The Blizzard of '88

The Blizzard of 1888

The weather on March 11, 1888 was clear and sunny. The calendar said it was still winter but it felt as though spring was on its way. However, by the evening of March 12, 1888 the weather had turned and a major snow storm was pummeling the entire northeast of the United States. Listen in to learn more about the blizzard and its powerful and long term effects. 

Chapters

• 0:00 intro
• 1:05 The U.S. Signal Corp. and the weather leading up to the Blizzard
• 3:00 Making a Blizzard
• 4:58 City folk in the blizzard
• 11:39 Adirondackers in the blizzard
• 12:45 Jesse David Roberts
• 18:29 After the blizzard
• 22:09 Outro

Transcript

There is a traditional folk saying that says the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. That means when March begins it is still winter but when it ends it will be spring. According to the calendar that is certainly true. The weather in March in the Adirondacks is often a mix of winter storms and mild, pleasant weather. That was never more true than in March of 1888. 

Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State. 

Before we get started, let me introduce myself. My name is Lydia, I am a school programs educator here at the Adirondack Experience, and the new host of AKDX-tra Credit!

The weather in the beginning of March 1888 was considered mild. For the northeast United States that means light snowfall and temperatures around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Much of the winter had been like that. In the midwestern United States there was one terrible blizzard on January 12th. But, the rest of the time the weather had been pretty average for winter. 

Weather forecasting for the United States was in its infancy, it was just starting out. The United States Signal Corps was created in 1860. They used instruments such as the thermometer, barometer, and hygrometer to gather data. This data along with observation was the basis for their weather predictions. By 1888 there were 154 stations across the U.S. Three times a day those stations telegraphed data and observational information to the headquarters in Washington D.C. The data was analyzed and if there was anything important or concerning headquarters telegraphed predictions and warnings to the stations. Then that information would be passed on to newspapers or businesses that needed to know. 

So, that was the status of weather prediction as the weekend of March 10 and 11 approached. However, we know now that there were two major storm systems making their way across the US. One was in the north dumping snow on Wisconsin and Michigan. The second was in the south bringing heavy rain and wind to Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Florida. Not very nice weather, but pretty typical for March. The US Signal Corp sent out predictions of brisk winds followed by clear weather for the rest of the weekend into Monday. Then they closed down the offices on Saturday afternoon. Like many businesses at the time they did not work on Sunday. 

Boy, were they in for a surprise when they returned to work!

The weather in the northeast on Saturday, March 10, 1888 was sunny and very pleasant. Sunday morning was cloudy and a bit blustery but still not too bad. One of the problems of this major storm was how quickly the weather changed. Those two storm systems picked up speed and ferocity as they separately went over large bodies of water. The northern system went over the Great Lakes and the southern system went over the Atlantic Ocean. Then they came together and created a huge storm that pummeled all the eastern United States. Because it had started out so warm and the temperature dropped quickly that meant that before the snow really started it became very icy. Then the winds picked up and it began to snow.

The definition of a blizzard is a winter storm that lasts at least 3 hours, has temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, winds of 35 mph, and with snow reducing visibility to under a quarter of a mile. That sounds bad enough. But the storm we are talking about lasted far longer than 3 hours. It lasted from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning. Temperatures were below zero. Winds were hurricane strength of 75 to 85 mph. As for visibility; people told stories about not being able to see from one building across the street to another in New York City. People in the country became lost trying to get from their house to their barn a 100 feet away. As much as 58 inches of snow fell during the storm. Because of the high winds, the drifts, those are snow piles created by the wind, could reach as high as 10 feet deep. 

The best idea would have been to stay inside safe and warm, right. But, many people didn’t have that option. The effects of this blizzard were sizable.

Let’s begin by looking at what happened in the cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and especially New York City. Because the weather was fine on Sunday morning lots of people were out and about doing their usual Sunday-thing. They were visiting friends, attending church, taking a stroll, traveling, or they had to work. Earlier we said that many people didn’t work on Sunday. But, the poorer working class person often worked 7 days a week. Therefore, thousands of people were not at home when the weather turned nasty and the blizzard began.

As the temperature plunged the rain turned icy. Everything became coated with a thick layer of ice. Street cars derailed off their icy tracks. Humans and horses slid and slipped on the icy streets. A trip that would take one an hour turned into 4 hours of struggling against the wind and ice. 

Again, people weren’t prepared for cold weather so they were not dressed in warm clothing. Remember the Signal Corp had reported that it would be a little windy and chilly. No snow or hurricane force winds were predicted. Many people that spent hours outside in the awful weather got hypothermia, which can be very serious and even deadly. There were  thousands of horrifying stories of people frozen, lost, or even buried in snow. 

As the rain turned to snow and the winds blew at hurricane strength all forms of transportation were affected. Trains plowed into snow drifts and became stuck. They derailed or crashed into each other because visibility was so poor. Horse drawn vehicles like carriages and street cars risked injury or death to their horses. The drivers had to decide whether to risk their horses to keep working or risk losing their jobs. 

Let’s not forget all the vehicles on the water. NYC, Boston, and Washington DC are all harbor cities. They sit right next to the ocean and rely on a variety of ships and boats. Tall ships masts became covered in ice then snapped in the brutal winds. Ferries and tugs bobbed around wildly. Many smashed into each other docks and land and either sank or became stuck. Goods being transported, equipment and even crew were swept overboard.

You may be wondering why anyone was out using the ferries, streetcars and trains. When Monday morning dawned many people went to work even though the storm was raging worse than the night before. In 1888 there wasn’t anything like a snow day, some people didn’t get vacation or even a weekly day off. Added to that was the fear of losing one's job. The country had just endured a major financial crisis. Also, this time was a period of tremendous immigration. Every year hundreds of thousands of new people entered the country to start anew. These two factors made people very worried about losing their jobs. No one with a good job wanted to do anything; like miss a day of work, that might get them fired. On Monday, March 12, 1888 thousands of people bundled up and headed out into the Great White Hurricane to go to work just as they always did instead of staying safe at home.Those that made it to work found themselves stranded at the end of the day. The weather had not stopped by Monday evening. The storm continued to rage.

If you search online for images of telegraph lines in 1888 one of the first pictures that you will see will be of New York City. Telegraph was a system for sending messages over long distances along a wire. It was kind of like the 1800s version of instant message, sort of. Telephone and electricity were only just starting. They run on a wire also. At the time of the great storm every company for telegraph, telephone, and electricity had their own wires. All those thousands of wires were on poles that went all over the city. A law had been enacted to put all those wires underground as they represented a big hazard even in good weather. But, the companies just ignored the law and when the blizzard of 1888 hit those giant poles were one of the first things to freeze and come tumbling down. It was dangerous, hurting people and animals. Also it brought all communication in and out to a complete stop. 

Another hazard the storm created was that the pipes carrying either water or gas for lights froze solid. This was a problem in two ways. During the storm water and gas were not getting where they needed to go. After the storm, once they thawed, the pipes were cracked and water and gas spilled out, still not getting where they needed to go. 

We have talked quite a bit about the working people, but there was another even more vulnerable class of people. The very poor and homeless. Very poor city people lived in buildings called tenements. A tenement is really an apartment building. What made them such bad places was that they were usually very old and poorly maintained, without much heat or lights even when there was no storm. So when temperatures dropped below zero they were very, very cold. Tenements usually housed far too many people than they should have with 10 or fifteen people crowded into a room meant for two. However, they were better off than the homeless. People and children that had nowhere to go out of the bitter cold and wind. 

The poor in cities did not have refrigerators or anywhere to keep food and milk. They didn’t have coal cellars for their heating fuel. They bought all these supplies daily. A bucket of coal to heat the fire. Enough food for one or two meals. When everything began shutting down they could not buy supplies. The few things that were available were being offered at increased prices, that they could not afford. Thousands of people went hungry and cold for the days during the storm and even after it finally ended.

Adirondackers and other country people fared better than the city folks. They were used to surviving harsh winters. People that lived in the country always stocked their root cellars in the fall preparing for a long winter. They had stored root vegetables, smoked meats, and canned fruits and vegetables to eat all winter long. Most did not rely on coal for heat; they had supplies of cut wood for fires. So, for the most part they were not hungry or cold.

Yet, the great blizzard affected them too. Farmers still needed to leave their warm houses and feed and water their animals. Also, like the city dwellers, they didn’t know what was happening to family, friends, and neighbors or how long the storm would last. 

The next piece is an account from a book published in 1961 titled Bears, Bibles and a Boy; Memories of the Adirondacks. The author; Jesse David Roberts, was 5 years old in 1888 and he remembers the storm well.

another voice

EARLY in March, 1888, when a big thaw indicated that winter might be breaking up, Father thought the weather conditions right for one more try at trapping fisher and marten far back among the higher Adirondacks.

So Father loaded his packbasket with traps and other necessities and started off for the valuable pelts. He left long before dawn, and by 9 P.M. reached Mt. Marcy, more than sixty miles from our house. He made his headquarters in a cave where he had often camped before. The next day he set his traps, gathered wood to cook his pork and beans, and brought in evergreen boughs for his bed. He saw numerous animal tracks and these made him confident and hopeful. On his first round to his traps he was not disappointed, and even felt that he might make a record catch if his luck continued. But suddenly the weather changed to an intense cold, and the furbearers, as if warned of an approaching calamity, disappeared.

But instead of an ordinary late-winter storm, the blizzard of '88 caught him on this isolated, wind-swept mountain. Father anticipated only a few inches of snow, and hoped that the storm would be over by Monday morning. It became increasingly evident, however, that this was no usual fall of snow. The biting wind whistled and howled through the swaying trees, and tried the strength of every cliff. Many trees came crashing to the earth, and broken limbs were blown about like scraps of paper.

Through the night and day, and on through the following night and day, the fury of the storm built the bulwarks of snow higher and higher. We did not fear that our bread-winner would starve. A skillful trapper can usually provide himself with plenty of food in any emergency. Rabbits, raccoon, and partridges are easy to catch or shoot, and were nearly always available among the hills and mountains. And Father generally carried with him a few easily prepared food-stuffs such as cornmeal, beans, and salt pork. Nor did he have to worry lest we run out of provisions at home. With the barrel of flour, bag of cornmeal, potatoes in the cellar, and milk and butter from our cows, we were stocked almost as well as a neighborhood grocery store.

However, we were prisoners of the storm. The full fury of the blizzard hit the Adirondack region. The temperature went down to twenty and thirty below zero, felt all the more because of the high wind. The snow was four feet deep around our house, and back in the woods it was deeper still. Great drifts ten to twenty feet high were everywhere. Our road was impassable, and not a single neighbor was able to come to our house to speak a word of encouragement or ask after our welfare.

Fortunately, there was wood in the shed, though it was covered with snow that had been driven through the cracks between the boards. My own task was to keep the woodbox full. John and Ruel shoveled a path to the barn, which was more than a hundred feet away, fed the cattle and sheep, and milked the two cows. Keeping this path open was not easy, for if there is anything that drifting snow likes, it is filling a narrow path. To get water for the stock, and for cooking and washing, it was necessary to bring in pails of snow to be melted on the stove.

At the height of the howling wind, when our small house vibrated and loose clapboards rattled, it seemed to me that packs of wolves must be huffing and puffing to blow our doors down. Indeed, the fine snow found cracks in our loft through which it came in tiny drifts close to my straw mattress in the attic. I snuggled close to my brother John for warmth and comfort.

When Father had prepared to take this trip, Mother had urged him to include snowshoes in his pack, but he had thought the winter was too far gone for such equip- ment. He changed his mind when the storm continued through Monday, and the snow rose up to his shoulders. There was only one thing for him to do: he must make himself some snowshoes. Cutting some flexible sapling branches, he bent them to the shape of snowshoes, fastened them in this form with copper wire (which he carried for mending traplines and making snares to catch rabbits), and crisscrossed them with strong withes. To lighten his pack, he left everything that he could spare in the cave, but the sub-zero weather had frozen his four fishers and two sable so quickly that he had been unable to skin them.

As soon as the storm subsided a bit, Father put his heavy, awkward burden on his back, fastened his impro- vised snowshoes to his feet and hands, and, on all fours, began his descent. Down the slopes and past the flows, he made his way over gigantic drifts and treacherous snow pockets. As he took each laborious step, the usually well-loved forest seemed more like a prison of snow. Finally, reaching the clearings, Father saw men with oxen attempting to break roads from one house to an- other. And now, in spite of the drifting snow, he was able to discard his cumbersome supports. With many zigzags, he pushed on with more speed in an upright position.

Late in the evening of the second day after the storm had abated, a familiar stamping at our back door indicated that Father was trying to leave all traces of the great blizzard behind him. With energy that did not know the meaning of the word "tired," he had made his way over those more than sixty miles of snow-filled roads in record time. I remember seeing Father standing by the kitchen stove as he pulled the ice from his beard, and I recall the joyous relief that filled our hearts.

During the next few days a warmer south wind and bright sun melted the snow and the sap began to run. The maple-sugar season was upon us, and the Blizzard of '88, for our family at least, became only a pleasantly exciting topic of conversation.

The blizzard ended Wednesday, March 14. The Adirondack region received another 2 inches of snow. But temperatures returned to normal and the winds died down. It was many weeks before things returned to normal. 

This blizzard has been called the storm that changed America. For all the disaster you have just heard about actually resulted in positive changes. 

• Those laws regarding placing telegraph and other wires underground in cities were finally enforced. 
• Cities are now required to have emergency preparedness plans in place.
• Another hazard during the storm was the flying debris. Yes, people got hit and even knocked down by garbage, horse dung, coal buckets, whatever. Prior to new laws enacted after the storm there was a lot of garbage on the streets. Each individual business or home owner was responsible for their own garbage. Or not. They could just leave things on the street.  After the storm local governments were required to hire people for garbage pickup and street cleaning.
• This one's just for NYC really. Prior to the storm there was a short subway ride that was kind of a tourist attraction. After the storm stranded thousands of workers the NYC subway system was regarded as a good option. It was completed in 1904.
• The biggest change that really turned out to be a bigger help for many more people than just city dwellers - the improvements to weather education and predictions. The signal Corp was replaced by the US Weather Bureau. The USWB is part of the federal government. They turned their focus on education. Learning more about weather patterns and changes. This change has led over time to the development of radar, weather satellites  and computer models. 
• Cities and towns were also required to hire people for snow removal. Prior to the great blizzard there wasn’t any snow plowing or any other organized snow removal. Individual businesses or homeowners could hire people, but if they didn’t it was just left to melt. 

Here in the adirondacks, snow plows and snow plow drivers are incredibly important during the winter months! Without them grown ups couldn’t get to work and kids couldn't get to school. Basically, nobody would be going anywhere. A snow plow driver usually starts work at 5am, that means they have to wake up at 4am or even earlier! Here is how a local snow plow driver starts his workday:


another voice
First thing in the morning, we check the trucks over, make sure the tire pressures are off,  make sure nothings loosened up, lugnuts. we go through the plows, make sure none of the pins broke or cracked. Then we head out on the road,  depending on what the weather conditions are we'll either be plowing or sometimes we just come out and put sand down.

Wow, I am so thankful for the work that snow plow drivers do. It's amazing how historical events change our lives today, isn't it? If the Blizzard of 88 had never happened, we might still have to plow the roads ourselves!

There is so much to learn about this significant weather event. Luckily because millions of people lived through it then told their story to the newspapers or wrote about it themselves, now there is actually a tremendous amount written about it. So many people recorded their experiences that historians, like us, can experience the Blizzard of 1888 without even getting cold.

Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. Ask us a question, or tell us what you thought by clicking the link above the episode description. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org