8 Lest We Forget: January 1949 Was the West's Worst
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8 BULLETIN AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY Lest we Forget: January 1949 was the West's Worst LILLIAN KIVIAT Meteorologist, WBAN Analysis Center, Washington, D. C. N the first Sunday of the New Year, in visibility during the storm was never more than the small hours of the morning, snow be- y2 mile and often was reduced to zero. At the O gan to fall in many of the western States. time of the storm's onset, temperatures ranged in The winds increased in velocity. At 8 a.m. a the 20,s. They fell rapidly, however, to zero and warning was issued to stockmen in the Cheyenne below. The story was the same throughout the area. At 10 a.m. a special warning was issued area. calling for a cold wave in the western part of There have been colder days in the West. There Nebraska that night, and for the entire State have been times when winds were almost as strong. Monday and Monday night, with temperatures In many areas, however, more snow fell than ever falling below zero, snow and increasing winds. recorded before, and never before in the history of Later in the day another warning was issued in the West has there been such an overwhelming Nebraska calling for a blizzard with 50 mile-an- combination of wind, snow and bitter cold of such hour winds and drifting snow. The central and duration. western Dakotas, central and western Nebraska, Sunny California did not escape. On the morn- western Kansas, eastern Wyoming and northern ing of that first Sunday in January, the first warn- Colorado were all hit by the storm. ing was issued, and then repeated and amplified At Cheyenne the snow fell continuously from that evening. Some orchard heating was neces- 10 a.m. that Sunday morning for 60 hours, and a sary that night but the real freeze came the night continuous gale blew from noon on Sunday until of the 3rd. During the day the winds had ranged 1 p.m. Wednesday. More than 12 inches of snow from 30 to 45 mph, but toward evening they died fell in this section during the storm and the gale down, and the temperatures fell rapidly to the winds piled the snow in 10-foot, and in few cases, freezing point. The nightly winter temperature 20-foot drifts. Chadron, Nebraska, had a record inversions which so frequently exist in the valleys snowfall of 42 inches on January 2 and 3. In the here were wiped out, and this made orchard heat- Western Dakotas the tale was similar. A letter ing practically futile. On the night of the 4th, from the Weather Bureau Office at Rapid City, although the freeze continued, the temperature in- S. Dakota, vividly describes the plight of 12 peo- versions were better developed, making heating of ple marooned there from the evening of the 2nd and morning of the 3rd until almost noon of the 6th:—"During the time that the 12 people were marooned at the office, the food was rationed out very thinly. But it was completely eaten up by the morning of the 5th. Then there was no food until late in the afternoon of the same day when three men returned from the Air Base with a supply of combat rations. For drinking water, we melted snow. Even though the snow banks ap- peared to be perfectly clean, the water therefrom contained gravel, grass and other items ordinarily not found in a glass of drinking water." A total of 14 inches of snow fell at Rapid City, and wind velocities even higher than those at Cheyenne were reported. On the 3rd and 4th, winds rose on occasion to 70 miles an hour. At Cheyenne the highest velocity was 66 mph on the 4th. Because of the lashing wind and snow, FIG. 1. Digging sheep out of the snow drifts. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/02/21 03:46 PM UTC VOL. 31, No. 1, JANUARY, 1950 9 the orchards much more effective. It was on this night that the temperature at Los Angeles hit an all-time low of 27.9°! On the 6th and 7th of January temperatures throughout the western States hit by the blizzard rose well above freezing. Stockmen rushed to do what they could for their cattle and sheep. News- paper pictures (FIG. 1) showed volunteers dig- ging frantically to free a flock of sheep buried in the snow, but such efforts were often in vain. Thousands of livestock died. FIG. 2. Instrument shelter, Scottsbluff, Neb., Weather Bureau station, half buried in snow, Jan. 1949. Notice steps dug in snow to provide access to shelter (in fore- ground) . FIG. 4. Sounding at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 10:00 p.m., E.S.T., January 9, 1949. (Temperature in Degrees Centigrade.) The snow which had disrupted railroad and highway travel almost completely, started to melt. Trains, stalled for 3 days in Green River, Laramie, Rawlins and Cheyenne, Wyo., began moving again; and the two main highways from Denver to Cheyenne were open to traffic by, Friday after- noon. On the morning of the 7th, however, another polar front was already poised on the Canadian border. It swooped down, and by the evening of the 8th, temperatures had again plunged below zero. Snow drifts were frozen hard, making them FIG. 3. Snow covered orange grove in Southern Cali- almost impervious to snow plows. Livestock fornia; orchard heaters in operation. (Courtesy, Los caught by the blizzard out on the range and those Angeles Times.) who had wandered into railroad and highway cuts Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/02/21 03:46 PM UTC 10 BULLETIN AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY were frozen there. The blades of rotary plows border on the morning of January 7th reached which came on them were broken. More snow southern Texas by the morning of the 10th. As fell in the western States, with winds 25-35 miles the cold air pushed southward, however, the winds an hour (FIG. 2). Once more the cold air pene- at higher levels were bringing warm moist air into trated into California, and for the first time in the region of the Ozarks. Instead of snow, the the memory of weathermen, there was snow dur- Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks, northeast Okla- ing the day in Pomona. In San Diego county, homa, eastern Kansas and northern Missouri were snow was deeper than it had been since 1882. getting freezing rain and drizzle. The accompany- Burbank had 3 inches and San Bernardino had its ing sounding taken over Oklahoma City at 10 p.m. first snowstorm since 1933. Palmdale got 7 E.S.T. on January 9, is an example of the tem- inches of snow and parts of Los Angeles 6 inches. perature distribution at this time through the area There were 9 inches near Corona on the 12th, (FIG. 4). At a height of 3,000 feet above the and by the 13th, Sandberg had piled up a total of surface, the temperatures were 40 and 50 °F, while 15 inches. Only Florida Chambers of Commerce at the surface it was 10 and 20° below freezing. were happy. The freeze accompanying this new Glaze covered highways, trees and power lines. cold wave was continuous from the night of the The weight of inches of ice made telephone wires 9th through the night of the 11th. In some parts sag and finally snap. Telephone poles lining roads of California, however, there was need for orchard leaned under the weight of pounds of ice, and heating through the 13th (FIG. 3). Most severely finally fell, bringing down with them a hopeless hit was the San Joaquin Valley, where the freeze mesh of wires. Limbs were torn from trees, and was of greatest duration and severity. In many whole trees were felled by their burden of ice. orchards the cost of heating exceeded the value Joplin, Bolivar, and Carthage, Mo., suffered most of the crops, but the safety of the trees themselves from this, the worst glaze storm in the local was at stake. weather records. In Bolivar, fully 90% of both The front which had lain along the Canadian power and telephone poles were shattered and FIG. 5. Weather Map, 1:30 a.m. January 23, 1949. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/02/21 03:46 PM UTC VOL. 31, No. 1, JANUARY, 1950 11 FIG. 6. Departure of mean temperature from normal for week ending 7:30 a.m. E.S.T., January 25, 1949, in Degrees Fahrenheit. downed. Homes and automobiles were crushed The storm brought freezing rain to the area from by fallen poles and trees. In Carthage almost Texas northeastward into central Illinois and every tree was ruined. Both Carthage and Joplin Indiana. The heavy snow covered a belt 150-200 were without any but a bare minimum of power miles wide, from Oklahoma up to Minnesota and for almost 3 days. Almost 90% of Joplin's trees Wisconsin—a distance of 1,000 miles in 24 hours. have been damaged. Power and communications Falls ranged from 3 to 10 inches over the heavy in Springfield, Mo., too, were badly disrupted by snow area, the heaviest in northwest Missouri, the ice storm, and at one time there was fear that eastern Kansas, and central Oklahoma. the city would be isolated. This ice storm reached On January 20, winds of hurricane force, build- as far east as Buffalo, N. Y., which was without ing up to 90 mile-an-hour gusts in the Flint, Mich., water on January 11 because the pumps are elec- area, unroofed buildings, smashed windows and trically operated and all the power lines in the area tore down power and telephone lines.