Weird and wild weather certainly isn't unusual for Arkansas, but there's one winter that surpasses the rest of our intense arctic outbursts: the Great Blizzard of 1899. Arkansans have weathered all sorts of record winter storms from ice to snow and everything in between but our great and great-great-grandparents were frozen solid for a long weekend, thanks to the blizzard that shattered previous Arkansas snowfall records. To this day, it remains one of the worst blizzards to ever hit the U.S. Let's look back to this unbelievably cool bit of history.
The Natural State has had a few notable winter storms in the past decade or so but nothing shook (or should we say shivered) the U.S. more than the Great Blizzard of 1899, undoubtedly the worst blizzard in Arkansas history.
The notoriety of this storm comes from its size: from Canada to Cuba! The storm began with an intense cold front originating in Saskatchewan, Canada that carried on south to the west coast.
The chill never dissipated and soon the entire U.S. was seeing record-breaking temperatures.
That February remains one of the coldest on record for the contiguous U.S. The chill even caused mini icebergs on the Mississippi River (pictured) with some portions being completely frozen!
Cities throughout the state saw record lows that have yet to be beaten.
Some parts of the state have seen more intense snows but we've never quite dipped so low in temperature since 1899. Winslow and Corning were down to -25°! Even the southern parts of the state were in the negatives like Pine Bluff at -5°.
Luckily the U.S. didn't see an entire ice age - the worst of the chill finally dissipated around the 14th of February, 1899.
That end date also gave the storm its other nickname, the St. Valentine's Day Blizzard. The frozen weekend came unexpectedly and caused disastrous impacts in every state. Arkansas was one of the states to have its bird population affected as well as human causalities.
We may have broken records for snowfall and ice in the past century but nothing has compared to the notorious Great Blizzard of 1899.
For more details on this humongous blizzard, watch this short video:
Did you know about this blizzard that broke previously-recorded Arkansas snowfall records? What's been the worst blizzard in Arkansas that you remember? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments below -- we'd love to hear from you!
For happier pieces of wintertime in Arkansas check out these frost flowers or hike to a frozen waterfall. After all, there are a lot of fun things to do in Arkansas in the winter!
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