There's got to be a couple Trapperman stories for those old enough to remember this storm- 70-100mph winds and 30–40-foot drifts- can't imagine the magnitude.

And than it snowed a little !! WOW Great pic .

and the kids still went to school!

I'm from ND, there are quite a few old timers around who still remember this and talk about it. Pretty wild times on the great plains.

I lived in Grand Forks from 70 to 71, didnt snow alot but the wind never stopped howling and it was dang cold.

Only place I ever lived where everyone had block heaters on their vehicles

I remember that storm well. Helped ranchers dig out cattle and sheep that were under several feet of snow. Some where alive but most of them dead

We got the same "Blizzard of 66 " here in N.Y. Didn't care about getting out because we lived on a farm and had everything we needed to get by for weeks,,,but the hardest chore was keeping a path from the house to the barns to take care of the animals.Had to go out every hour round the clock to keep cleared out.You weren't going to town because the roads had 8 foot of snow in them.I remember it well.

WOW, that is horrendous.
May be the same system that shut down parts of MD that year. My mom and new brother were stuck at the hospital, be Jan 25 ish.

Was there significant flooding during that subsequent melt ? That also could have been a major event, huh ?

COOL pic, thanks !

I understand that same blizzard hit here at Lake of the Woods as well, but we called it a different Blizzard...likd "the Blizzard of 66", lol

got pictures somewhere of when it hit us, here in the U P , i was 6 ,

I was 4 think it was in march the neighbors barn collapsed, i remember looking ot the window dad had farm truck loaded with dead cows seeing the feet stick up over the box my uncle had a load too we had alot of hogs and they fed them to them..also snow drift by grandpas house pic of me on a sled on top of drift higher than power poles... think i remember it more from pic than actual event....but the cows is mayby my oldes vivid memory was a big deal as he lost his whole herd somewhere around 100 head!

People that have never spent time in the northern plains have no idea what it can be like when a good blizzard hits. It is common for us to have storms with 30-60 mph winds. White outs during the middle of the day, sometimes it is not even snowing and you still can not see. You can see the power pole tops but not the road due to drifting snow. It is 6 miles to town from my house and I have had that drive take 30 minutes during the day. When you can not see the road and are drive by which way the pickup leans you go slow. There is little to stop moving snow. I always wonder how far it goes at times. A little snow and a wind right now will move a long ways. The snow has a hard crust, but new snow will slide on it and make unreal drifts. I have seen them across the road that are 30+ foot deep in the tree rows. The road will have snow higher than the pickup on each side and a path cut through to drive on. Here is a picture of a drift I cut hole through to get to the barn to feed about two weeks ago. Once it warmed up I got the skidsteer with the blower out and cleaned it out so I am ready for the next one. The pen through the gate has not been cleaned out. Notice the bare ground around the car. Wind direction determines where the snow builds. The picture of the car was last spring when most of you had gardens planted.

I was just a yoing teenager when I lived there, I swear the summer never got above 70 degrees

I wasn’t born yet, but my grandpa told me stories about it. He lost a lot of livestock in that storm, said they tried to hide from the wind in the draws and the snow drifted in on them and smothered them. Spent many hours trying to drive them up out of the draws horseback. He almost lost his ears and nose to frostbite trying to drive them and dig out, he was able to save some but not all. frostbit his face so bad that it was too tender to shave for a long time. My mom and her siblings were very young, and when he finally did shave they didn’t recognize him.

I was 8 yrs old and we were living in Hankinson N.D. My Dad worked for Ottertail power and we were with out power for a few days. I remember when my Dads boom truck was following a big dozer to get to the down power lines. We would sled off the roof of the house and and out on to the street. Back then there were very few 4 wheel drive pickups. I remember my Dad putting chain on are Rambler station wagon.

The worse winter I remember is 1997. There were shelterbelts that had snow up to the tops of the trees. There were four of us coming home from work on July 3. And I pointed at a shelterbelt that still had snow in it. I said you never see snow this late into the year as that year. It was unreal

In 1997 the snow was almost to the top of the trees across the road. In the spring we went over with a couple sleds and climbed up and slid down the snow bank over caragana which is 10-12 foot tall, over the fence and out across the slough. We had snow left in those trees in July. It is kind of funny to cut hay a few feet from a snow bank in July. In the winter of 2010-2011 they came out the road I live on with two D-9 cats, with wide tracks and pushed the snow back from the road. The tracks were wide enough they floated. They stopped and ask if they could plug them in over night. I told them sure. The next morning when they showed up I went out and the foreman ask if I needed anything cleaned out. I said my hay yard was in pretty poor shape and he ask if there was anything over there other than hay and the telephone pole, I said no and in 20 minutes it was cleaner than I could have done with the skid steer in two days. The picture NDFTA posted is what my road looked like. When the road is a hole cut through a snow bank, it does not take much snow and wind to plug it. The spring of 2011 Minot flooded when it melted. The road flooded two miles south of my house and stayed under water until 2017. About 200 yards of road had three foot of water over it. I took the Jon boat and rowed down the road with a string and weight to check the depth. This is the first winter it was froze. A woman driving where her GPS told her, drove around the road barrier and out on the ice in the dark. I went down the next day with the ATV to get a picture.

When it looks like this for three days it will build a drift.



Me out trying to run some snares. With the down hill grade I thought if I hit it in four wheel third gear wound out I would maybe make it across the drift. Plenty of good exercise and time to think about it. You learn pretty quick to carry a grain scoop.

I remember that 2010-2011 winter MJM. That was my first full winter working in the Bakken lol.

The winter that created the muskrat boom..

I sure remember 96-97 grew up 30 miles East of the Missouri River and about 30 million south of the ND state line. Lots of snow and wind!!

This is my driveway right now. The N.W. wind is the worse wind for us.