to them affected their lives or livelihoods might have been merely inconvenient or life-threatening is part of family history stories.

 

Image produced by National Weather Service (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration); image retrieved 2 February 2019 https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-polar-vortex#

The National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states that “The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. It ALWAYS exists near the poles, but weakens in summer and strengthens in winter. The term "vortex" refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles. Many times during winter in the northern hemisphere, the polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward with the jet stream (see graphic above). This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States. . . There are several things the polar vortex is NOT. Polar vortexes are not something new. The term ‘polar vortex’ has only recently been popularized, bringing attention to a weather feature that has always been present.” And, of course, including Canada where I live. Just within the recent past there have been notable periods of very cold weather in the past few decades.

Very cold periods, such as the current one, are not something to be dismissed, though. They can be much more dangerous to life than hot summer days. More deaths in the past have been due to cold than have been caused by excessive heat. And that was probably even more true centuries ago, before homes and businesses were efficiently heated. Little has changed over the centuries, in terms of cold winters and heavy snowfalls; we still suffer through them as did our ancestors.

Occasionally a cold winter might also be accompanied by a major storm in the form of a blizzard: high winds, exceptional snowfall, freezing temperatures. The Northern Hemisphere has had its share of these tantrums of Mother Nature.

This winter we have seen reports of the heaviest snowfall in 100 years in European Alpine resorts. The Sierra Nevada in California, USA, has also received massive snow dumps. Some of the headlines about the storm have been a bit misleading. Snowfall in that region has actually been consistent for 130 years, notwithstanding some years with less than desirable amounts. The Rutgers Snow Lab reports that measured snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere has not changed in over 50 years.

Winter storms can be deadly, especially if they happen in areas unprepared for such weather – or sometimes even if they are! A major storm in Iran, in February 1972, caused the deaths of over 4,000 people. A week of severe winter storms dumped from 10 to over 25 feet of snow in parts of the country: burying villages; blocking access roads and rail lines; inflicting freezing temperatures. Whole towns were wiped out!

Readers may remember stories about the Beast from the East during February of 2018. This was a massive cold wave that descended on Britain bringing heavy snow and bitterly cold temperatures. This anticyclone was centred on Scandanavia and stretched all the way to Siberia, prompting its moniker. Almost 100 people died across Europe. Apparently the Beast is Back this month.

A friend who lives in Devon, England, remined me this week of a storm that hit Southwest England almost 128 years ago, between 9 and 13 March 1891, called the Great Blizzard of 1891 (Aren’t they all often called Great?). It was wonderfully described in a book published the same year, titled The Blizzard in the West (downloaded from Archive.org). The wind, cold and snow killed 200 people and 6,000 farm animals as well as imperiling ships in harbours and offshore along the southern coast of England. Many vessels were wrecked and dozens of crew members were lost.

Coincidentally, my grandfather was born on 12 March 1891, in Torquay, Devon, during the height of the cold weather. In The Blizzard of the West book, the experience there was described as: “The snowstorm was more severe at Torquay than at any of the surrounding districts, the fall having been heavier than at either Teignmouth or Dawlish. Few mishaps occurred, however, and there was not any really serious damage. Railway communication with Exeter, London, and the north, was never interrupted. Some injuries to trees occurred, and a few telegraph posts were blown down, but, on the whole, Torquay sustained its reputation as a desirable winter abode.” It appears the family was not seriously inconvenienced, but one has to wonder if the stress of the weather prompted my great-grandmother to go into labour. 

Great Western Railway No. 2128 Leopard after derailing near Camborne, Cornwall on 8 March 1891; retrieved 2 February 2019 from Wikimedia https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/BASA-3K-7-518-56.jpg

In North America, the Great Blizzard of March 1888 produced snowfalls of from 10 to 58 inches, winds of more that 45 miles per hour and snowdrifts up to 50 feet in height. Areas from the Canadian Maritime provinces to Washington, D.C. More than 400 people died from the effects of the storm and the cold. Another significant storm called the Schoolhouse Blizzard, blew through the US Midwest in January of the same year and was reported in newspapers around the world.

Surface analysis of blizzard on 12 March 1888; image retrieved 2 February 2019 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1888

My cousin wrote about a blizzard that brought misery to many of my family members in Alberta, in 1919, using information gleaned from relatives and their neighbours who lived through event. It did not make the list of worst storms in Canada, but it was exceedingly eventful to residents of Southern Alberta: “. . . to add additional strife, the spring of 1919 went into the history books when May 2nd, 3rd and 4th brought the worst spring storm to ever hit Alberta. Thousands of cattle and many horses perished. Most farmers had turned their stock out, feeling sure spring was here and when the blizzard got so bad, could not venture out to search for them. No one who experienced the May 1919 snowstorm ever forgot it. Many went about their daily chores and business in a gentle snowfall on the morning of May 2nd. Then snowfall turned into a blinding raging blizzard out of the northwest. The storm was so fierce no one dared to leave the safety of the house for two days. The sight that greeted the rural residents when the storm subsided was very sad. Large piles of cattle were buried in the snow. They had naturally crowded together for warmth and protection; all that was visible were their horns. Fence corners were piled high with dead cattle. Many head drifted with the storm and were found dead in irrigation ditches and creek beds. When the ditches were full the balance of the large herds walked over them on into other ditches or fence corners, until they were also victims of the blizzard. Those driving to their local towns on May 11th, had to drive around dead cattle and horses on the main roads. Some baby foals were hanging in the barbed wire fences. It was a very sad sight!” (Thompson Family History, by Betty Thompson, 2006).

A massive snow storm combined with an Atlantic hurricane to produce one of the most intense tempests in history: Great Appalachian Storm of 1950. I wrote about it in my Discover Genealogy blog. More than 350 people died and scores more were injured.

 

Surface weather analysis of Great Appalachian Storm on 26 November 1950; image retrieved 2 February 2019 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Appalachian_Storm_of_1950

 
The Blizzard of 1996 was a classic nor’easter that crippled the entire east coast of the US. Several feet of snow fell in some regions with hurricane-force winds.

Satellite image of the 1996 storm system; image retrieved 2 February 2019 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_1996

 
Further back in time there were the Great Frost of 1708-09 and the Great Frost of 1739-41. Both had record low temperatures and caused great hardship across Europe. The effects of these long-lasting cold spells included drought, harvest failures and famine, notably in Ireland. There was also the Great Snow of 1717 that affected the region from Virginia to New England.

1708/1709 winter temperature anomaly with respect to 1971–2000 climatology; image retrieved 2 February 2019 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Frost_of_1709

All of these events, and many hundreds of other similar ones as well, have impacted families over the centuries. Lives have been lost, farms and villages have been seriously impacted both economically and through physical damage.

Family historians will find reports of winter conditions and, especially, blizzards in newspapers and history books. For example, a search of the word, blizzard, on The British Newspaper Archive, resulted in 122,117 hits, almost 60% of them in the first half of the 20^th century. Not all of them were referencing storms, of course, but a great enough number to enable researchers to find out if any such events affected their ancestral families.

Historical books such as The Blizzard of the West can be invaluable to the genealogist as, besides giving detailed reports of events, they often contain the names of many people who were caught up in them: those who died; those who heroically gave aid to distressed victims; and those who lived and were able to relate the stories of their experiences for readers like us.