March is a time of year when strange things happen with our weather from time to time. For instance, there have been several years where we had a blizzard on one side of the state and severe thunderstorms with hail, damaging wind, and tornadoes on the other.
But much stranger things have happened over the past that make living in the Midwest especially interesting. For instance, back in March of 1966, there was a massive blizzard lasting for almost four days that rocked the central part of the US. Many ranchers’ cattle didn’t make it through the storm and 13 people lost their lives. Broken Bow reportedly had 40 foot snow drifts but I guess that’s not surprising when you get wind gusts around 100 mph! There were also other reports in South Dakota and North Dakota of high winds and drifts around 20 feet high.
Needless to say, many roads and highways were closed for many, many days as road crews and locals dug out. Also reported during this blizzard, if all this wasn’t enough, were many thunderstorms, which is a clear sign of a very potent storm during the winter months.
And to make matters worse, places in North Dakota reported whiteout conditions for almost two straight days and places in South Dakota reported almost three feet of snow…and that’s without the wind drifting!