77 years ago today......

[Rebel SS]

The Armistice Day storm......




On November 11, 1940, a rapidly deepening low pressure system moved northeast from Kansas City, MO northeast through the Upper Mississippi River Valley and into the Upper Great Lakes. This low pressure area produced the lowest pressure reading ever recorded up to this time at Charles City, IA (28.92 inches), La Crosse, WI (28.72 inches), and Duluth, MN (28.66 inches).

Armistice Day (now known as Veteran's Day) began with blue skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. The weather forecast for that morning was for colder temperatures and a few flurries. The day was so nice that duck hunters dressed in short-sleeved shirts rushed to the marshes along the Mississippi River early that morning.

During the late morning and early afternoon, a strong cold front moved through the region.  Behind this front, the weather became rather blustery and the temperature plunged to the single digits by the next morning. The rain turned to sleet and eventually to driving snow. Twelve duck hunters were trapped on the Mississippi River between St. Paul and Prairie du Chien by gale-force winds and threatening waves. These hunters sought shelter on small islands and eventually froze to death. Rescue work the next day was hindered by ice which had developed during the preceding night.

Elsewhere heavy snow fell across the Dakotas, much of Minnesota and Iowa, and northwest Wisconsin. The greatest snow total was 26.6 inches in Collegeville, MN. In addition, 30 to 50 mph winds caused considerable blowing and drifting of snow which trapped unsuspecting motorists.


Twenty foot drifts were reported near Willmar, MN. The blizzard left 49 dead in Minnesota, and gales on Lake Michigan caused ship wrecks resulting in another 59 deaths. The storm claimed a total of 154 lives, and killed thousands of cattle in Iowa. More than a million turkeys were killed by the storm in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states. The storm became know as the “Armistice Day Storm”.

This storm, along with a slow moving blizzard which would move across northern Minnesota in mid March 1941, caused the Weather Bureau to rethink its forecasting procedures. Forecasting for the entire region had been directed by the Chicago office, but in the wake of this storm, responsibilities were distributed to regional centers to provide more timely and accurate predictions.

[mike89]

I remember reading and seeing programs on TV about that....   very sad.....

[LPS]

My Uncle borrowed me a book about that blizzard.  It told about the people that died in SW MN where I grew up.  Lots of kids didn't make it home from country school houses.  Some hid in hay piles when they got lost and the next morning when they stood up to walk the frozen blood in their feet flowed through their bodies and they fell over dead.....   One hell of a book.  I know where some of those school houses are.  Great read.  Can't remember the name of the book..  Some died in the school houses cuz the wind blew right through them.  They were not made to stay overnight in.  Couldn't keep them warm enough.

[Gunner55]

Reb, the 1st town in your story is where I call home. Heard my parents & grandparents talk about that storm

[Rebel SS]

Reb, the 1st town in your story is where I call home. Heard my parents & grandparents talk about that storm

KC?  BBQ rib land? O wow!!! 

[Gunner55]

  Troublemaker, you know what I meant. You takin lessons from glenn

[Rebel SS]

WHAT?!! I'm serious!!  KC is the first town mentioned......uh, where did you mean?  Ohhhhh...wait...you meant CHUCK CITY, right? 

[glenn57]

My Uncle borrowed me a book about that blizzard.  It told about the people that died in SW MN where I grew up.  Lots of kids didn't make it home from country school houses.  Some hid in hay piles when they got lost and the next morning when they stood up to walk the frozen blood in their feet flowed through their bodies and they fell over dead.....   One hell of a book.  I know where some of those school houses are.  Great read.  Can't remember the name of the book..  Some died in the school houses cuz the wind blew right through them.  They were not made to stay overnight in.  Couldn't keep them warm enough.

hey LPS.......... you remember the name of that book yet?????? something i'd really be interested in reading!!!!!!!!!!

[mike89]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...
 

[glenn57]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

[glenn57]

Troublemaker, you know what I meant. You takin lessons from glenn

hey hey...i just seen this. i have no idea what you speak of!!!!!!!

[mike89]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

must be the soft side of Reb coming out!!!!

[Steve-o]

I remember when I started driving my grandmother gave me a wool blanket and insisted that I keep it in my car trunk during the winter.

I didn't connect the two until just now, but does anyone think that it wasn't because of the Armistice Day Storm?

[mike89]

could very well be a part of it.  we were always told to carry gear in the car for winter too.. back then no cell phones no nothing to get help so you were supposed to stay in your car...  not try to walk out of the storm...

[glenn57]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

must be the soft side of Reb coming out!!!!

yea..it wasnt reb............i didnt know he had a soft side!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mike89]

 

[LPS]

I am trying to find that book Glenn.  Something else I remembered about it.  It started talking about how the weather reporting was a fight between 2 agencies as to how it should have been done.  One office was in St. Paul I believe.  Their bad forecasting led to many of these deaths.  The railroad wires was how it was communicated.  They put different colored flags on the towns rail road terminals indicating what the weather would be like. 

[LPS]

I believe it was the Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888

[glenn57]

I am trying to find that book Glenn.  Something else I remembered about it.  It started talking about how the weather reporting was a fight between 2 agencies as to how it should have been done.  One office was in St. Paul I believe.  Their bad forecasting led to many of these deaths.  The railroad wires was how it was communicated.  They put different colored flags on the towns rail road terminals indicating what the weather would be like.

no hurry....but thanks when you do. i've gotten some info!!!!!

[LPS]

It was called the Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 and the Childrens Blizzard of 1888... 

[Bobberineyes]

Yep I gotta hand it to the folks back in the day. Kids walking for miles to school or horse and buggy. If ya ask me we have all gotten soft. Listening to how people survived day by day back t hen is really fascinating and hard to grasp at the same time. I'm talking about life on the farm basically and I'm sure it was tough in metro area then also,  but here in town  nowadays with the tech but not to mention the extra millions of vehicles on the road help is much easier to come by..  Winter storms,  what's that??  The plow comes by while your sipping your coffee inside looking out.

[Rebel SS]

A lot of kids today are soft, whiny pusscakes. Just like my 33 yo neighbor that just moved. A six year old coulda whipped his azz.




From down here concerning that day: (Armistice Blizzard)



READS LANDING — Willis Kruger was a new game warden, maybe a year into his first assignment around Wabasha, when he was suddenly forced to drive through snowdrifts, walk on thin ice and try to save lives in the second worst storm of the past century.

It was Nov. 11, 1940, and the storm became known at the Armistice Day Blizzard, "the day all hell broke loose" and "the day ducks flew and men died."

Like everyone else, Willis Kruger didn't know the storm was coming. On that day and in the following week, he would spend hundreds of hours warning people about the storm, helping rescue some and searching for bodies of those who couldn't be warmed or rescued.


According to the National Weather Service report, forecasting wasn't very far advanced and no one knew what was coming.

"Armistice Day (now known as Veteran's Day) began with blue skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s," according to the weather service report. "The weather forecast for that morning was for colder temperatures and a few flurries. The day was so nice that duck hunters dressed in short-sleeved shirts rushed to the marshes along the Mississippi River early that morning."

For many, it was a deadly mistake.

When it was over, about 20 hunters had drowned or froze to death after being stranded mostly along the Mississippi River. Many stayed out too long because the hunting was great as waterfowl tried to escape the storm.

In all, the blizzard killed 154 people in the Upper Midwest, including 49 in Minnesota. The highest snow total was 26.6 inches reported in Collegeville. The storm caused gales on Lake Michigan that wrecked ships, killing 59 people, according to the National Weather Service report.

Though Kruger helped save lives that day, he didn't talk much about it afterward, said his daughter Darlene McDonald, of Wabasha. That wasn't Kruger's style, she said. "He didn't brag about what he did."

But his patrol reports provide telling details. His area was basically Wabasha County and included the river bottoms, from Wabasha down to Weaver Bottoms near the border of Wabasha and Winona counties.

Just how serious the blizzard was is shown in the top entry of his field notes, which the family preserved. It reads: "Did not get home."

Kruger wrote that he was planning to check duck hunter licenses that day with Warden Drazkowski, but conditions turned very bad very quickly.

"A very big wind came up and it snowed hard so we warned a few hunters to leave area," he wrote. When he went to the sheriff's office, he learned that "one man was drowned and another in very bad shape" at Pugh's Point, which is just south of Wabasha. He also went down to West Newton, an area at the head of Weaver Bottoms.

From that point on, Kruger would be out for many hours a day for at least a week.

Kruger retired in 1970 after 31 years as a warden, and he died in 1990. He received many honors for his work as a warden and conservation work. The Kruger Management Area of the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood Forest near Wabasha, is named in his honor.

[LPS]

This is it Glenn.  The Childrens Blizzard by  David Laskin.   Google it.  Lots of mistakes that led to the people not knowing about  the storm barrelling down on them. 

[dew2]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

OH MAN!!! secret admirer??????????????????? You PUTZ

[Rebel SS]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

OH MAN!!! secret admirer??????????????????? You PUTZ

Ya, she sent him a pic...her name is "Bubbles"...

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[mike89]

 

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

OH MAN!!! secret admirer??????????????????? You PUTZ

[glenn57]

  thanks LPS, ILK look them up. Don't mind them udder hooligans!;

[glenn57]

hey Glenn, I just goggled armistice day blizzard 1940 and found several books you can check out about it...

thanks mike!!!  i had a secret admirer email me a few titles! i'll check them out when i get more time. being out of the office 3 days last week things pile up!!!!!!!!

OH MAN!!! secret admirer??????????????????? You PUTZ

hee hee hee!

[glenn57]

So Friday I stopped at Barnes and Noble and found the book All Hell Broke Loose. read a few pages and looks interesting but think down the road I need to get the one titled in the grip of the whirlwind.

[Rebel SS]

So Friday I stopped at Barnes and Noble and found the book All Hell Broke Loose. read a few pages and looks interesting but think down the road I need to get the one titled in the grip of the whirlwind.

Is that the one where the guy has the bad case of gas?