Blizzard hits plains states and PNW

[agesilaus]

I-15 closed for a time because of blowing and drifting snow: Yahoo News


Just as a historical mention, I think it was back in 1888 that a blizzard hit the midwest and drop temps something like 70 degrees in a matter of minutes. Just as kids were walking home from school. Many froze to death. The nascent weather bureau actually knew it was coming but, no surprise, failed to warn anyone. There is a book about this:

"On this day in 1888, the so-called “Schoolchildren's Blizzard” kills 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours."

[hotjag1]

Grit dog wrote:

hotjag1 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

That's what I was thinking...lol I just want to get out of central wa before the next snowfall on the passes.

You're fine. I'm still asphalt paving in Eastern WA next week and likely in November too. Nosnoqualmie won't be an issue for quite a while yet, much to my chagrin. 10' of snow by next Friday would be Heaven, except for the work thing...

Let me hit the road before that 10' of snow gets here...Lol

[JaxDad]

Darryl&Rita wrote:
That's what barb wire was originally invented for. Traction in the winter. It was a savy cowhand that seen the possibilities of animal control during the low sales months.

Traction? Seriously? Where did that come from?

[Darryl_Rita]

Bert Ackerman wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

Darryl&Rita wrote:
They were there for it.

ROFLMAO...............

Not the forecasting, but why the Pony Express operated by Paul Revere was not able to warn everyone. Why do you think Grover Cleveland was able to beat out Benjamin Harrison in 1892 and get his old job back?

Yes Sir, Oct 10 1888, The temperature dropped from 40 to -30 in a matter of minutes. Those poor school children froze to death in their tracks. They did not even find them until Spring. Especially hard hit were the ones who had to trek uphill to school both ways, with no shoes.

That's what barb wire was originally invented for. Traction in the winter. It was a savy cowhand that seen the possibilities of animal control during the low sales months.

[JaxDad]

No, not all, some of us are highly edjumikated.

Someone was complaining that a bad storm hit before Al Gore invented the Internet .........

Of course if anyone read the link they’d have known the storm was actually forecast a few days before it hit.


But let’s not let facts get in the way of the hysteria......... or the humour.


From the Wiki story linked to;

“The weather prediction for the day was issued by the Weather Bureau, which at the time was managed by Adolphus Greely; it said: "A cold wave is indicated for Dakota and Nebraska tonight and tomorrow; the snow will drift heavily today and tomorrow in Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin.”

[agesilaus]

Bert Ackerman wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

Darryl&Rita wrote:
They were there for it.

ROFLMAO...............

Not the forecasting, but why the Pony Express operated by Paul Revere was not able to warn everyone. Why do you think Grover Cleveland was able to beat out Benjamin Harrison in 1892 and get his old job back?

Yes Sir, Oct 10 1888, The temperature dropped from 40 to -30 in a matter of minutes. Those poor school children froze to death in their tracks. They did not even find them until Spring. Especially hard hit were the ones who had to trek uphill to school both ways, with no shoes.

No just discussing the fact that a large segment of the population thinks everyone wore in fur suits in caves communicating in grunts before facebook was invented.

[Grit_dog]

Bert----classic! Again. Mic drop..

[Grit_dog]

hotjag1 wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

That's what I was thinking...lol I just want to get out of central wa before the next snowfall on the passes.

You're fine. I'm still asphalt paving in Eastern WA next week and likely in November too. Nosnoqualmie won't be an issue for quite a while yet, much to my chagrin. 10' of snow by next Friday would be Heaven, except for the work thing...

[Bert_Ackerman]

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

Darryl&Rita wrote:
They were there for it.

ROFLMAO...............

Not the forecasting, but why the Pony Express operated by Paul Revere was not able to warn everyone. Why do you think Grover Cleveland was able to beat out Benjamin Harrison in 1892 and get his old job back?

Yes Sir, Oct 10 1888, The temperature dropped from 40 to -30 in a matter of minutes. Those poor school children froze to death in their tracks. They did not even find them until Spring. Especially hard hit were the ones who had to trek uphill to school both ways, with no shoes.

[hotjag1]

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

That's what I was thinking...lol I just want to get out of central wa before the next snowfall on the passes.

[Darryl_Rita]

Grit dog wrote:
Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

They were there for it, or them.

[Grit_dog]

Are you goofballs actually arguing about the weather forecasting 131 years ago?

[wnjj]

agesilaus wrote:
Because of the high winds, ice and snow there were no telegraph lines left in service in the area.
-------------------------------------
That was after the storm-. Normally warnings work best when sent before an event not after.

"The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard, School Children's Blizzard,[1] or Children's Blizzard,[2] hit the U.S. plains states on January 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses."
"The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 5th and 6th, which dropped powdery snow on the northern and central plains, and was followed by an outbreak of brutally cold temperatures from January 7 to 11. "
Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888

I don't know if there were two different blizzrds or just the same event in two places.

The NE one was different and is referred to in the wiki you posted. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1888

[agesilaus]

Because of the high winds, ice and snow there were no telegraph lines left in service in the area.
-------------------------------------
That was after the storm-. Normally warnings work best when sent before an event not after.

"The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard, School Children's Blizzard,[1] or Children's Blizzard,[2] hit the U.S. plains states on January 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses."
"The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 5th and 6th, which dropped powdery snow on the northern and central plains, and was followed by an outbreak of brutally cold temperatures from January 7 to 11. "
Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888

I don't know if there were two different blizzrds or just the same event in two places.

[JaxDad]

agesilaus wrote:
The storm was in 1888 and nobody was warned?

What should they have done? Social media posts? Urgent messages on every TV station? News alerts on all the radio stations?

Seriously?
----------------------------
Yes they did have a telegraph system to every train station in the country and could have send out a warning on that. It's been years since I read the book so my recall of the details might not be perfect. But technology existed long before the Internet tho that comes as a shock to younger folks.

I believe one of Thomas Edison's (look him up on Wiki if you never heard of him) early lucrative inventions was a machine that would convert telegraph dots and dashes to words on yellow paper tape.

Alexander Graham Bell incorporated AT&T in 1885 so they had telephones too. People had to talk into them and listen for verbal replies in those days.

Well if you want to talk facts instead of humour, I’m game.

The “Blizzard of ‘88” was NOT in the mid-west, it was in the north-east.

I doubt many children were caught by surprise on their way home from school, the storm hit first in the NYC area on the evening of Sunday March 11, 1888, around midnight the temperature had dropped to freezing and the rain became sleet and then heavy snow. By morning things in New York were atrocious, and things were not much better to the south, in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

Because of the high winds, ice and snow there were no telegraph lines left in service in the area.