Blizzard of January 1888

Here we are in midst of piles of snow in South Dakota in January.  I know this isn't a big surprise to anyone that has lived in this area.  But today, I ran across an old blog post "Beadle County and the Deadly Blizzard of 1888" on the Ancestor Soup blog, that mentioned a blizzard on January 12, 1888. 

While reading the post, I began to realize that I had read an article a while back about a blizzard in the Midwest many years ago that was very deadly.  I wondered if the two were in fact the same blizzard, so of course I started digging around.  It turns out the "article" I read was actually a Wikipedia entry titled "Schoolhouse Blizzard".

Anyway, as the articles above state, the January 12th blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 5th and 6th and then brutally cold temperatures from the 7th to the 11th.  Many people had finally been "freed" from their homes to run their errands and go to school.  Those venturing out ended up caught in the blizzard and over 200 people died as a result.

So I urge you to keep your eye on the weather - and with the help of the radio and television stations and their meteorologists that should be a little easier than it was in 1888.



P.S. If you're wondering how I ended up at Wikipedia reading about blizzards, I assure you that I was not researching blizzards.  I was instead checking my facts for the "Happy 121st Birthday to the Dakotas!" post back in November -  I thought I should at least post accurate information about my home state.  From the South Dakota history on Wikipedia, I was somehow linked to the Schoolhouse Blizzard entry.