Iowa snow: Here are the largest single-day snowstorms in Des Moines history
Des Moines has experienced countless blizzards over the years, including nine storms that dropped a foot of snow or more in a single day, according to the National Weather Service.
Over the city's history, these whoppers have delayed train travel, scuttled major events and even created St. Patrick's Day surprises.
So let's take a look at Des Moines' top 10 single-day snowfall totals in city history.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Brooke Hagenhoff cautioned that snow totals alone are not a great measure of a storm's severity. Other storms have produced more damage without dropping as much snow. And some storms produced more snow over more than 24 hours than the single-day storms listed below.
No.1: New Year's Day 1942
Des Moines' largest snowstorm on record rang in 1942 with 19.8 inches of the white stuff. The snowstorm paralyzed central Iowa, according to a State Historical Society report on "Outstanding Iowa storms." More than two feet of snow fell from in a swath from Page County to Black Hawk County, according to the report.
"The suffering from this storm was intensified by the extreme cold following," said the 1970 report. Gale force winds blew the snow into deep drifts. The day after the storm temperatures sank to minus 15 degrees in northwest Iowa and 0 degrees in Des Moines.
No. 2: Post-Christmas blizzard
Details of this storm on Dec. 26, 1888 are difficult to find. But what we know: It was a doozy. The storm dropped 17 inches of snow on Des Moines. Train travel was heavily impeded.
No. 3: 'Worst February snow on record'
"Worst February snow on record" read a headline in the Des Moines Register after 14.2 inches of snow fell on Feb. 28, 1939.
National Weather Service records indicate that is still the worst February snowstorm on record. The Creighton and Nebraska men's basketball teams were marooned at the Chamberlin Hotel on Locust Street. Today, the Two Ruan Center office building sits on the site.
Snow was so thick on old Iowa Highway 132 near Urbandale that "one of the county's largest plows could not buck the snow," the Register reported. Later efforts to clear the road were abandoned.
No. 4: 1996 blizzard brings thunderstorms, hail, big snow
Des Moines got 13.7 inches of snow from a blizzard that hit Iowa and Wisconsin on Jan. 26,1996. Before the snow fell, thunderstorms formed over Des Moines and brought large hail and winds of more than 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
No. 5: 14-inch snowstorm results in 7 dead
Seven Iowans died from heart attacks caused by shoveling or pushing cars in a Jan. 3, 1971 snowstorm which dumped 13.6 inches of snow on Des Moines. The storm covered the state in heavy snow and 50 mph winds.
No. 6: 12.2 inches on Feb. 26, 1912
Heavy snow moved into southern Iowa between Feb. 25, 1912 and Feb. 26, 1912. Despite getting hit by 12.2 inches of snow, street cars in Des Moines ran fine. Trains in southern Iowa, Kansas City, Arkansas, and Oklahoma were blocked by the snow, however.
No. 7 (tie): 12 inches in 1890
This storm dropped one foot of snow on Jan. 12, 1890, but is largely overshadowed by more severe storms the decade before.
"The wind is blowing hard and the snow is drifting badly and still falling," said an Omaha Daily Bee account from Des Moines during the storm. "Trains are delayed."
The 1880s were an extremely cold period worldwide, partly because the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia shielded the earth from the Sun's warmth.
No. 7 (tie): 12 inch snowstorm hits as girls' state basketball tourney begins
A late winter snowstorm prevented most fans from getting to Veterans Memorial Auditorium for the first games of the 1999 Iowa high school girls' basketball state tournament. For the second straight March 8, Des Moines got hit by a snowstorm. This storm dropped 12 inches on the city.
Warm temperatures allowed street crews to keep up with the storm and keep downtown roads cleared. Still, then-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack allowed state workers to leave work early.
No. 7 (tie): Almost St. Patrick's Day storm
"Maybe just this once, those sidewalks are going to shovel themselves," former Register reporter Tim Paluch wrote after a March 15, 2004 storm hit Des Moines with 12 inches of snow.
Des Moines got off easy, relatively speaking. Sioux City had 18 inches. Some local residents did not mind as they created St. Patrick's Day snowmen.
No. 10: Biggest snowfall since 1912
Des Moines' biggest snowfall in 56 years dropped 11.8 inches of heavy, wet snow on Nov. 10, 1968. The storm is still the earliest snowstorm to drop so much snow on the city.
Overshoes, snow shovels and snow tires sold out at a K-Mart store.
"Our shoe department looks like a disaster area," said Dave Owens, assistant manager of a K-Mart discount store at 73rd Street and Hickman Road. "We had five people working there, but they just couldn't keep up with it."
Editor's note: A snowstorm from April 8 to 10, 1973 is known as the worst April blizzard on record in Iowa. Des Moines got 14 inches over three days from the storm. But the city got just 10.3 inches on April 9, 1973. So this storm did not make this list.