Harshest Winter in North Dakota History: The 1936 Cold Wave

With North Dakota among the most badly affected areas, the winter of 1935–1936 is among the most severe cold waves in North American history. Part of a large cold wave across the Midwest and Canadian Prairies, the event was the coldest winter North Dakota has ever recorded.

Linked to a very negative North Atlantic Oscillation event that sent chilly Arctic air mostly into North America, the cold wave was While the Midwest suffered bone-chilling temperatures unseen seen before, the Southwestern United States and California avoided the most of the cold.

Rising above even February 1899, February 1936 was the coldest month North Dakota has ever experienced. With Parshall, North Dakota, reaching a mind-numbing −60°F (−51.1°C), still the state's coldest temperature on record, tempers dropped to hitherto unheard-of lows. Recording its own extreme, −58°F (−50°C), McIntosh, South Dakota set a record for that state as well.

Late 1935 saw the start of the cold period; November saw some of the lowest temperatures ever recorded for areas like Washington, North Dakota, and Oregon. By December the frost had extended across the eastern part of the United States, even affecting usually warm regions like Florida and South Carolina.

No less cruel was January 1936, with a particularly strong storm inflicting destruction all throughout the eastern United States. The storm claimed several lives, and blizzard-like conditions rendered portions of the nation—including the Appalachian Mountains—paralysed. In some areas, wind chills dropped below −85°F (−65°C), and in Ohio and Illinois the cold devastated fruit orchards.

But it was February that really marks this winter in the annals of history. The month was consistently frigid; North Dakota's average temperature over the five weeks ending in February dropped to an amazing −21°F (−29.4°C). The area was still being battered by snowstorms, which produced drifts so deep that rescue operations called for skis. Weeks of isolation for entire South Dakota villages resulted from the cold wave's extensive disturbance of healthcare and transportation. Stores in many remote communities have just two days' supply of inventory.

Apart from the unbelievable temperatures, the harsh cold seriously disrupted daily life. Rivers in far southern Richmond, Virginia, were totally frozen. While Sceptre, Saskatchewan, recorded an amazing −63°F (−52.8°C), other areas of Canada saw temperatures as high as 30°F (17°C) below normal.

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The long-lasting consequences of this cold wave would be felt well into the spring; the damage on the population and infrastructure of the area was great. A thaw at last offered relief by the end of February, but because of the fast melting snow, it also caused disastrous flooding in the northeastern United States.

The toll on the region’s population and infrastructure was immense, and the long-lasting effects of this cold wave would be felt well into the spring. By the end of February, a thaw finally brought a respite, but it also led to catastrophic flooding in the northeastern United States due to the rapid melting of snow.