WEATHER TIMELINE

The weather may be an interesting topic at the time, but the history of weather? Here are some highlights of the most unusual weather experienced by residents of St. Louis Park and the Twin Cities. We hope you will contact us if you have any weather-related stories to tell.

1855-56 was a cold winter for new settlers to be out in temporary quarters. The cold wave started on December 22, 1855, and except for a few hours on January 1 and 2, 1856, the temperature at Fort Ripley was at or below zero for the next 20 days, with many afternoon readings at minus 10 to minus 20 degrees.

For the second year in a row, the winter of 1856-57 was exceptionally cold. At Fort Ripley, temperatures were recorded at minus 50 degrees in February 1857. And it continued – that April was the coldest April ever in the Twin Cities.

On February 13-15, 1866, “Minnesota’s Great Blizzard” struck, raging for three days. Severe cold, as low at 30 below, followed. The storm struck at night when people were safe at home, limiting casualties. 20 ft. drifts buried barns. The decade was the coldest in all recorded Minnesota history.

On March 14-16, 1870, a blizzard hit Iowa and Minnesota, dumping up to 16 inches of snow. The term blizzard was reportedly coined by a newspaperman in Esterville, Iowa. It was a boxing term, meaning a volley of punches. Others claim it was derived from the German word "blitz." The term gained official acceptance on December 8, 1876, when it was used in the
Weather Bureau publication Monthly Weather Review.
 

On January 7-10, 1873 a three-day blizzard hit Minnesota and killed 70 people. Hundreds of cattle were lost, and trains were stuck for days in the high drifts.

1886 saw the deadliest tornado in Minnesota history, striking St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, killing 72 and injuring 213.

January 12-13, 1888 saw a sudden cold wave and blinding snow.  Temperatures were down to 37 below.  The day started out mild, but many children died when sent home from school early.  In all, perhaps 200 died in Minnesota's worst blizzard.

The disastrous hurricane that killed 6,000 people in Galveston made its way north, pouring 6.65 inches of rain on St. Paul, September 9-11.

On August 20, 1904, a tornado of such historic proportions that it was termed a cyclone, started in South Dakota and killed 14 people, including three in Glencoe. Three more were killed in St. Louis Park, including August Ohde. “They operated a store on the corner of 36th next to the railroad tracks. The family lived upstairs and he went to the basement to see that the windows were closed and the storm took that part of the building. … The 1904 cyclone took the Marble works and left a small office built of wood upon a pile about 30 feet away. This was later used for a store house and later became the store Freelands now own” [3751 Alabama, built in 1918] The storm continued on to St. Paul and Stillwater. Significant damage was done to both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. In the Park, the storm heavily damaged the Sugar Company, Malleable Iron Works, Fosston, Monitor, the Peavy and Great Western Elevators, and 20 houses. On September 12, 1904 the Village Council appropriated $100 for the victims of the cyclone.

The winter of 1912-1913 was one of the coldest ever.

In 1914, a tornado hit the Park that was so powerful it was likened to a hurricane. Seventeen-year-old Esther Munson was killed. See the Hurricane of 1914.

A terrific windstorm created considerable damage on June 2, 1925, as evidenced by this picture.  The picture at right is the former St. Louis Park Bank building, then the Post Office.  The Minneapolis Journal reported:  "There was mail missing in St. Louis Park, Minn. after the storm passed because it blew out the front of the building and scattered letters and papers in all directions." 

In 1936, temperatures remained below zero for a record thirty-six days beginning on January 18. One man remembers that school was closed for a week. Later that summer, Moorhead tied a state record high official temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit, previously set in Beardsley, Minnesota in 1927.

Although the drought of the 1930s is primarily associated with Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, the same conditions were present in Minnesota for the better part of two decades. Minnesota farms were subject to drought and heat, rendering them useless. The dry soil blew away, replicating the Dust Bowl further south.

In 1934-1936 especially, the weather was most brutal.  The dust bowl was a reality, even in Minnesota.  On July 6, 1936, Moorhead registered a record high of 114 degrees.  It was 104 degrees in the Twin Cities that day.  Pity Steele, North Dakota, which clocked in at an astounding 121 degrees.

To add insult to injury, winters in the '30s were especially cold - Bob Jorvig says that it would get to be 30 below and kids would get off school for 3 days, but then it would STAY at 30 below and the kids had to go to school anyway.

November 11, 1940 was the date of the Armistice Day Blizzard – a day not to be forgotton by anyone who survived it.

A violent storm on May 28, 1942 caused Minnehaha Creek to overflow. Lightning wreaked havoc on streetcars by shorting out their motors. The 4-inch rain set a record for the month of May.

Northwestern National Bank's Weatherball was inaugurated on October 7, 1949 at 600 Marquette Avenue.  It was a Minneapolis landmark until fire destroyed the building on Thanksgiving Day, 1982. It was removed in March 1983.  Here's another web page on the Minneapolis icon. 

Tremendous winds hit the area on October 10, 1949. The Minneapolis Morning Tribune showed a picture of a 100 ft. metal chimney at National Lead wrapped around the building.

On January 14, 1952, a horrendous ice storm made the headlines in Minneapolis. That spring, the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers conspired to cause some of the worst flooding in Minnesota history.

1965 was a horrible year for weather, with record cold, a terrible blizzard, flooding and tornadoes.  See the separate chapter on the Weather of 1965.

On March 22, 1966, eleven inches of snow were dumped on the Cities in 12 hours. Being spring, the snow was wet, and wreaked havoc on power lines.

On June 30, 1967, thunderstorms with hail blown by 100 mph winds destroyed crops to the south, and in the Cities it played with mobile homes, TV towers, and electric lines.

On June 20, 1974, thunderstorms were so thick that the streets went dark – less than one percent of the normal noontime brightness, as calculated at the U of M. Winds tore down branches and trees in an unusual ferocity.

The storm on January 10-12, 1975 was called the “Blizzard of the Century.” One to two feet of snow fell in upstate, with 4 inches on top of 9 inches in the Twin Cities. Roads were closed for up to 11 days. Wind gusts reached 70 mph with wind chills down to 70- in SD. The barometer dropped to 28.55” in Duluth, the lowest in Minnesota history.

On September 1, 1977, it rained seven inches in four hours. A 100-year rain, they said. Basements flooded, cars stalled, power lines were downed. Luckily the last major section of the city’s storm sewer system had been completed that summer. Still, up on 35th and Wyoming, you could paddle your own canoe. Streets were closed at Highway 100 at Minnetonka Blvd., Dakota Ave., and several spots at Excelsior Blvd. at Highway 100. Minnehaha Creek was up to “parking lot level.” And southern suburbs got it worse.

On November 19, 1981, a blizzard brought heavy snow that collapsed the Metrodome.

A total of 34.3 inches of snow falls on the Twin Cities on January 20 and 22, 1982.

A killer blizzard on December 28, 1982, socked in the city with 16.5 inches of snow. The snow caved in the Metrodome and similar structures.

An early blizzard on Halloween 1991 caught people off guard and the Cities slowed to a near halt before the tons of snow could be removed. The storm broke many records, including the most single storm snow total (28.4") and the most snow to fall in a 24 hour period (21).  Two sites on the blizzard at http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/top5/numberthree.htm, and http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/mobile_story.php?story=5167781.

In 1996, the town of Tower, Minn. registered a temperature of minus 60, the coldest official temperature on record. 

The worst flood in Red River history caused $3.5 billion in damage in 1997.

The EF-1 tornado that devastated North Minneapolis on May 22, 2011, started at the intersection of Highways 394 and 100 in St. Louis Park.  Property damaged in the Park included the roofs of the Nestle and ABRA buildings and the Cedar Trails Condos.  The Sabes Jewish Community Center offered its building as a makeshift disaster relief center for residents of the condos, which lost power and had a gas leak.  See the Public Information Statement of the National Weather Service for all the details of this terrible disaster.

The temperature in the Twin Cities, 103 degrees, was the highest in the entire country on June 7, 2011.

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.