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RE: The Weather Thread - Rey - 03-02-2011 10:48 AM
Well, March is now here, can we declare it spring yet? Are the big snows over?
I was thinking about the big blizzard we had here in the midwest about a month ago. They really talked it up, and it was quite a blizzard, with about 18 inches of snow in my area. They said it made the record books, and I saw several comparisons to other storms in the recent past. But as bad as it was, it did not really seem that bad to me. It didn’t last very long, and even in the thick of it, I could look out the window and easily see across the street.
Storms can and have been worse than this, much worse. I have just finished reading a book that was about the Hard Winter of 1880-1881, and how an isolated South Dakota town dealt with that winter.
The blizzards were very severe, and would often last three days or more. There would only be one day of clear weather, sometimes only half a day, before another multiple day blizzard would strike.
Since this was in the days before weather forecasting, there was no way to know when it would come, and all people could do was keep an eye to the northwest for the quickly moving blizzard cloud. When it hit it would strike suddenly, blotting out the sun, and overcoming the area with blinding snow and winds. If you were caught out of doors you could become hopelessly lost. People would string a rope between their house and barn so they would not lose their way. Drifts could pile up thirty feet deep, to the tops of buildings, and people in towns had to tunnel their way between the buildings.
In the book the town was cut off from supplies because the snow was too deep to run the trains anymore. People nearly starved with blizzard after blizzard until spring when the trains finally ran again. I thought maybe the book was exaggerating a bit, to make a good story, but no, it was all true, as documented at this site:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/history/robinson/liii.txt
It is pretty interesting reading. I have lived through several big blizzards and bad winters, including the “Blizzard of ‘79” in the Chicago area. But never have I seen or experienced conditions like described in this book or the site above. It makes me wonder how it happened from a meteorological point of view. And with all of our global warming, global cooling, or whatever you want to argue it to be, the big question to me is, could it happen again?
(The book by the way is called “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yes, this is a Little House book. Hey, no laughing! Those books are much better than the TV show ever was.)
-Rey
RE: The Weather Thread - Bageleth - 03-02-2011 11:12 AM
Hey, I'm not laughing, I love those "Little House" books! I read them to my kids when they were younger. I may start reading them again.
We were awakened early this morning to a very strong wind & rain storm. I heard that at the coast, the storm was strong enough to be given the hurricane status as category 1. It's a good day to stay indoors here. It's a "hot cocoa" day I think.
RE: The Weather Thread - RN-PRN - 03-02-2011 12:49 PM
I just gave all of my Little House books to my daughter to read. Yep...I still have mine
RE: The Weather Thread - 2Beers - 03-02-2011 12:50 PM
Sunshine, but with a cold wind blowing. I too enjoyed the Little House on the Prairie books. My 6th grade teacher Mrs. Durnford(oh wow pulled that from the memory files) was a good friend to Rose Wilder(Laura's daughter) which made the stories come to life even more for our class since Mrs. D would share other family storys, pictures and tidbits from their lives.
RE: The Weather Thread - Bageleth - 03-02-2011 01:12 PM
My daughter wanted her own set of "Little House" books, probably because she knew that when she moved out, I would be keeping mine.
My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, was a big fan of those books. For 9 years, she had her class make a quilt based on the once described in the books. My class was the last one to make a quilt, a 9 patch. We actually washed the wool, carded it, sewed our 9-patch blocks by hand(even the boys did), while she read to us from those books. I think that probably renewed my interest in reading them then. The quilt that my class made, with everyone's name in the middle of their blocks, is now in the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Burr Oak, Iowa. I checked with the museum about 8 years ago, and at that time, the quilt was still on display. I'd love to go there sometime and actually see it.
RE: The Weather Thread - RN-PRN - 03-02-2011 01:14 PM
That is very cool, Bagel!!
RE: The Weather Thread - Boomer - 03-02-2011 02:56 PM
Burr Oak, Iowa. Hmmmm....lemme check the MAP!
This is straight up Hwy 52 up by the Minnesota Line. Not too far from Albin. Albin has an historic land survey marker I have been meaning to go see. It was reset by members of the Land Surveyors Society in Iowa, and I know two of them who reset that marker.
Now I will have two stops on my first road trip for the year. I'll be sure to take my camera!
RE: The Weather Thread - Bageleth - 03-02-2011 03:00 PM
Ooo! That would be so cool!
RE: The Weather Thread - Boomer - 03-02-2011 03:03 PM
Patience my dear - Melissa is still in pieces. But - gimme a few weeks.
RE: The Weather Thread - Bageleth - 03-02-2011 03:11 PM
I can be patient. As far as I know, that quilt (it's hunter green & white) has been there for 32 years (did I just say that?). I don't think it's going anywhere.