Date: Fri 01-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

blizzards-storms-weather

Full Text:

Big Blizzards -- The Stuff Of Legends

(with file photos)

BY JAN HOWARD

New Englanders know how changeable weather can be. Periods of moderate

temperatures and no snow can't last during the winter. Conditions could change

overnight and the next day's weather could be the stuff of legend, with

stories passed down for generations about the "big blizzard."

As resident Myra Warner recalled in 1957, a real spring day preceded the

snowstorm that became famous as the blizzard of 1888.

Methods of monitoring and forecasting weather may have changed over the years,

but a blizzard still has the power to bring everyday life as we know it to a

standstill, as was experienced as recently as 1978.

The three criteria that earmark blizzard conditions are winds of over 45 mph,

temperatures of 10 degrees or lower, and snowfall heavy enough for zero

visibility.

The amount of snowfall depends on how long the storm stalls over an area.

On January 29, 1988, The Newtown Bee recalled two of the greatest snowstorms

to hit New England in recorded history, the blizzards of 1888 and 1978.

The 1888 and 1978 storms came nearly to a halt over the area. The difference

in their effects is that the 1978 storm stalled at sea off of New Jersey and

the 1888 storm stalled inland.

Blizzard of 1888

The Blizzard of 1888 was the most devastating one ever recorded on the east

coast. It literally paralyzed the region and isolated cities and towns from

Washington, DC north to New England and west through Pennsylvania and New York

for a week.

Nearly all business came to a halt because of downed or severed wires; trains,

the only mass transportation in 1888, were completely snowbound. Food and fuel

became in short supply.

Property damage was estimated at $20 million, plus there was the problem of

what to do with tons of snow.

The weather forecast before the storm predicted brisk westerly winds and fair

weather throughout the Atlantic states. Instead, the storm blasted its way up

the coast. It caused streets to be piled high with snow, downed wires,

overturned ships, and left people trying to cope with its aftermath. It is

estimated it was responsible for 400 deaths.

Snow falls of 20-40 inches were reported, including 44.7 inches at New Haven.

In one 24-hour period, 28 inches of snow fell on New Haven. One drift outside

Bridgeport was 10 feet tall but stretched almost a mile in length. In Newtown,

24 inches of snow or more were reported.

"Down through the years the blizzard of 1888 has become a sort of legend and

much has been written about this famous storm," The Newtown Bee recalled on

March 22, 1957.

The storm began on Sunday, March 12, and raged unabated until Wednesday night.

It affected one-quarter of the nation's population, with deliveries of milk,

meat, bread, and coal halted while warehouse stockpiles were inaccessible

because of the mountains of snow in the streets.

Attempts to clear snow were futile, and the storm was too severe to venture

out. Roofs collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Thousands of people were stranded on trains. The storm overpowered many of the

steam locomotives, which sat helpless until dug out by hand by crews of

workers.

In Brookfield, passengers were stranded on a Housatonic Railway train hung up

in a drift. The Brookfield station master gathered up a gallon of brandy and

all the eggs and bread he could, then struggled along the railroad right of

way for several hours before reaching the train. He found the passengers half

famished and covered with soot from the bituminous coal used in the small

stove to warm them.

Without food for more than 30 hours, each passenger was given one egg and two

slices of bread to keep them going for another 24 hours. When the blizzard

subsided, the passengers walked to the nearest station. Several fainted from

exhaustion and had to be carried through the drifts.

Two local men lost their lives in the storm when they couldn't find their way

back to their houses. One of them, Martin Lynch, got within 100 feet of his

house on Botsford Hill, where he froze to death.

In the March 14, 1952 issue of The Bee , Charles Sherman, a one-time clerk in

the Hawleyville Post Office, recalled that the storm blocked roads with

30-foot-high drifts and severed all communications for weeks.

On March 22, 1957, residents Myra Warner and Ernest Sanford recalled their

memories of the huge storm.

Mr Sanford had lived in Redding in 1888. On the third morning, he, his father

and a hired man, climbed out the second story windows of their house. It took

them from 8 am to noon to tunnel through nine-foot-high drifts to get to the

barn, 40 feet away, to feed the stock.

Banks of snow were so high that children walked on top and touched the

telephone wires. He remembered there was enough snow left on their farm on

July 4 to make a freezer of ice cream.

Miss Warner lived in Monroe at the time. Feeling the real spring day might be

a "weather breeder," her family went to the market and stocked up on food.

She said while the snowfall was 29 inches, it was the wind that caused the

huge drifts and with temperatures at 23 degrees below zero, digging out

presented real hardship. She said cattle froze to death in the fields.

She remembered sleigh riding on a huge piled-up drift at the end of May.

The only way to clear snow following the storm was by manual labor, horses and

oxen.

Though the blizzard of 1888 remains the one most written about, other

memorable storms have occurred over the past 110 years.

February 1978

There may have been more warning from meteorologists and better highway

equipment to fight the snow in 1978 than in 1888 but it was no less paralyzing

to the region.

Termed the worst storm of the century, Blizzard Larry dumped two feet of snow

in early February.

The blizzard followed a nearly identical pattern to that of the 1888 blizzard.

Newtown had received its yearly quota of snow, 40 inches, by the end of

January. What fell from Monday, February 6 to Tuesday evening was 23« inches

of bonus.

Winds gusted up to 78 miles per hour and temperatures were in the teens. At

times the snow fell at rates of an inch an hour and more. Drifts up to 10 feet

high and more were piled up by the raging wind.

It had hurricane-like characteristics, with biting winds and swirling snow

that involved local residents in adventures they would have preferred to miss.

The week started normally with Monday morning commuters breezing along clear

highways, but by afternoon, these same commuters were frantically trying to

get back home. They faced low visibility and unexpected drifts across roads.

Even where it was plowed, ice formed and made travel hazardous.

By Monday night, thousands of cars had been abandoned on the roads and state

highways, forcing Governor Ella Grasso to order them closed to all but

emergency vehicles at 10 pm. She also requested that schools, businesses and

industries suspend operations until further notice.

By early Tuesday morning it had stopped snowing, but around 8 am it started

again and another four inches fell by afternoon. The storm had "stalled."

In Newtown, plows worked around the clock. Men were called to work at 5 am

Monday and 26 highway department workers put in 38 hours of overtime apiece

after that.

Most of the industries in town closed down Monday night and opened after the

driving ban was lifted on Wednesday.

No mail moved for two days, although the post office did stay open.

November 1898

"Each year seems to have peculiarities of weather, and so far this year has

done remarkably well," The Newtown Bee reported on December 2, 1898. "There

was the Fourth of July tornado to pass down to posterity and now we have

experienced a November blizzard almost rivaling, in its fury, the famous

blizzard of 1888, which came in March."

No one thought when the fine snow began that it would amount to much. But the

storm increased in strength and by that Saturday night the wind had reached 50

mph. The storm continued until late Sunday afternoon when the snow stopped but

the wind continued.

There were huge piles of snow, but by noon, Monday, sidewalks were cleared.

The paper said roadways were filled with snow from two to five feet deep. Oxen

teams finally cleared the roads, with gangs of shovelers helping out.

A "junior" blizzard followed on Tuesday night and the amount of snow equalled

the first storm, but did not drift.

The paper reported 18 inches of snow with a jumbo drift below the depot that

was 12 feet deep and about 100 feet long.

December 1915

The blizzard of December 1915 started out mildly on a Monday morning, but

became a blizzard by afternoon, and at 6 pm practically every train on the

Berkshire Division was stopped.

The night went by slowly, according to The Bee , but with good cheer on the

part of the passengers, despite the fierceness of the storm and the small

prospect of getting to their destination.

Because of the impassible highways, the high school was closed for the whole

week.

February 1926

On February 12, 1926, The Newtown Bee reported that the big snow storm of

February 4 was "a regular young blizzard," which by night had sealed up the

roads, compelling many motorists to abandon their cars.

According to The Bee , the storm was one "that will last in memory with the

famous blizzard of 1888." Regarding snow banks tunneled through on Mt

Pleasant, "You haven't seen anything like it for the last 25 years," the paper

said.

February 1934

This blizzard "almost rivals that of 1888," The Newtown Bee reported on

February 23, 1934.

"The blizzard of February 19 and 20, 1934, will long be remembered by every

person who experienced the inconveniences caused by its ferocity," the paper

said.

On February 24, 1984, The Bee remembered the storm on its 50th anniversary.

There were a couple of days during the nor'easter that nearly matched 1888.

The storm was a "junior blizzard," the paper reported. Everything came to a

standstill, with more than 18 inches of snow over the two days, and drifts to

ten feet or more.

The road to Bridgeport was closed for five days.

During the month following, temperatures of 24, 28 and 30 degrees below zero

were reported.

The February 1934 storm began in a small way on a Monday afternoon with light,

damp snow. About midnight, it assumed serious proportions, when a heavy wind

arose, causing drifting.

State highway department workers, with two trucks, were out all night. One

truck got stuck in drifts east of the railroad station. The other went to help

and finally both had to be abandoned.

Every road was snowbound. No mail was received. Six- to eight-foot-high snow

drifts were reported.

Not one of the local milkmen were able to move their cars to deliver milk but

Albert Boyson and son, Albert Jr, with hand racks, delivered milk to homes

where there were young children.

Local stores were lightly staffed. It was the first day in many years that no

trains passed through Hawleyville.

On Wednesday, two local state road crews opened the road from the Depot to

Main Street and south to Amaral's Garage, with a big gang of shovelers that

went ahead and dug through the worst of the drifts, the paper reported.

The average depth of snow was 18 inches. Drifts were from six to 16 feet deep

and more, with one on Mt Pleasant measuring 16 feet high and extending across

the road.

Young men put on skis to go to work, and one woman donned snowshoes to get

milk.

The subzero weather was followed by ice jams and floods in the Housatonic.