Guest post by Barb Boustead
You had to know that the meteorologist would want to write about the most weather-related chapter in the book, right? 
By summer 1881, an official weather observing station was opened in Huron, South Dakota, which is just 40 miles west of DeSmet. That’s pretty close, considering that the terrain is pretty similar between Huron and DeSmet, and we can use that data to approximate what happened in DeSmet from 1881 forward. The winter of 1881-82 indeed was a mild one in Huron and across much of the region. In fact, it’s the 11th warmest winter (December through February) on record in Huron, an exception to a decade otherwise marked by cold and brutal winters. Four of the 10 coldest winters on record in Huron came in the 1880s, and remember, that doesn’t count the winter of 1880-81 that surely would have been among the coldest, as well. Wintertime precipitation (the melted-down equivalent of whatever fell out of the sky) was a scant 0.45 inches from December 1881 through February 1882, the 4th driest on record at Huron. Snowfall wasn’t directly recorded back in the 1880s, but it doesn’t take a meteorologist to guess that a mild winter with little precipitation also had little snow.
My research has led me to investigate not just the Long Winter, but also several weather events within the LIW books. Overall, she has been remarkably accurate in her description of weather events, except for her tendency to exaggerate cold temperatures as “40 below”. Therefore, you can imagine how shocked I was to pull up the data from Huron in April 1882 to look for her “Unexpected in April” blizzard… only to find a mild month with temperatures that barely, and rarely, dipped below freezing. Try as I might, I just can’t conjure up a blizzard out of any of the weather observations recorded in April 1882. When precipitation was recorded, the low temperature was near freezing at worst, and the high temperatures were well above freezing. That is not the recipe for a blizzard, especially in April when the strength of the sun makes it harder to get daytime blizzard conditions.
Laura did compress and change the passage of years in These Happy Golden Years, as I discovered by researching other Laura weather phenomena. So I got to thinking that maybe the April blizzard happened in 1883 or even 1884. Still… nothing! The temperature and precipitation reports just don’t match up to a snow event, let alone a blizzard.Then I thought harder. With such a mild winter, perhaps the family had moved out onto the claim a little early. Maybe the weather was so mild that March really felt like April. So I pulled up the March 1882 data… and eureka! I think I have found it… unexpected in March, rather than April! After 8 days of mild weather from the end of February to the beginning of March, temperatures turned abruptly colder on March 4-7. Roughly a half inch of precipitation was recorded over those three days. Much of it fell on the 4th, when temperatures were in the process of falling from the 40s to the 20s degrees Fahrenheit, so some of it could have fallen as rain. Temperatures continued to fall steadily through the 6th, with a low temperature of a chilly -6 degrees Fahrenheit. The chilly spell lingered until the 14th, with lows in the teens and highs in the 30s degrees Fahrenheit. My meteorological guess is that fresh snow would have helped temperatures at night fall to those chilly readings in the teens right after the snow storm.
Temperatures for the rest of the month were mild, except for one abrupt cold and snowy period on March 20-22. It isn’t out of the question that this could be Laura’s blizzard, too; checking the wind data will help me determine if one of these was more likely to be a blizzard. Temperatures on the 20th fell from the lower 40s to around 10 degrees Fahrenheit, with about a quarter inch of precipitation on that day. (Again, some of that might have fallen as rain before temperatures plunged below freezing.) The temperature on the 21st was able to rise only a few degrees, to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and the low dipped to 5 degrees Fahrenheit on the 22nd before recovering nicely to a high in the lower 50s (yep, that’s a 50 degree temperature swing in one day… ahh, life on the Plains!). With such a quick temperature recovery, I suspect that the amount of snow on the ground was less than the storm in early March left behind, which is why I lean toward the first one as the blizzard of Laura’s memory. Hopefully the fuller picture of data will make a more confident conclusion possible.
The chapter is a short one, an abrupt whiff of winter in an otherwise mild year. Thankfully, everybody is home and the livestock is safe in the barn. Some of the elements of blizzards from The Long Winter make a cameo appearance here. The cloud from the northwest darkens the sky, the blizzard strikes rapidly with conditions that deteriorate immediately, and the blizzard lasts three days. The three-day blizzard was a motif in The Long Winter, rather than an accurate representation of reality… but in this case, the snow and blowing and cold indeed might have lasted those three days. Laura studies through the cold and dark conditions, adopting Ma’s “no great loss without some small gain” philosophy by being thankful that the weather made her want to stay indoors.
Making a new appearance in the blizzard world is Kitty, who provides comic relief as the blizzard morphs her into a wacky cat. Those of us who have had cats as pets probably can envision the effect of a strange wind on a kitten, bringing on bouts of spastic running in circles, hissing, and hair on end. (Or was that just my Camille?)
Unfortunately, the late and unexpected blizzard does catch a couple of greenhorns unawares. The inexperienced young men froze to death beside a haystack, lacking the experience or sense (or energy?) to tunnel into the haystack for cover. Their misfortune sparks an interesting discussion among Pa, Ma, and Laura about preparedness. Laura is frustrated because nothing happened during the winter in town, when Pa was so prepared for it, yet the blizzards came when they were back on the claim and unprepared again. Ma sensibly notes that those who live in blizzard country can expect blizzards. The discussion is relevant even in today’s society, and maybe more so than ever, when so many people this year have been vulnerable to tornadoes in regions where tornadoes are a part of the expected climatology of the region. Maybe I’ll expand on this thought in a blog entry soon .
Sensible Ma also notes that preparation gives some element of control; if Laura prepares to be a teacher, she might never become one, but if she does not prepare, she certainly will not be a teacher. The tidbit of wisdom gets Laura thinking about Ma’s past as a teacher. How did she get out of it? By marrying Pa, of course! Laura wonders if she could be so lucky. Cue the foreshadowing romantic music.