My mother and step dad constantly talked about how bad 1936 was weather not to mention the Depression going on. As a matter of fact I bought them an old 1936 license plate at an auction in Marshalltown in the 1990's to set up on their fireplace mantle. That way when someone asked about it, they could go right into their tales of that infamous year.
The following account was written by Don Muhm, a retired farm editor with the Des Moines Register many years ago and I have kept this article and would like to share.
IOWA'S BLIZZARDS, 1936
After my mother's death 20 years ago, we found among her possessions an old newspaper, tucked and folded carefully away in a special dresser drawer. It was an antique-looking photogravure section that years ago part of the Sunday newspaper.
I still have that special newspaper and was reminded of it when hearing the "blizzard of century" talk about this year's storm back east. The souvenir Blizzard of 1936 section led off with a January-February average daily temperature chart. It showed that the temperature highs and lows in a fairly tight range, moving only once in February over 20 degrees. The photo outlines told how in northern Iowa the mercury fell to 36 degrees below zero at one point. Des Moines' 1936 winter low was minus 22 degrees in Jan. 22.
The following summary sums up the winter of 1936.
"In all of the records of the Iowa Weather Bureau, no winter was so long and so cold as that of 1936.....from Jan. 18 to Feb, the thermometer fell below zero in all but two days... temperatures as low as 36 degrees below zero were recorded in parts of northern Iowa.... the snowfall was the heaviest in years, and not in the present century had there ever been so complete a traffic tie-up as that caused by the blizzard of Feb.8"
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