The
Armistice Day Blizzard (or the
Armistice Day Storm) took place in the Midwest region of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on 11 November (
Armistice DayArmistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Rethondes, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning — the...
) and 12 November, 1940. The intense early-season
"Panhandle hookA Panhandle hook is a relatively infrequent storm system whose cyclogenesis occurs in the South to southwestern United States from the late fall through winter and into the early spring months...
" winter stormA winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form...
cut a 1,000-mile-wide (1600 km) path through the middle of the country from
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
to
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
.
The morning of 11 November, 1940 brought with it unseasonably high temperatures. By early afternoon temperatures had warmed in lower to middle 60s
oF (18
oC) over most of the affected region.
Discussion
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The
Armistice Day Blizzard (or the
Armistice Day Storm) took place in the Midwest region of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on 11 November (
Armistice DayArmistice Day is the anniversary of the symbolic end of World War I on 11 November 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Rethondes, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning — the...
) and 12 November, 1940. The intense early-season
"Panhandle hookA Panhandle hook is a relatively infrequent storm system whose cyclogenesis occurs in the South to southwestern United States from the late fall through winter and into the early spring months...
" winter stormA winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form...
cut a 1,000-mile-wide (1600 km) path through the middle of the country from
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
to
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
.
The storm
The morning of 11 November, 1940 brought with it unseasonably high temperatures. By early afternoon temperatures had warmed in lower to middle 60s
oF (18
oC) over most of the affected region. However, as the day wore on conditions quickly deteriorated. Temperatures dropped sharply, windWind is the flow of air or other gases that compose an atmosphere . On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air...
s picked up, and rainRain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to other kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface...
, followed by sleetSleet may refer to:*Rain and snow mixed, particularly in countries where British English is spoken*Ice pellets, mainly within the United States...
, and then snowSnow is a type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes...
began to fall. An intense low pressureA low pressure area, or "low", is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower in relation to the surrounding area. Low pressure systems form under areas of upper level divergence on the east side of upper troughs, or due to localized heating caused by greater insolation or active thunderstorm...
system had tracked from the southern plainsThe South Central United States or South Central states is a region of the United States located in the south central part of the country. It evolved out of the archaic southwest, which originally was literally the western U.S. South...
northeastward into western WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
, pulling Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
moisture up from the south and pulling down a cold arcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
air massSurface weather analysis is a special type of weather map that provides a view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations...
from the north.
The result was a raging blizzardA blizzard is a severe winter storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy blowing snow...
that would last into the next day. Snowfalls of up to 27 inches (69 cm), winds of 50 to 80 mph (80–130 km/h), 20-foot (6.1 m) snow drifts, and 50-degree Fahrenheit (30 °C) temperature drops were common over parts of the states of NebraskaNebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha....
, South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
, IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of...
, MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
, WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
, and Michigan. In Minnesota, 27 inches (69 cm) of snow fell at Collegeville, and the Twin CitiesU.S. Census Bureau Areas|-! colspan="2" | |-! colspan="2" style="background:#d8d8e8;color:#000;" | Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud CSA, MN-WI
|-| Population || 3,502,891...
recorded 16 inches (41 cm). Record low pressures were recorded in La Crosse, WisconsinLa Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The population of La Crosse was 51,818 at the 2000 census. Its 2008 final population estimate was 51,840...
and Duluth, MinnesotaDuluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,918 in the 2000 census and 84,397 according to July 1, 2007 census estimates. The Duluth MSA had a population of 275,486 in 2000...
. Transportation and communications were crippled, which exacerbated finding the dead and injured. The Armistice Day Blizzard ranks #2 in Minnesota's list of top-5 weather events of the 20th century.
Casualties
A total of 154 deaths were blamed on the storm. Along the Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
several hundred duck huntersWaterfowl hunting is the practice of hunting ducks, geese, or other waterfowl for food and sport . Waterfowl hunting (also called duck hunting, goose hunting, or wildfowling) is the practice of hunting ducks, geese, or other waterfowl for food and sport . Waterfowl hunting (also called duck...
had taken time off from work and school to take advantage of the ideal hunting conditions. Weather forecasters had not predicted the severity of the oncoming storm, and as a result many of the hunters were not dressed for cold weather. When the storm began many hunters took shelter on small islands in the Mississippi River, and the 50 mph (80 km/h) winds and 5-foot (1.5 m) waves overcame their encampments. Some became stranded on the islands and then froze to death in the single-digit temperatures that moved in over night. Others tried to make it to shore and drowned. Duck hunters constituted about half of the 49 deaths in Minnesota. In Watkins, MinnesotaWatkins is a city in Meeker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 880 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.5 square miles , all of it land....
, 2 people died when two trains collided in the blinding snow. In Lake MichiganLake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one located entirely within the United States. The second largest of the Great Lakes by volume The third largest of the Great Lakes by surface area , it is bounded, from west to east, by the U.S. states of Wisconsin,...
, 66 sailors died on three freighters, the SS Anna C. MinchThe SS Anna C. Minch was a cargo carrier which foundered, broke in two and sank in Lake Michigan during the Armistice Day Blizzard on 11 November 1940. The Anna C. Minch was a steam powered, steel hulled bulk freighter constructed in 1903 by the American Ship Building Company at Cleveland, Ohio.All...
, the SS Novadoc, and the SS William B. DavockThe SS William B. Davock was a lake freighter that was part of the fleet of the Interlake Steamship Company. She was built in 1907 and sank with all hands in Lake Michigan during the Armistice Day Storm on November 11, 1940. She was carrying a cargo of coal from Erie, Pennsylvania to South Chicago...
, as well as two smaller boats that sank. 13 people died in IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
, 13 in Wisconsin, and 4 in Michigan.
Aftermath
Prior to this event, all of the weather forecasts for the region originated in Chicago. After the failure to provide an accurate forecast for this blizzard, forecasting responsibilities were expanded to include 24-hour coverage and more forecasting offices were created, yielding more accurate local forecasts.
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