The Great 1899 Arctic Outbreak

[f5]

I know 1899 in the meterological community is consiered the grandaddy as far as arctic outbreak are considered.ex state record low were shattered Ice flowing down the mississippi in NO Galveston bay freezing over .teens in BROWNSVILLE!.we haven't had one that bad since.i wonder what factors were there to produce this kind of cold vs the other outbreaks since then

[cctxhurricanewatcher]

very good question since we haven't had anything that historic since then. Came real close a few times, but no cigar.

[richtrav]

Actually it was only the shallow west end of Galveston Bay that froze over. What is amazing is that the minimum temperature in Galveston (was it 7 or 8F?) did not come at sunrise but at close to 11am in the morning, under cloudy skies with a stiff north wind blowing. Dallas was also insanely cold, it had dropped below 0 by 10pm that night with blizzard conditions. I think they bottomed out at -10

It really was an incredibly hard freeze, in Texas it was probably a 200-400 year event at least, nothing in the 100+ years since it has seriously challenged the records it broke, maybe one record here or another there but in the aggregate it stands way out there. According to the papers of the time it was, by far, the coldest weather ever recorded since people could remember, back to the early 1800s. Records from New Orleans tend to support this.

Also impressive was how much of the country the outbreak covered. Florida was very cold, Tampa had 28 consecutive hours below freezing, New Smyrna had a hi and lo of 27 and 16 one day, and of course the state's record low of -2. Most of the Florida peninsula, though, had an even harder freeze in 1835.

And unlike other cold spells that have affected the eastern two-thirds of the US, this one even made it out west. I believe Tucson had pretty cold weather (about 16F?), and El Paso was hit pretty hard (5F)

Hopefully none of us will live to see something like that in our lifetime, it would be incredibly destructive today, particularly to agriculture.

[f5]

Ft meyers had snow that year.let me tell you something when snow starts falling in south flordia you know you got one heck of a historic air mass.thats why the 1899 outbreak was so unprecedented.beacuse their were hard freezes and even some snow in place that go decades without seeing a flake

[Aslkahuna]

Tucson's record low is +6F set in 1913. There was another cold outbreak that resulted in ice floes in the Mississippi river flowing into the GOM and that was in the late 1700's so it would apprear that 1899 was indeed a 200-400 year event.

Steve

[Extremeweatherguy]

but late 1700s to late 1800s (1899) is only 100 years. So may be it is more of a 100 year event rather than a 200-400 year event?

[richtrav]

Yeah, looking around at Tucson it's really hard to believe it ever got down to 6 degrees there, that must have really turned a lot of the native vegetation (saguaros!) to mush. Even harder to fathom is that Phoenix hit 13. Do you know what those kind of temperatures would do to the city's landscape? Most of the plants they use can't take temps much below 20. It wouldn't be pretty

And I've also heard that story about ice coming out of the Mississippi back in the 1700s (or was it the year 1800?) but can't find a specific date or reference. Does anyone have a specific date? I know there was a hard freeze in NO in 1800 and sometime around 1787, but I don't think either matched 1899. I wish I could find records for Texas back then, maybe in some old library in Mexico? Even if temperature data is missing you can get a good idea of how cold it got by descriptions of damage to vegetation. But, other than Berlandier's writings, I don't know of anyone else who did it at that time down here

[Burn1]

High temp in Miami on Feb 2, 1899 was only 29 degrees...amazing.....

Christmas Eve day in 1989 Miami set a record low high for the day of
45 degrees........Actually I was at the Miami -Kansas City football game
that afternoon.....It was funny seeing even the Chiefs players wearing
jackets in that game that was in the middle of the afternoon

[f5]

if that kind of freeze were to hit Flordia it would be a disaster for orange juice

[Aslkahuna]

Score one for my advanced mathematic skills-you're right it's only about 100 years or so from big 1784 Arctic outbreak to 1899. As far as Tucson is concerned, the Saguaro ( and most other Cacti) actually can handle cold well as the Mesquite, Palo Verde and desert brush and grasses as the open desert gets rather chilly every Winter. Just recently, we seen readings well down into the 20's in the deserts and down into the teens in the highland areas (and even close to singles along the San Pedro River). The plants in AZ that are not capable of handling the cold that can occur are the subtropical plants that people insist on planting down here because "it's always warm in Arizona". Sierra Vista is at 4500 feet and yet people plant PALM trees here because it's Arizona. The poor Palms and Eucalypti have a hard time of it each year because we DO get a Winter here and some do not make it past the Winter months while the native cacti and plants do just find. I planted plum, apricots, nectarines and cherry trees for fresh fruit and every Spring I have to sweat out the last season freeze and it has turned out to be too cold here for Cherries to do well.

Steve

[Extremeweatherguy]

so since it looks to be about a 100 year event...we should be due for another major snap (like the one seen in 1784 and 1899) any time now. I wonder how we would react to something like that today. I couldn't imagine a place like Miami not getting above 29! I wonder what it would have been like to be sailing near the mouth of the Mississippi or in Galveston Bay that February? They must have thought that it looked more like Alaska rather than the northern Gulf Coast (because of the ice). It seems like they had more extreme events in the south during the 1800s. I was reading an article about blizzards being common in SE Texas during the Civil war, and that many men would freeze in the extreme cold. I also read some old newspaper articles from 1895 saying that 1-3 ft. of snow fell across the northern Gulf coast with 20-25" in Houston. It also said that it was so cold that it took over 9 days for the snow to melt across much of the northern Gulf. It also mentioned that even on day 9, there was still 10-15" on the ground in Houston! Wow...that would be quite amazing were it to happen again today. The city would completely shut down. There would be panic. The scary thing, though, is if it happened once...it can happen again...

[carve]

All this talk about a freeze that far back is very interesting...makes for a very interesting topic of conversation.I just wonder if we could ever get that cold again..and if so if this could be the year..been pretty cold.we usually don't see this type of cold here in ohio untill January.

[richtrav]

Steve

Where did you find the info on the 1784 outbreak? There is that book Early American Winters but I don't recall anything as serious as 1899 being mentioned. I really doubt the 1784 winter was as strong, since 1899 was able to push very cold air all the way through Texas and down the Florida peninsula while still managing to give the American Southwest a strong sideswipe, something that even the worst 20th century outbreaks could not do. Before 1835, the last previous coldest winter listed in Florida was 1766, which produced a low of 20 in Jacksonville, not really that cold compared to the freezes of the late 1800s or 1980s. A hard freeze surely would have been noticed in St Augustine, where orange trees were planted everywhere. The 1835 freeze took them all out, with many of the trees being over 100 years old, and no such damage had ever been previously noted by the Spaniards in the area. 1899 would have produced nearly as much damage if there had been any large trees left after the 1894-95 disaster. Perhaps 1784 was more concentrated in the center of the country around the Mississippi drainage basin. At any rate I don't think it could stand with 1899.

As for cold in Arizona, you are right they are planting a lot of things that will suffer serious damage in a worst case scenario. But I know for a fact that the Dec 1978 freeze did some real damage to native vegetation there, killing many saguaros and even freezing creosote bush to the ground in some of the higher areas. There was even reportedly cold damage to the mangroves at Guaymas on the coast. It's just that these events are rare enough that plants can recover with time. There is kind of a myth that native plants are hardier than exotics but that's not always 100% true; native plants here in South Texas and into NE Mexico can get seriously damaged by the occasional extreme winter, they just resprout from the ground or larger branches like most of the tender exotics. The same happens in Florida or southern Arizona

[therock1811]

so since it looks to be about a 100 year event...we should be due for another major snap (like the one seen in 1784 and 1899) any time now. I wonder how we would react to something like that today. I couldn't imagine a place like Miami not getting above 29! I wonder what it would have been like to be sailing near the mouth of the Mississippi or in Galveston Bay that February? They must have thought that it looked more like Alaska rather than the northern Gulf Coast (because of the ice). It seems like they had more extreme events in the south during the 1800s. I was reading an article about blizzards being common in SE Texas during the Civil war, and that many men would freeze in the extreme cold. I also read some old newspaper articles from 1895 saying that 1-3 ft. of snow fell across the northern Gulf coast with 20-25" in Houston. It also said that it was so cold that it took over 9 days for the snow to melt across much of the northern Gulf. It also mentioned that even on day 9, there was still 10-15" on the ground in Houston! Wow...that would be quite amazing were it to happen again today. The city would completely shut down. There would be panic. The scary thing, though, is if it happened once...it can happen again...

Boy, Southerngale, Lindaloo and the other members on the Gulf Coast would have a field day with that much! And you're right...if it happened once, it can happen again, and someday will!

[Johnny]

I'll tell ya what...if that kind of snow hit the Texas Gulf Coast again I woudn't be panicking but rather having a field day.

[southerngale]

Thought this was interesting. 30 below???

...THE COLDEST NIGHT IN TEXAS...

FEBRUARY 1899 WAS A VERY COLD MONTH...THANKS MOSTLY TO A BITTERLY COLD OUTBREAK FROM THE 11TH THROUGH THE 13TH. IN FACT...NOTHING IN THE HISTORY OF TEXAS QUITE COMPARES TO FEBRUARY 12TH 1899.

SOME OF THE COLDEST WEATHER THAT EVER HIT TEXAS OCCURRED ON FEBRUARY 12TH OF THAT YEAR. THE LOWEST TEMPERATE EVER RECORDED IN THE STATE OCCURRED AT TULIA IN SWISHER COUNTY IN THE EXTREME SOUTHERN PANHANDLE. THE THERMOMETER DROPPED TO 23 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. HOWEVER...THERE WERE UNOFFICIAL REPORTS THAT WERE EVEN COLDER...30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO...THAT NIGHT AT TWO OTHER LOCATIONS (WOLF CREEK AND AT A SITE SOUTHEAST OF PERRYTON...BOTH IN OCHILTREE COUNTY IN THE NORTHERN PANHANDLE).

THIS COLD AIR SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE STATE. THERE WERE EVEN REPORTS OF A THIN LAYER OF ICE COATING MOST OF GALVESTON BAY.

THE ALL TIME RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE THAT WAS ESTABLISHED AT TULIA WAS TIED YEARS LATER WHEN SEMINOLE...IN GAINES COUNTY OF WEST TEXAS...REPORTED A TEMPERATURE OF 23 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON FEBRUARY 8 1933.

MANY TEXAS CITIES ESTABLISHED ALL-TIME RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES IN FEBRUARY 1899. BELOW IS A LIST OF THE RECORD LOWS AT VARIOUS CITIES ACROSS THE STATE.

ABILENE 9 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1947
AMARILLO 16 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1899
AUSTIN 2 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1949
BEAUMONT/PT. ART. 11 DEGREES SET IN 1930
BROWNSVILLE 12 DEGREES SET IN 1899
CORPUS CHRISTI 11 DEGREES SET IN 1899
DALLAS/FT. WORTH 8 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1899
DEL RIO 10 DEGREES SET IN 1989
EL PASO 8 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1962
GALVESTON 8 DEGREES SET IN 1899
HOUSTON 5 DEGREES SET IN 1930 AND 1940
LUBBOCK 17 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1933
MIDLAND/ODESSA 11 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1985
SAN ANGELO 4 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1989
SAN ANTONIO 0 DEGREES SET IN 1949
WACO 5 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1949 AND 1899
WICHITA FALLS 12 BELOW ZERO SET IN 1947

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lub/winterwxday/coldest.htm

[southerngale]

Wowzers!! All you southerners need to read this!

EARLY WEATHER IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS:
ICE SKATERS ONCE GLIDED ON SABINE LAKE

By W. T. Block

Copyrighted and reprinted from Beaumont ENTERPRISE-JOURNAL, January 21, 1979, p. 9-A.

Have you ever wished for a little snow in Beaumont, Orange, or Lake Charles? If so, don't wish for too much - please! - because nature has been known on two occasions in the past to be overly generous with the white, fluffy stuff, and who knows, nature might choose once more to repeat its past record snowfalls.

Or maybe you've heard Grandpa talk about the snows that once covered the fence posts along the Gulf coast during his boyhood days, and perhaps you suspected the old codger of stretching the truth somewhat. You can rest assured -- he wasn't!

Whether one checks the snowfalls of recent decades or those of the 1890s, the record reveals that most of them have occurred in the month of February. Hence the odds are good that if Jefferson County is to be blanketed deep in the white fluffy stuff once again, it has a better than average chance to occur during the same month.

On February 14-15, 1895, Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana were paralyzed when 31 inches of snow fell in twenty-four hours. It was every man, or woman, or child for himself or herself as schools, stores, churches and sawmills closed down until it warmed up, and every pot-bellied stove glowed a cherry red as each person sought to ward off the bitter cold. (Firewood was no problem in either community around 1900 for every sawmill had large quantities of waste-wood products for free).

Perhaps Beaumont established a state record of sorts as of that year, or so the editor of Galveston "Daily News" inferred in his "Beaumont Budget" of Feb. 17, which read:

"Beaumont has made a record for herself that has perhaps not been equaled before in any other city in the state. Beside the disagreeable distinction of claiming the heaviest snowfall, she also thinks she can claim the distinction of having had used on her streets the first snowshoes ever made in Texas."

"Last night (Feb. 15) Messrs. Al Doucette (for whom the East Texas city is named) and W. G. Hinman walked down Pearl Street wearing snowshoes that fully sustained their weight and fulfilled their functions in every respect. They had a crowd at their heels watching the sight."

At Orange, D. R. Wingate, a prominent sawmiller and old pioneer who had lived in Texas since 1852, observed that the "past six days have had more arctic weather in them than I have experienced in any week in forty years." The editor observed that:

"The locomotive that does the switching in the yards here could not plow its way through the snow that averaged twenty-four inches on top of the rails...In some places, snow drifted to a depth of six feet and effectively blocked traffic at every mill along the river."

Realizing that the top of the rails would stand from at least eight to ten inches above ground level, the snow's depth certainly summed up to some figure between 30 and 36 inches. {From DAILY NEWS, Feb. 16, 17, 1895}

The extremities of weather in the year 1895 were really not that different from weather conditions of Civil War days. Two tombstones in Sabine Pass Cemetery are for 18-year-old boys, who froze to death only 100 yards from their homes during a blinding blizzard. In January, 1864, Sergeant H. N. Connor of Spaight's Battalion reported 21 consecutive days of sub-freezing temperatures in Southeast Texas. One soldier of his company, Co. A, froze to death; saddles, blankets, and personal clothing were frozen stiff; and several ponds near Beaumont were frozen so solid that the ice held the weight of the cavalry horses without cracking. In November, 1864, the ground on Galveston Island "was frozen solid with ice one inch thick." {Diary of Sgt. H. N. Connor and Galveston "Weekly News," Nov. 22, 1864}

In March, 1867, "the cold was so severe that the steam pipes of the steamers, steam sawmills, etc., were frozen and burst. Such severe cold in the late month of March was never before known in Southeast Texas..." {Galv. "Weekly News," March 28, 1867}.

Four years to the day after the huge snowfall of 1895, nature almost repeated its performance, according to a copy of the Sabine Pass "News." The following comments, which should shiver anyone's timbers a bit, appeared in an issue, a copy of which is still in the writer's possession, as follows:

"Last Sunday was the coldest day ever known in Sabine Pass. The thermometer at the weather bureau office here registered eight degrees, eleven degrees being the coldest ever registered here before {the temperature in Beaumont reached 4 degrees F.}. The Pass was frozen over, a solid sheet of ice connecting Texas and Louisiana. Skating was indulged in on the lake above here....It was a general blizzard, and from all quarters come reports of the coldest weather ever known in Texas." {A century ago, water in Sabine Lake was generally fresh prior to any channel deepening.}

And indeed, newly-arrived Dutch immigrants at Nederland, doubtful about ever needing ice skates in Southeast Texas, caught the train to Sabine Pass and spent the day skating on the Sabine Pass channel. (Passenger trains from Beaumont regularly ran to Sabine Pass over the Texas and New Orleans tracks in back of the air port from Civil War days until about 1925.)

Elsewhere in the Sabine Pass paper, the editor reported that the schooner "H. H. Chamberlain" sustained considerable damage to her gunwales upon breaking its moorings during the blizzard and "moving across to Blue Buck Point, getting badly cut by the ice." He also added that the schooner "St. George" was "set adrift in the lake by floating ice Sunday night, the ice cutting a hole through the side of the boat, causing it to sink on the lake shoals."

And along McFaddin Beach, there were tons of "fine speckled trout, weighing from three to nine pounds each, and mullet galore," and some Sabine Pass residents were shoveling them into wagons. The journalist ended his comments with the following remarks:

"Large quantities of fine ocean trout were picked up on the beach Tuesday and Wednesday. They had become helplessly benumbed in the cold waters, and were soon washed ashore by the beach tides, where they quickly froze." {see both Galv. "Daily News" and Sabine Pass "News," February 16, 1899. For photographs of the 31" Beaumont snow of 1895, see Beaumont "Enterprise," Diamond Anniversary Edition, Nov. 6, 1955.}

As recently as the blizzard of January 18-21, 1935, the temperature remained on 14 degrees for three days, the writer going out in the sleet at Port Neches only to feed cattle and break ice so they could drink, or carry in firewood. The writer's family remained huddled around the cherry red cook stove day and night, mostly between feather beds spread out on the kitchen floor. The family burned in three days what was supposed to have been a winter's supply of firewood. Over 25,000 cattle froze to death at Sabine Pass, and after the cold ended, the writer saw carcasses there so plentiful that he could have walked to High Island on the backs of dead animals. As an example of the cattle destruction, Ed Sterrett, a Port Acres rancher, lost everything he owned, 4,000 steers, and the cattle that were saved were those that were driven by cowhands all night. The writer saw cows that were frozen stiff, and some were still standing beside the barbed wire fences, where they had stopped walking.

So neighbor, if you're wondering what kind of cold weather Southeast Texas is capable of producing, remember - it probably has already been produced at least once. So keep your ice skates honed and your snowshoes handy! There ain't no law that sez it can't happen agin!

http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/ice.htm

[f5]

that why 1899 is the benchmark beacuse since then their wasn't an outbreak that can challenge it sure we had arctic outbreaks in the past but none measure up to 1899.1989 came close so i have to give it credit but 1899 remains the ruler as far arctic outbreaks go.people in the northeast US still compare nor'easters to the great blizzard of 1888 that storm prodcued up to 50 inches of snow around the NYC area imagine what that would do to the city directly.there been nor'easters but none like the great blizzard of 1888

[Aslkahuna]

I got that from an article in Weatherwise from way back which means that I will have to dig through them which will take some time because my collection goes back to 1963.

Steve

[Extremeweatherguy]

Joe Bastardi is predicting a major arctic outbreak beginning this next weekend (the weekend of the 17th) and heading into next week (the week of the 19th). He said a significant snow/ice storm could reach SOUTH Texas and as far east as mobile. He said it could rival the storm last christmas. He also mentioned a "deep freeze" for areas east of the rockies. If he is right, then we may be in for some interesting weather come the next week or two. Could it rival 1899? Unlikely...1989? Possibly...I guess we won't know until it happens.