This Date in Weather History

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1837: The city of St. Louis, Missouri, is known as the “Gateway to the West.” It has this nickname because it was the starting point for the westward movement of people in the United States during the 1800s. It was a traveling hub for many settlers, hunters and others migrating west. The Gateway Arch now in St. Louis symbolizes the city’s nickname. St. Louis was where many wagon trains got organized that first began to head west on the Oregon Trail and to California. Even though Kansas City and Independence Missouri where other jumping off points, St. Louis was the last big city that many settlers encountered. The "Gateway to the West" was where these travelers could load up on supplies they couldn’t find elsewhere before heading through the vast western wilderness. April was a time or organization before waiting a few more weeks for the snow in the Rockies to melt. It all had to be timed just right because leaving too late in the spring might mean getting stuck in the mountains by the snow of the coming winter, and that could result in disaster. Nice Spring weather was the key to a good start. On April 2, 1837 the weather failed to cooperate dumping 17” of snow in St. Lois and as much as 24” in nearby towns just to the west.

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1997: April snowfall in the northeastern sections of the United States are not unusual, but heavy snowfalls are rare. April snowfall totals average less than 5% of the season average in places like Boston. In fact, the normal snowfall in the month of April in Boston is less than 2”. In 1997 what would go into the books at the Great April Fools Day Snowstorm blasted up the East Coast. Cold air was already firmly in place across the region and this system pounded New England on April1, 1997. 25.4” of snow fell at Boston’s Logan Airport, and broke the all-time 24-hour snowfall record of 23.6" set on Feb 6-7, 1978. 100,000 people were left without power. This storm also made this April the snowiest on record, easily surpassing the 13.3” that fell in April 1982. Winds gusted to 72 mph on Blue Mountain, MA, and to 54 mph in Boston. In a 2-day period (Mar 31-Apr 1) Milford, MA picked up 36”, and Worcester, MA was buried under 33”. Parts of the Catskills in New York State picked up between 35 & 40”. In parts of Northwestern NJ, as much as 2’ of snow fell. 

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One of the earliest chronicled winter storms to strike Upstate New York after the Revolution was the strong system that impacted the region on March 31, 1807. The Otsego Herald in Cooperstown , NY reported, and I quite “The wind roared in the forests similar to the sound of the great cataract, the air was alternately filled with snow and transient gleams from the sun.” Along the Atlantic coast high winds and rain was the scene in New York Harbor, The New York Post described the situation. From its pages it said: “Amidst the bustle along the ports, in securing vessels and getting out fenders, were seen hundreds with their dogs, killing rats, which had been routed by the high tide. Hardly a terrier in the city was unemployed; and we may safely say, not less than 1000 rats were destroyed on the eastside of town. Though this remark may, by some, be considered unworthy of notice, it will be of use, if a proper use of it – that is, by removing the carcasses of the animals before the sun operates on them.

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1843: In the 1820’s and 1830s just after Maine became a state after separating from Massachusetts, crop failures combined with cold weather caused some in New England to dream of warmer climates to the west. About this time Newspaperman Horace Greely was purported to have said “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country”? Many started the exodus for the Midwest. A major cradle of Midwestern settlement was Maine, Maine’s stony soil and the decline of its shipping trade pushed thousands of Mainers to get out just after it achieved statehood in 1820. The exodus was so bad that many newspaper editors in Maine wrote about the fear that the new state would actually be depopulated by “Illinois Fever” and the rush to lumbering towns along the Great Lakes — and then Oregon. Many of those Mainers and New Englanders settled in Indiana in addition to Maine. They were greeted by a period of mild winters for a decade or so, but I was not to remain that way. The weather pattern shifted back to a more typical Midwest cold and snowy winter. On March 30, 1843 2 feet was measured on the ground. Until this point, farmers and loggers of the region had thought the climate to be better than New England – where many had just originated. The winter of 1842-43 dashed their hopes.

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According to NOAA, Ice jams are caused by melting snow and ice in the springtime. Warm temperatures and spring rains cause snow and ice to melt very rapidly. All this extra water causes frozen rivers and streams to swell up, and the layer of ice on top of the river begins to break up. The rushing river carries large chunks of ice downstream, and sometimes a group of ice chunks get stuck in a narrow passage of the river. The ice chunks form an ice jam, which blocks the natural flow of the river. Ice jams can be dangerous for people living in towns nearby. Because the river is blocked, the rushing water has nowhere to go and it can cause flooding in the surrounding area. On March 29th, 1848 a very unusual ice jam formed. Centered on that day for about 24 hours, Niagara Falls ran dry. The Niagara River was reduced to a trickle as a massive ice jam formed near Buffalo. Strong winds has blown ice from Lake Erie into the River entrance and completely blocked it. It was only when the ice shifted the next day that the water resumed its flow.

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A strong storm developed in the southeastern United States on the 27th of March 2005 and grew even more dangerous as it moved up the East Coast on March 28th before moving out to sea off the New England Coast. Heavy rain fell across the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas on the 28th and set the stage for a one-two punch of flooding when a second storm arrived in early April. Poor drainage and urban flooding resulted from the storm on the 28th and some rivers also experienced flooding, especially in New Jersey, notably along the Passaic and Ramapo Rivers. Rainfall totals exceeded 3” in New York City and much of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Most of the ground was still covered in snow from the winter season adding to the flooding woes. Further to the south on the tail end of the storm system sever weather broke out dumping 4” diameter hail in Raleigh North Carolina and striking Florida with heavy thunderstorms that dumped several inches of rain.

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The prairies and plains of west central Canada, like those on the plains of the central United States are subject to wide swings of weather. Geographic barriers like mountains and large bodies of water can block or deflect even large-scale weather systems. Ocean temperatures and currents impact the track of storms. The influence of abnormally warm or cold waters, known as El Nino and La Nina, off the west coast of the Americas results in abnormal snow and rainfall patterns across much of the North American continent. Sometimes, as slow-moving storms come toward ocean shorelines those storms almost bounce a bit off the coast directed away by the friction that winds encounter with landmasses. On the vast open plains of North America, no such impediments exist. That often times manifests itself in temperature extremes not expected at southern and northern latitudes. For example, Texas sees much colder weather than Florida. Canada will often see high temperatures not usually associated with that northern clime at certain times. On March 27, 1980 such and occurrence happened when Winnipeg, Manitoba reached an all-time March record high temperature of 74 degrees.

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Late season Nor’easters in March are often times the most powerful storms to strike the northeast. On March 26, 2014 one such storm struck New England. The strong late season winter storm brought howling winds and heavy snow to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Winds gusted as high as 82 mph on Nantucket, and more than 100 mph just off shore. The wind drove snow against buildings and homes plastering doors shut. Drifts of snow several feet high impeded emergency vehicles from removing trees and power poles brought down by the hurricane force winds. Most of the major cities in New England missed out on the heavy snow from the storm, but some offshore islands received almost a foot of snow.

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Tornado Alley is that area in the United States that has more tornados than anywhere else in the world. Stretching from central Texas to Eastern South Dakota. Tornados are more likely in Texas and Oklahoma in the Spring, and then they are more numerous in the northern plains in the summertime. Fed by the contrast between moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and super dry air that blows down off the Rockies and the contrast in temperatures between the ground surface and midlevels in the atmosphere severe weather development is primed. This is most common in Tornado Alley and more common in southern areas early in the season. Oklahoma’s most active month is May, but March is the 4th most active of the year. Averaging almost as many tornados as July, August and September put together. It’s not unusual then for tornado to strike the same part of Oklahoma more than once in March. But what happened on this date in weather history on March 25, 1948 was unusual. A tornado struck Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 35 airplanes. Just 5 days earlier a tornado had also struck the air base destroying 50 airplanes.

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It had been a fairly snowy winter across Kansas and Missouri in the 1911-1912 winter season. By the later stages of March, Kansas City already had recorded more than 20” of snow including 15” earlier in March alone. Snow began to fall in the afternoon of the 23rd and by the time it ended on the evening of March 24, 1912 Kansas City experienced its greatest recorded snowstorm. 25” fell in 24 hours bringing the total snowfall there to more than 40” for March and 67” for the winter more than 4 times normal. Both the March and seasonal snowfall totals were records for Kansas City. Not far away in Olathe, KS 38” fell during that storm, a single storm state record.

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