The Great North Dakota Blizzard of 1966

The great North Dakota lizard of 1996. In March 1996, North Dakota experienced the storm of the century. The blizzard had snow accumulations of 20-30 inches, with snow drifts over 40 feet high.

[therealstory]

Can you image snow drifts tall enough to reach power lines?

[vinnybauer]

Greetings,
I was stationed at Finley AFS, ND during this storm. Got assigned there in February. March hit...saw the wind speed at over 80 MPH. Snow came down the hallway of our barracks. Covered the Commander's VW car...several others also.

Thanks for posting
Vinny

[hamood]

My school would still send us too school

[wsb]

Thanks to my parents, I lived in Fargo. Lived there for 8 years. Including during this storm. Don't miss the place one bit.

[buckwheaton]

The wires on the cover photo are not power lines. They are either open phone lines (no longer in use) or railroad signal wires.

[pddpup]

I may be wrong but that looks like telephone lines to me. I used to build telephone lines for a living.

[Jowler]

Learded about this storm from talking with old folks in my hometown crazy stuff

[miahalvorson]

"For the first time in the history of many towns, everything was shut down."

COVID-19: Hold my beer

[theota]

My younger brother was born in this storm. Our family lived in the country. My grandpa came with his team of mules to pick mom up and take her to the main road so she could get to hospital.

[davidkalafut]

I like the guy at the end who just throws the kid in the snow, haha

[motherearth]

My husband grew up just outside Beach. His grandmother's farm house had snow so high the kids were sledding out the second story window.

[thomastessin]

That is not a "power line", that is a much shorter telegraph pole and lines along the railroad tracks. You could often reach up and touch them.

[clashwithmoi]

It’s incredibly difficult to retain a sense of orientation with 0 visibility. Unfortunate what happened to the kids. They were too young to realize how dangerous it was.

[dinarripeltier]

I've only had to deal with waist high snow so far, but the extreme temperatures is what gets ya

[Blahblahblahking]

Basically the same storm just happened a couple weeks ago (April 15th 2022 area) the entire eastern Montana-western ND area got blanketed with 20-32 inches. the roads in one town I passed through had snow piles almost 20 feet high on the sides of the road after clearing. can't wait to see a 2022 tribute video in 10 years haha

[undeadpossum]

My dad tells me the stories all the time about it, he lived here all his life (he’s 50) and I have too, I’m 14, and I have seen a lot of snow, 6 feet it was last year. It can for sure get crazy.

[michaelvandyke]

I didn't live there in that time frame, but did after.
Many friends and family members told of the storm!
I was also gifted the book about it, worth the read...

[mausmith]

Spent 3 nights stranded in motel in Harvey, ND. Followed rope to cafe to eat. TV worked.

[whiteknightcat]

The description of the passenger train is quite wrong. There was no single train with 500 passengers on it, there were a total of three trains involved.

The westbound Mainstreeter with 120 passengers became snowbound just west of New Salem, ND after having left Mandan at 8 PM on March 3rd. It was supposed to have taken the siding at Glen Ullin to let the eastbound North Coast Limited pass but it never made it. Because of this, and the storm's intensity, the NCL instead was held at Glen Ullin.

A few hours later, the westbound NCL, having left Jamestown at 2 AM on March 4th, also became snowbound in a cut near Cleveland, ND. Four hours later, local train #3 from St. Paul to Mandan left Fargo. It too buried itself in snow west of Peak, ND, about 62 miles west of Fargo.

The Northern Pacific sent out rescue trains with heater cars but all three of them became stranded as well. Fortunately locals were able to assist to a limited degree once the blizzard abated, though the boiler water was exhausted on Train #3 and passengers were forced to occupy the baggage car and keep warm by chopping up the wooden floor of the car and feeding it into a pot bellied stove.

[bradmadeira]

It was the kid getting YEETED off the snow drift at the end by the OTHER kid for ME