This Date in Weather History

The North American ice storm of January 1961 was a massive ice storm that struck areas of northern Idaho in the United States at the start of January 1961. The storm set a record for thickest recorded ice accumulation from a single storm ever in the United States, at 8 inches. The storm covered areas from Grangeville, in north central Idaho, to the US-Canadian border. A combination of dense fog, sub-freezing temperatures, and occasional freezing rain led to the heavy ice accumulations. Catastrophic damage to trees and utilities resulted, resulting in widespread power outages. Prior to this storm, previous records of between 4 and 6 inches of ice were recorded in New York and Texas. Imagine if you will ice that is 8” thick. That is thicker than several ice cubes stacked end to end. Imagine it covering everything, consider its sheer weight. It caused almost all the tress in the region to break apart. All wires fell, roofs and other structures caved in. Consider how long it would take all that ice to melt – it was weeks and many were without power for even longer. It caused the power industry to devise new ways of not only restoring power, but new ways to distribute power including more sub stations to generate power and the burying of wires and utility lines.

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During Colonial times, Philadelphia was one of the major ports in North America. Lying at the confluence of the mighty Delaware river and the smaller Schuylkill river it carried a significant amount of commerce back and forth from Europe to the New World. The Delaware River was deep enough for most of the huge sailing ships of the day to connect right up the docks and easily load or off-load their cargo. Navigation was usually clear from the Atlantic ocean to the great port. Unlike present day, the presence of some ice on the river could lead to a slowing of the ability of ships to navigate any ice fields on the river. Unlike today if bitter cold struck there was no way to break the ice and the wooden ships hulls were vulnerable to damage and even ships sinking from significant ice. When the river froze over solid commerce stopped. January 2 was a day of great activity in the Port of Philadelphia in these times gone by after Christmas and New year’s Day, but it came to pass that on January 2, 1740 the Delaware became completely frozen over and shipping came to a halt for the winter. 

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New Years Day 1864 brought an intense day of suffering from the Mid-West into the Tennessee Valley, especially for Union and Confederate soldiers who were camped in tents and other structures not made for permanent living and therefore ill prepared against the cold. Times where especially tough on confederate prisoners of war, who were not used to the extreme cold. The New Year’s Day cold in Midwest was the worst in decades as a snowstorm and gale force winds struck; Minneapolis had a high of the -25 degrees; Chicago’s high was -16 degrees, with a morning low -25 degrees. The south was not spared the bitter cold, temperatures dropped from 47 degrees to -19 degrees in 21 hours at Louisville, KY. Newspaper reports from the day reported Intense suffering for Civil War soldiers and prisoners.

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In Dallas, Texas and across north Texas in the month of December the daily high temperatures decrease by 6°F, from 62°F to 56°F, rarely falling below 40°F or exceeding 74°F. Daily low temperatures decrease by 6°F as well, from 44°F to 39°F, rarely falling below 26°F or exceeding 58°F. It does get cold on occasion though, with record low temperatures at the end of the month in the single digits and even a little below zero on some days. Snowfall can reach a couple inches. Cold air is easily pushed down the plains from Canada in the winter season. Often times this cold air only manages to penetrate the lowest several thousand feet – so it is close to the ground. When this happens and storms push moisture in from the Gulf of Mexico it falls as rain – yet with temperatures near the ground below freezing the rain freezes on all surfaces and causes ice. On December 31, 1978 a severe ice storm struck leaving 1” to 2" of ice over a 100-mile swath from Gainesville to Paris, Texas. Electricity was off for 10 days in parts of Dallas County. More than 2,000 people were treated for frostbite, automobile accidents or falling accidents.

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The winter of 1880–1881 is widely considered the most severe winter ever known in some parts of the United States. Many children—and their parents—learned of "The Snow Winter" through the children's book The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in which the author tells of her family's efforts to survive. The snow arrived in October 1880 and blizzard followed blizzard throughout the winter and into March 1881, leaving many areas snowbound throughout the entire winter. Accurate details in Wilder's novel include the blizzards' frequency and the deep cold, many railroads stopped trains until the spring thaw because the snow made the tracks impassable, the near-starvation townspeople throughout the mid-west. An October blizzard brought snowfalls so deep that two-story homes had snow up to the second-floor windows in Minnesota and Wisconsin. No one was prepared for the deep snow so early in the season and farmers all over the region were caught before their crops had even been harvested, their grain milled, or with their fuel supplies for the winter in place. By January the train service was almost entirely suspended from the region. Railroads hired scores of men to dig out the tracks but it was a wasted effort: As soon as they had finished shoveling a stretch of line, a new storm arrived, filling up the line and leaving their work useless. There were no winter thaws and on February 2, 1881, a massive blizzard struck that lasted for nine days across the upper Midwest and parts of the Plains states. In the towns the streets were filled with solid drifts to the tops of the buildings and tunneling was needed to secure passage about town. Homes and barns were completely covered, compelling farmers to tunnel to reach and feed their stock. For the most part the snow by passed the big cities on the East coast that winter. The cold was only sporadic but on December 30, 1880, bitter cold hit the east coast, the mercury dropped to 3 below in Washington D. C. the earliest below zero reading there ever, records were also set in Charlotte North Carolina at 5 below and in Philadelphia the temperature also dropped to negative 5 and the afternoon high temperature despite bright sunshine only reach 5 above zero.

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The heaviest observed and accurately measured snowfall in more than a hundred years, across the plains plans states, hit on December 29, 1830. Many of the cities in the region had just experienced a growth spurt as a jumping off pint for westward travel. Farming was taking hold in the nations’ mid-section. Many immigrants from Europe had moved into the region and brought their farming techniques and strains of wheat that would lead to American becoming the nation’s breadbasket. The push was on to seize the land of Indigenous people and also send settlers on treks to the west coast that was not part of the United States, in places like California and Oregon. All that was stalled for a while as the massive snowstorm struck. Very heavy snow struck 36” was recorded in Kansas City and 30” in Peoria 30". it began the ”Winter of the Deep Snow" with more than 30" on ground in parts of Missouri and Illinois until mid-February. People began to re-think the move west as being too harsh. But the continue influx of refugees from the across the Atlantic continued to push people in search of more land and soon “the Winter of Deep Snow” was forgotten and the movement continued within a few years the great wagon train treks began with the opening of the Oregon Trail.

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Snowfall in Israel is a common sight during the months of January and February, especially on Mount Hermon. In fact, Mount Hermon Ski Resort is Israel's only winter ski and snowboard resort located in the Golan Heights in the far north of the country. Apart from the mountain range, the Golan Heights, Upper Galilee region, Safed and Jerusalem receive snowfall every year. At just under 2,700 feet above sea level, snow is not uncommon in the winter in Jerusalem. On average, at least a few flakes fall 7-8 days each year. So, snowfalls are not uncommon and some have buried the city if Jerusalem in almost a foot of snow. Because of its high elevation it certainly is colder than cities like Tel Aviv on the coast of the Mediterranean. From December through January high temperatures in the city average about 53 degrees and low temperatures 44. But on December 28, 1879 the city was hit with one of it’ largest snowstorms ever when 17” accumulated. It shut down the region for travel for more than a week.

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Bitter cold weather moved into the Carolinas on Christmas day of 1992 and held for several days aided by a persistent north wind. During the evening hours of December 26 those winds close to the ground turned to the northeast as a storm formed in southern Georgia. Meanwhile higher in the atmosphere the wind turned to the south and increased, bringing warm air into the region several thousand feet above the ground level. Still the winds the at surface remained northeast and kept cold air holding with temperatures in the 20s in the lowest several thousand feet. Colder air is more dense and heavier than warm air and has to retreat and is not pushed out of the way by light warmer air which is forced to rise up and over the cold air. This situation played out across the Carolinas on December 27, 1992, As the storm rolled northward rain broke out across the region – but because temperatures were below freezing at the ground the rain froze on everything. Soon ice covered all surfaces and caused tree limbs and wires to come down and turning highways into skating rinks. Hundreds of thousands lost power and, in some places, it took more than a week to restore electricity.

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A major winter storm barreled up the East Coast on December 26, 2010. The mid- Atlantic and New England coastlines bore the brunt of the storm’s fury. Snowfall totals eclipsed a foot in some cities and towns from eastern Virginia to Massachusetts, with accumulations tipping 18” in New Jersey. Winds also howled past 60 mph in parts of New England, creating whiteout conditions in spots. More than 45,000 customers had lost power across the region. Flight delays and cancellations plagued holiday travelers at many of the East Coast’s busy air hubs. All New York City airports were forced to close. The impending storm also prompted the NFL to postpone the Sunday night matchup between the Eagles and Vikings in Philadelphia before the storm even arrived.

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The fall and early winter of 1775 had not gone well for the patriots during the American Revolution. One defeat was met by another. Starting with the battle of Long Island, the British chased George Washington and his shrinking army out of Brooklyn, out of New York city and finally out of New Jersey. With the end of 1775 coming fast, many in the army would not be signing back up and the revolution was on the verge of collapse. The British were so sure of victory, most of the generals and other high-ranking officers retired to the comforts of New York City for the winter, leaving garrisons of troops in many New Jersey towns under the command of either junior officers or German Hessian mercenaries. Washington was camped on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River a distance north of Philadelphia. He was desperate, as was his army. Washington was a keen observer of the weather, like many of the nation’s founders. His army had miraculously escaped the British after the battle of Long Island as a bank of early morning fog formed and hid his retreat. He understood river fog in the fall season quite well, having lived on his Mt Vernon farm along the banks of the Potomac River. He also understood that strong northwest winds in December usually brought on a change to much colder weather and surmised that the enemy across the river would be hunkered down the next morning, inside to escape the cold and it would be the day after Christmas as well and the soldiers would be sleeping in after celebrating. At 11 p.m. on Christmas night, Washington’s army started its crossing of the half-frozen Delaware river at three locations. The 2,400 soldiers led by Washington successfully braved the icy and freezing river and reached the New Jersey side of the Delaware just before dawn. The other two divisions, made up of some 3,000 men and crucial artillery, failed to reach the meeting point and turned back. Washington was on his own. At 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, Washington’s remaining force, separated into two columns, reached the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey and descended on the unsuspecting Hessians. Trenton’s 1,400 Hessian defenders were groggy from the previous evening’s festivities, just as Washington has surmised, they were ensconced in their buildings and underestimated the Patriot threat after months of decisive British victories throughout New York. Washington’s men quickly overwhelmed the Germans’ defenses, and by 9:30 a.m. the town was surrounded. Although several hundred Hessians escaped, nearly 1,000 were captured at the cost of only four American lives. Washington’s victory was based as much on pluck and courage as his understanding of celebrations and even more so the weather. The bitter cold that Washington and his troops braved was the turning point. Hessian sentries were not out braving the cold, also as Washington imagined. The surprise victory was complete and total. Washington’s army was boosted by the victory and one several days later at Princeton. The Patriot army did not collapse – re-enlistments and new enlistments soared with the victories. The British were shocked and the Hessians, so ruthlessly triumphant in the summer, gained respect for the Americans. In fact, many would dessert and make the new nation their home.

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