Debilitating Kansas Snow

"The winter was perhaps the most debilitating of all the seasons. At times it seemed interminable. For days and weeks on end, the temperature hovered at zero, and often it plummeted to twenty degrees below. Compounding these freezing temperatures was an almost ceaseless wind that whipped across the plains, often reaching over fifty miles per hour. To the settler unaccustomed to such climatic extremes, this numbing weather became almost unbearable.

A winter blizzard was an awesome spectacle. Without warning, dark billowing clouds roared across the skies and unleashed blinding bursts of snow. 'They came with a might blast,' recalled one witness. 'sweeping with almost the strength of a cyclone, raking the life of stock and sometimes human beings.'

Isolated in its cabin, the frontier family braced itself against the onslaught of ice and snow. Wrapped in heavy overcoats and thick woolen blankets, they huddled around the fireplace for warmth. Yet, the searing gusts of wind outdoors seemed to penetrate every crack and crevice of the prairie house."

Quoted from Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier, written by Joanna L. Stratton