In 1979, Wisconsin Plunged Into An Arctic Freeze That Makes This Year’s Winter Look Downright Mild
It’s been awfully cold and snowy for early November, and it’s left most Wisconsinites dreading the rest of winter. We’ve already had to shovel, break out the boots and gear up in all our winter best well before Thanksgiving, so it’s a little upsetting to think that we’re really only at the start of this and still more than a month away from the technical start of winter. We’ve lived here long enough to know this is going until at least April, so it’s all just a bit depressing and upsetting.
But even as bad as it’s been (and will surely get), it’s nothing compared to the winter of 1978-1979. Forty years ago, Wisconsin experienced one of the coldest, snowiest, most prolonged stretches of winter the state has ever seen.
Technically, winter record-keeping only covers December through February, since that's what's known as "meteorological winter." The idea of just three months of cold and snow is both laughable and something I hope to achieve one day.
In the winter that spanned 1978-1979, the entire state had some of the most prolonged stretches of cold Wisconsin has ever seen. January was particularly bad, with temperatures dipping to -20 and lower at times and most of the beginning of the year saw below zero temperatures.
There were a record 112 days in a row with at least 1" of snow on the ground and parts of the state saw up to 40 consecutive days where the mercury did not climb above zero.
Temperatures varied a bit across the state, but the average for those three months was about 12 degrees, one of the ten coldest winters ever recorded (dating back to 1871) in Wisconsin.
Madison broke a record that had stood for nearly 100 years, gathering more than 76 inches of snow that during the winter of 1978-79. Oshkosh saw more than 87 inches. Using a guide that puts weather and no more than 35 degrees and snow at a depth of more than an inch, it's estimated the winter of 1978-79 lasted 123 days in the central part of the state.
There were back-to-back-to-back snowstorms to start 1979 that few could keep up with. It left a snowpack at least two feet in depth most places. There were at least 40 consecutive days where the snowpack exceeded 20". Snowblowers existed at the time, but were not prevalent and many store couldn't keep them in stock that year. Folks report snow up to their thighs as they tried to move around on New Year's Day 1979.
Schools and businesses closed as the temperatures stayed so low and kids from that time remember days having to be added to the end of the school year to make up for the missed time. It was dangerous to be outside with exposed skin, water pipes burst, roads were a pot-hole-filled mess and the cold and snow wreaked havoc on simple, everyday life activities. On some days, it wasn't safe for children to even be outside waiting for the school bus.
It's easy to forget how truly bad a Wisconsin winter can get, but they don't get much worse than the winter of 1978-79. Long before we had the base layer technology we have now, folks were layering up, putting plastic bags inside their snow boots and finding a way to keep every bit of skin covered and warm. A winter that lasts 123 days sounds endless and must have felt that way while it was happening.
Do you remember the winter of 1978-79? We want to hear about how you made it through one of Wisconsin’s coldest, snowiest winters. Tell us about it in the comments!
