Law of the pendulum When weather is unseasonably good one day the next may be equally as bad

thank you for sharing, great story

Hero of the day!

Wow what a great piece of history thank you for sharing I love to hear history stories from others❤❤❤❤❤❤

Your family has much to be proud of.

I read that book in 1967 at the age of 12 and couldn’t put it down until finished.

That was the winter she met Almonzo. He and his brother Royal along with another lad traveled several hours to get enough wheat to feed the town.

​@randywatts6969 I loved the little house books! I was quite frail as a child and would spend several days a month I bed or on the couch sick. Books and lap toys were my main-stay so my Mum started helping me build a massive collection of books in series. Enid Blyton, Thornton Burgess, Jean Little. Every month we would go to the bookstore for a new book. (I also haunted the town library 😂). I was 7 or 8 when I started the Little House series.

It was in South Dakota, not North.

@@judybeeding1813 North and South Dakota were combined into one territory then, before statehood

What a powerful story to hear at that age! God bless that lady who survived.

Mom always said she hated when there was hot and cold days on the same day cause didn't know what to send us in and then the weather changed while we were in school it's why I always brought shorts with me and pants and a coat just in case of that weather change

I love this I love history thanks for sharing a piece of history ❤❤❤❤

40 degrees and sunny yet walking to school in a snowsuit and boots because of exactly that.

More than once in my lifetime it's snowed in Iowa in late April, including the day I was born.

"Welcome to the Midwest. Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes - it'll change." 😅

I was born on an unseasonably warm day in early January while my sister was born during a blizzard in late March. Our mother always dressed us in layers. Better to have it & not need it than to need it & not have it.

I could not leave the snow gear at home until we had 2 continuous weeks of overnight temperatures above freezing, and it had to be after March.

Similar experience here in the early 90s in TN. It was APRIL. The day was warm earlier when we played recess. By the time it was last period i looked out the window and saw a blizzard 😱 first and only one i ever saw here and i lived here over 40 years. It took a month to melt.

​@@AliciaGuitarI remember that! I would have been about the same age as you.. I was stuck at a friend's house in Murfreesboro so we had a neverending sleepover! 😂

Normal winters here in Norway does a number on the body as I myself had severe Vitamin D deficiency. 7 months with probably inconsistent amounts of supplies would wreak havoc.

I was just thinking about that. I think that was the winter of 1880/81.

i read that as well, they indured a shocking long winter and then locusts and extreme heat, I cannot imagine it.

@@alisonbrowning9620 I love all the Little House books to this day, and I’m 64! Did you hear they’ve declared Laura Ingalls Wilder a racist and have taken her name off of the literary award named for her?

I wondered if the episode of the blizzard was about this blizzard. I guess it was!

same with tornadoes and hurricanes

In Kansas, it's usually opposite what is forecast 😮

Often times not.

@@quester09don’t bring tornados into your lie. It HAS to be cloudy for a tornado to form 😂 you think they just fall out the blank sky?

I definitely remember days like that as I grew up in Michigan. My dad used to say if you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait 5 minutes!! Lol

I just mentioned that storm. It hit places that never get snow like that. They called it "the storm of the century". I live in TN. I was in school that day too.

March of 93' by Pittsburgh we got 4 feet of snow couldn't open the front door

I remember this. I was in KY in 1993. We could not get out for days

I’m pretty sure we had a pretty significant snowstorm here in Georgia that year as well. The reason I think I remember that is because we RARELY get snow except in the North Georgia Mountains and us city folk lose our minds over the least little bit! lol. We do have snow plows but they’re rarely used in time and the roads are treacherous by that point. lol. I actually love snow. Might not say that if we had it regularly but we don’t so I enjoy it. I’d rather be super cold than the least bit warm. lol 😂

I pretty much only have the TV on for the weather forecast, otherwise it's background noise. But as soon as I hear the "and now, your KWQC TV 6 First Alert Forecast" focus goes right to the screen.

Like Jim Cantore for hurricane. If he comes to your town… get ready to see some stuff or leave. There was even a commercial about him going on vacation and everyone panicked, dude had the beach to himself lol

Gary England, from the National Weather Service and local stations in Norman, Oklahoma. He was the best and the biggest celeb. in Oklahoma. He could predict a tornado w accuracy. He even traveled to other states and countries, teaching how to use Dopplar Radar and other new, new back then, types of equipment. Him and meteorologists like him in the midwest are our heros! They save lives! They have to be accurate when severe weather is heading our way and it happens often. They don't usually get excited, they stay calm and give us the info we need, but when they say "Take cover", "Get prepared" or "You have time to leave", which is rare and only reserved for the extremely large mile-wide or wider tornados, you listen! We always listen! So shout out to our talented and caring meteorologists!!! May God continue to bless you all in your efforts to keep us all safe!🥰

@@janicev4862❤ amen hallelujah. I grew up with that man telling us to take shelter. And by god we did.

In St. Paul/Mpls we had a young Paul Douglas who was much beloved and something of a revolutionary at the time. When he left us for a larger market we were all verklempt.

Uphill both ways? 😜

The children died, bruh

Poor you. So did I.

Should try that in Australia!

@@globalwarmhugs7741, not my great grandmother.

I have it. 😊

Excellent book

Very good book, but a sad read.

Ty for the recommendation

Thank you for the book info. I just purchased the 9 1/2 hour audiobook from Audible. Ready for the road trip!

Yeah I was born in Denver and to this day, I don't consider it Spring till May.

Dumb question - would you just carry /pack your school shoes & change when you got there? Or wear rubber boots all day?

@@nessa2481 Rubber galoshes went OVER our shoes. We took off galoshes inside and stored them in our cubbies.

Yep Colorado weather, sunny one minute and snowing the next,

Lived up by the Great Lakes in Ohio. We did the same. Blankets, rations that couldn’t freeze, heat packs of some variation: now I live in Missouri, but I still think the same way.

Native Nebraskan, here too. I have family that was in that blizzard. Some had tales to tell. Wish I had listened more carefully.

Native Nebraskan, I remember hooking up static lines to run from the house to the barn so we wouldn't get lost

​@@raewren same here, cuyahoga county. When I bought my first car my dad gifted me a shovel. I keep a full winter emergency kit in my trunk all year long. I find it so odd when others don't have a first aid kit, or extra water, or even a blanket or towel in their car.

I lived in CO for one year and was told more than once to have emergency things in my car. I moved back to NJ and still keep wool blanket & socks, a hat & gloves, a few days of my necessary meds, water, a jar of peanut butter.

My great grandparents were 2 of them.

My Swedish great grandparents went to Texas

Another big advantage they had was that they were given free land that was stolen by the state from Native tribes who had been living on that land for thousands of years. Once the settlers discovered California they left. LoL

It's where my Norwegian ancestors settled.

And Upper Michigan!

I learned about it from Little House on the Prairie

The fact you felt excitement just shows how psychopathic you are.

I think there's more than one by that moniker. All terrifying.

Yea It's also called the children's blizzard

I remember after moving to SD in 1996/1997 we got the worst snowstorm in many decades, 60 years I believe. Snow drifts were over 6ft tall, and my siblings had to dig a tunnel to get out the front door

Read this book. Highly recommend.

I just bought it on kindle.

Had a boss from Nebraska when I lived in New Jersey My father's family is from Quebec. We talked about this kind of weather and our new Jersey coworkers scoffed. They had no clue.

@@angelachouinard4581 NJ native here and I’m horrified. I thought our Nor’easters were bad enough 😳

Grew up there, it definitely left its mark on the whole region. We’ve had a few such blizzards, but I saw the date and knew exactly what it was

I'd say "welcome to the Great Plains," but I refuse to spend more time in either of the Dakotas than the time it takes to drive across them.

@@rapturesrevengeits not that bad. you just have to get acclimated

@@viewer-of-contentI’m up in Saskatchewan and you don’t get acclimated, not when the weather the temp ranges from -40 to 100 degrees in the same year

@@josiahb2355 you just got to stay fit&jacked. when i stress eat and put on 50lbs with depression&anxiety, then my feet and hands are cold that winter. and when Im at my peak 150lbs, then im warm. blood flow is directly related to metabolism. also I need to not react so poorly over bad news because it takes 6 months to bounce back. a roughly 3 year oscillation weight pattern is bad

@@viewer-of-content acclimated? Is that why y'all infest Montana? If your states are so awesome, why do you have to come to mine all the time?

Is the book still in print?

and the temperature bounced back. it went from -4°f-54°f--7°f over the course of around an hour

Wozers

sounds good until the power company tells you that you will be without power for hours while they try to find a backhoe to dig up damaged power line and to bury pre existing power lines requires millions of dollars per mile

​@@KILLKING110 Nah, for heavy power lines, like the high tension, sure. Anything else, spool of wire and a ditch witch with a guy walking behind it at a decent pace. Not millions.

​@KILLKING110 we have buried power lines in a lot of the newer areas where I live in Australia (over head power lines cause a lot of fires..)it doesn't cost a fortune or take long periods to fix them.

​@@KILLKING110a power company that doesn't have backhoes points to a different issue altogether.

@@KILLKING110 California here: It still sounds like a good idea. Overhead lines have been starting deadly fires here since at least 2017. And many of the homes in the affected areas cost about 1-4 million each if you have to move to a new onee, though they did not cost nearly so much to buy or buikd back in the day.

Schools were often small, with one teacher for eveyone-delegation? Only one teacher😂

@@thecook8964 My last paragraph is referring to the incident I described in the rest of the post. I'm making the point that when the 1888 blizzard happened there were good reasons why there was no warning and no communication, in 1996 there was no excuse and it shouldn't have happened.

How well I remember that Storm. I too am a former New Yorker who learned don't try to drive when it snows in Ga. After seeing 3 cars wrap around light poles I went home.

They do have a point with the heat stroke,putting your kids at risk for the opposite extreme doesn't help them

I am not familiar with Celsius- I am curious as to why the negative equivalent to change C to F is almost the same, but positive has a differential of 65+ degrees?

1978

never mind, there was a giant blizzard in '77 too

@@theSnakeDoctor 77 was the year here ( buffalo/ Niagara Falls) that is infamous. Some areas had 14 foot drift ls. I was not born yet

The old timers love talking about it. It didn’t snow that much but the lake was frozen and all of Lake Eries snow blew on the area

@@derekk8523 Im Rhode Island and we got slammed in 78, also not born yet, I didnt know about the New York/Ontario one in 77. Rough couple years there for the North East, but thanks to you I know about it know, so right on

Hello fellow north Iowan! Clear Lake area here.

Yeah, but -35 is pretty rare here, especially in the last couple of decades.

@@teresabenson3385 true still sub zero is the norm but just for days or a week at a time.

You are correct. After the blizzard swept through the Midwest it hit the Eastern United States.

The one in 1880 was a separate event to the one in 1888.

Did everyone make it out of the schoolhouse in time?

@@shirleymiller4219 I had to look it up in the family history to make sure I got the story right. The teacher was very angry with my father for walking out like that. The stove must have been working again because later in the day the kids had their coats off and my uncle who was a little older than my dad, noticed the fire and shouted "fire." The teacher had them all line up at the door without their coats and ordered them out. One little girl wanted to go back inside to get her new coat. The teacher and my uncle were struggling with her at the door step when the roof caved in. Everyone was safe but how the fire started is not mentioned. A nearby farmer had seen the smoke and came quickly to take everyone to bis farmhouse.

@@annabelleb.8096 I’m so glad they held that little girl off or she might have been in there when the roof collapsed. And wise of the teacher for having them all leave then without stalling to get their coats. I have recently read of two horrible schoolhouse fires . One in New York City somewhere in 1958 and one I believe in Ohio in 1908. There were many teachers and students who didn’t make it out for various reasons. So very sad.

@@shirleymiller4219 It does look like the teacher made the right decision to get the kids out without their coats. At the end of the day my dad was only child in the classroom to still have his winter coat. 😊 There was also a terrible fire at a large Catholic school in Chicago in the '50's where a lot of nuns and students died.

@@annabelleb.8096 okay yes , this was one of the two I mentioned. It was Chicago; not Ohio.

@@barbaraparker6996 the TV show, not the books. The episode is named Blizzard and based on this blizzard. Even the school children are released early in the episode.

@@barbaraparker6996 "The Little House on the Prairie episode titled "Blizzard" that aired on January 3, 1977, has a plot that parallels the real-life events of the "Children's Blizzard" of January 12, 1888. The episode includes a sudden snowstorm that turns into a blizzard, children leaving school without coats, and children getting lost due to poor visibility. "

SMH, at the teacher who didn't bring in wood so sent the kids home. As if books and desks wouldn't burn. Big deal, the community would have to replace them but their children would likely have survived to sit on the floor instead of at desks.

The book about that, Isaac’s Storm, is a very engrossing read. The Cuban weather bureau had a lot of experience and knew the monster storm was heading across the Gulf of Mexico toward Galveston’s general vicinity. But Isaac Cline, Chief weatherman for Texas, thought he knew better. That story always reminds me of the saying “pride goeth before the fall” because Isaac lost his pregnant wife and several children in that storm. I suspect you’ve already read the book but, if not, it’s excellent!

😅 As a fellow Iowan, I can say you're exaggerating quite a bit. A quick check of meteorology records will out you.

@@teresabenson3385 His numbers are greatly exaggerated but as a Jackson County resident, he's not wrong about the weather being bipolar AF.

Not to mention the random high winds uprooting trees, lol. I'm almost 50, have pretty much always lived in Iowa but at the same time have always wondered why the hell anyone lives here. Other than the ethanol blend gas being cheaper than it is most other places, of course. 😂

@@cpuwizard9225 Yeah, I didn't realize until well into adulthood that many other places have narrower temperature ranges than we do.

@@phaedrapage4217 It's not the worst place. No earthquakes or hurricanes. People are generally nice. Equidistant to both coasts means no redeye flights. First dibs on who gets to be on the presidential ticket.

Sadly, people still don't pay attention. Once, ok more than once, I tried to tell the neighbors to expect a flood but most didn't listen but we moved their outdoor stuff up as far as possible. On one side of the river, firetrucks were going around warning people. On the other side of the river, crickets. I even called but was poo'ed off. We were on the crickets side but decided to pack the vehicles and head to high ground with kids, grandparents, pets and photo albums. The next day, the river had risen 33 feet. The next few days, I had neighbors' irreplacable photo albums spread all over the house drying out.

Then there were the 2 severe freezes in TX in recent years. We had plenty of warning for days but people, mostly city folk, still sat on their thumbs and did nothing to prepare. From interviews, one family was in tears over having to go to the neighbors to heat their baby's bottle. Excuse me, they had a fireplace going and they had body heat. Put the bottle under your arm and it will heat up a bit. As if a fireplace wouldn't also cook their food. Many people were also upset the food in their freezers melted (ah, so not so cold in the house, huh) but they never thought to move food out to the garage or outside where is was below freezer temps. Then there were the beyond clueless who, after being warned for days, had zip, zero, nada food in their homes much less any clue how to cook it so other people had to risk bringing them already prepared food. Even if people had the bare minimum of food at the house and no money to buy out the grocery store, they would have been fine. Close off all rooms other than one where everyone can gather - bodies generate heat. Cover windows and doors with anything available be it towels or extra blankets or cardboard or bubble wrap will stick to the wet glass. Fill containers with water before the power goes out and put them into empty spaces in the freezer to 1) help keep things frozen and 2) that is drinkable water. Fill every clean container with water to keep for drinking and not so clean containers to use in the toilet - yellow can mellow and put tp in the trash until utilities are working. May need to put plastic grocery bags on the seat for #2. Get the laundry done and clean the kitchen while there is still power. And everyone take a bath while there's still hot water and less stinkage after a few days without. Find your batteries and flashlights and charge everything. Get emergency phone numbers written down on paper. Beware, cell towers may go down quickly. Find all your candles and matches and be careful using them. Before hand, bake up whatever you have on hand to eat as snacks especially for the kids - bread, cookies, a cake mix, breakfast muffins and pop a big batch of popcorn. Pre-cook pasta and rice and throw in whatever vegs or meats you have and so what if you have to eat it cold, at least you're not starving. FYI, cooked pinto beans need cold or they won't last long unrefrigerated so beware and keep them in the cold. You can eat straight from the can (you do have a manual can opener?) - vegs, tuna, fruit, vienna sausages, soup. Don't drain the canned veg/meat down the sink as that is liquid to drink or use it to stir into potato flakes. Eat the ice cream first before it melts. Drink the milk before it sours. BEWARE of grills as they will kill you if they're used inside. If not approved for inside use, then do NOT.