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N0KFQ > TODAY 15.03.15 14:45l 52 Lines 2200 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 50248_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Mar 15
Path: IZ3LSV<IW8PGT<I3XTY<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150315/1344Z 50248@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1941
Blizzard unexpectedly hits North Dakota and Minnesota
A fast-moving and severe blizzard hits North Dakota and
Minnesota, killing 151 people, on this day in 1941. Weather
forecasting and reporting made important advances following this
disaster that would have prevented the loss of life that occurred
due to the sudden storm.
The people of North Dakota and northern Minnesota had nearly no
warning of the blizzard that swept in suddenly from the west on
March 15. In some locations, temperatures dropped 20 degrees in
less than 15 minutes. Fifty-mile-per-hour sustained winds (with
gusts reaching 85 mph in Grand Forks and 75 mph in Duluth)
brought blinding snow and huge 7-foot-high snow drifts across the
states.
Most of the victims of the blizzard were traveling in their cars
when it hit. Highway 2, running from Duluth, Minnesota, to North
Dakota, was shut down, as were Highways 75 and 81. Attempts to
rescue those stranded in their cars came too late. In one
incident, six-year-old Wilbert Treichel died from exposure to the
cold as his parents attempted to carry him through the blizzard
to safety.
Two thousand people attending a basketball game in Moorhead,
Minnesota, were stranded at the arena overnight when it was
wisely decided that travel was too dangerous. Theaters, hotels
and stores across the region were also forced to stay open
through the night because so many people had visited them,
unaware that a major storm was approaching. Although the storm
was also severe in Manitoba, Canada, only seven people there died
because the population was much better prepared for the storm and
for dangerous weather in general.
In the aftermath of this blizzard, weathermen in North Dakota and
Minnesota-who had been under the control of the Chicago
meteorology office, which was more concerned with local weather
concerns and paid less attention to events occurring to the
north-were allowed autonomy in their reporting. Protected with
new technological advances in the wake of the disaster, area
residents hoped they would never again be so blind-sided by a
winter storm.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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