The Children’s Blizzard
Written by David Laskin
Reviewed by Chelsey Ferbuyt
The Children’s Blizzard, written by David Laskin, is an intriguing book about the 1888 snowstorm that devastated the Midwest. The book discusses the causes of the weather event as well as how it affected families that lived through it. The book does a good job at explaining both the physical workings of the blizzard and the workings of the meteorology technology available in 1888 and other factors that influenced the damage the blizzard causes. In short, it takes a complexity based approach to this snowstorm.
The book starts by sketching the lives of some of the families that moved to the Midwest even years before the snowstorm occurred. From around 1880, it chronicles the happenings both weather-wise and also connects you to the characters by adding personal facts and memories from family members. This not only makes the characters more interesting and well-rounded but also shows us more what life was like at that time which helps later to understand how this blizzard really affected these families. One thing that the book mentioned was that most of the misfortunes these people faced were based on weather – draughts or storms destroying crops; cold killing farm animals, etc. The first few chapters give a glimpse into the life and times of the 1880s.
Then the storm hits. Laskin describes in detail how this storm started forming over western Canada and moved through to the Midwest, hitting Bismark, ND around 6 am, Sioux Falls around 2 pm and Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Des Moines around 6 pm. But what was really deadly about this blizzard was that the January of 1888 had started with such a long cold spell that when it dawned a fairly warm day on January 12 it was generally thought to be a January thaw and that the warm weather would stay for a while. The children could now be sent back to school for the first time in a long while and many did not wear heavy winter clothing, expecting it to stay warm. This lends to the name ‘The Children’s Blizzard’ since many children were on their way to or from school and taken completely by surprise in very inadequate clothing.
When the storm does hit, the low pressure system has such a large pressure difference that within minutes the temperature drops dramatically and an icy wind starts to blow. This was one of the largest blizzards on record, with a massive pressure difference feeding high wind speeds in a self-intensifying spiral. Wind speeds were sixty to seventy miles per hour with a wind chill below negative forty degrees Fahrenheit. It was indeed a terrible blizzard, one people would get lost seeking shelter in. One that many would freeze in.
During the part of the book where Laskin talks about the blizzard, the meteorological facts are mixed in between documenting what many of the Midwest residents introduced in the first few chapters are doing. Some are home waiting for their children, some are at school, and some do not survive. It is a very sad part of the book sometimes, when we are presented with children lost in a world of white where they are quickly losing body heat. We also let out a breath of relief every time a character makes it to shelter. But even one is too many that didn’t.
It is predicted that between two hundred fifty and five hundred people were lost to the blizzard and cold on January 12, 1888, many of whom were children. Some of this might have been avoided by better weather forecasting or more advanced warning, but this was eighteen eighty-eight and weather could be fairly accurate for a range of a couple days. David Laskin also talks about how the meteorologists of the day were employed by the United States Army and had hardly any modern equipment, though they did use barometers which were what helped First Lieutenant Thomas Woodruff predict that a storm with cold and high winds would occur, but not to the magnitude that it was. Forecasts were printed in the daily paper and relayed via telegraph from the Twin Cities. Most people, however, saw the blizzard as an act of God and didn’t put too much blame on the weather services. This event, however, did help change the fear of ‘crying wolf’ because credibility would be lost if extreme weather did not happen in order to save lives so that an event like this would not happen again. The weather service did come under a lot of heat, especially when another storm forecast was wrong exactly two months later in New York, which caused progress in that it led to all weather observatories being open twenty-four hours a day.
This book was interesting because it was not only about a big storm that happened but about the lives of the people in it and the changes it caused for society and weather forecasting. It weaves together personal lives of the families in it, meteorological data about the storm itself, and history of weather forecasting. It appeals to anyone interested in any of these categories because it is interwoven so well. There isn’t just a ‘history’ part and a ‘blizzard’ part.
Overall I thought that this was a well-written and interesting book not only because of the information on the storm but on all the other information about the people it affected. I think Laskin can be a bit dramatic at times, but overall the story flows well and indeed is a story even though it is history and non-fiction. The imagery is vivid and it captures the imagination and helps us better understand what life was like before modern forecasting, meteorological advances, and technological advances that help us protect ourselves against the environment today.
PS-I got called into work, that is why this is so late on Friday. Sorry.
