Remembering the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940

10 Nov 2023

KNSI Radio

(KNSI) — Veteran’s Day was once upon a time known as Armistice Day as it marked the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I. It was later changed to Veterans Day to honor those who fought in World War II and the Korean War. Though Armistice Day isn’t used anymore, it still goes hand in hand with a major storm in 1940.

The Armistice Day Blizzard started as a giant storm that slammed the Pacific Northwest and took out the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Minnesota State Climatologist Pete Boulay says the storm churned southeast around Missouri and Iowa before making its way toward Wisconsin. Boulay says it cut a “perfect path for a winter storm.”

The day started out warm. Since it was a holiday, hunters were out in the woods wearing shirt sleeves as temps were in the 50s in some spots, not knowing what was to come.

Back then, weather forecasting data was vastly different. Observations were taken at 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. and sent via telegraph. The National Weather Service didn’t operate 24/7 as it does now, and there were no satellites for upper atmosphere observations.

“As the day went on,” Boulay explains, “the weather conditions got progressively worse. Some people were listening to the radio and kind of had a good idea there was something bad coming. A lot of children were at school, and it was kind of a race to see for the school kids to get home or they’d wind up being stuck at school.”

High winds were out ahead of the system, and ducks were seen flying low to the ground. Hunters in awe of the sight still didn’t realize that was a bad sign. The rain started first, and then temperatures began to plummet. That turned to sleet and, finally, heavy snow with high winds taking visibility to zero. According to Boulay, Downtown Minneapolis, where that doesn’t happen very often, had zero visibility for seven hours straight that day.

Collegeville had one of the highest totals in the state at 26.6″.

Snow drifts 20 feet high in some places buried stranded cars and stopped trains in their tracks. Homes, barns, outbuildings, power and telephone lines were damaged. Roads remained closed for days.

When it was all said and done, 49 people died that day.

The Armistice Day Blizzard became one of the blizzards to which all others would be compared. It also changed the way weather forecasting was done. The weather bureau station was in downtown Minneapolis, and they were getting their information from Chicago. Another storm in 1941 spurred talk of having more localized forecasts.

Now, there are local offices responsible for covering a certain geographic area, and there are also weather balloons, satellites, and weather stations dotting the state for hyperlocal forecasts and current conditions. Communication is also far better with the public being able to get weather forecasts and warnings from the radio, TV, social media and smartphone.

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