The January 22 headline says "Blizzard blasts Gulf Coast paralyzing communities from Texas to Florida to Carolinas with record-breaking snow". People have suffered many hardships in this storm.
According to the National Weather Service one of the greatest snowstorms in Southeastern United States history occurred February 9-11, 1973. This storm droped one to two feet of snow across a region that typically sees only an inch or two of snow per year.
I remember the 1973 snow very well. I was on a college field trip to view game bird habitat in Alabama when 11 inches of snow hit. The secondary highways were unplowed. In every little town there was a snowman in every yard. Our field trip turned into an indoor lecture.
We had a late snow in March 1960 in My Corner of the Ozarks. About 30 inches fell that season. St. Louis recorded the lowest ever March temperature on March 5 at 5 below zero. I remember snow piles all through April.
According to Lou Wehmer in the Howell County News (14 Jan. 2025) the worst winter blast in the Ozarks came in 1863-64 during the Civil War. On Christmas Day 1863 it was unseasonably warm at 60 degrees. On January 2 it was 22 degrees below zero. It snowed 7 inches on New Year's Day. Snow continued and by January 8 it was over a foot deep. Pictured below is a soldier on picket duty from Harper's Magazine 1864.
The average annual snowfall in My Corner of the Ozarks is about 10 inches. Of course the range is something like 1-30. Usually our snows are very "pleasant". It looks nice. It is easily removed from streets and driveways. It goes away quickly (usually). Ice is a different story. We can be paralyzed by ice. Travel is treacherous. Power outages are common. Fallen tree limbs are everywhere. Yuk!
Our 6-inch snow on January 10 has been gone for several days. It was nice to have for a few days. We even had sledders on our hill. (Not Larry or Linda.)
No comments:
Post a Comment