The Snow Fall To End Them All -- Blizzard Of 1950 Puts '90 To Shame

The wind picked up and heavy snow began before daylight on Friday the 13th, January 1950. Before the day was over, Seattle had been hit by the snowstorm against which all others since have been measured.

After enduring the past week's bout of winter, it's sobering to realize that the 40-year-old records still stand: January 1950, the snowiest month in Seattle's history, with a monthly total of 57.2 inches at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Jan. 13, 1950, the heaviest 24-hour snowfall, 21.4 inches at Sea-Tac, and a temperature of zero, Seattle's coldest since records began.

It was the classic Seattle snowstorm: Cold air slid south from British Columbia and collided with moist air off the ocean.

It wasn't the most snow Seattle has ever had on the ground or the windiest day. But the combination of heavy snow, biting cold and steady wind qualified as a genuine blizzard.

By comparison, Sea-Tac this month has recorded 3 inches of snow. The National Weather Station at Sand Point has had 10 inches. Outlying areas to the north and east of the city were blanketed with as much as 14 inches in the Dec. 18 snowstorm.

In contrast, the North End got off comparatively lightly in 1950. But areas south of the city were hit hard. Fifty-five boats were destroyed at Puget Sound moorages near Tacoma. Two Fauntleroy-Vashon ferries took shelter in the lee of Blake Island to ride out the storm. A store and a cottage washed into the sound near Tacoma and an apartment building was undercut by waves.

As usual, Bellingham and Whatcom County took the brunt of the 1950 storm. Bellingham actually got less snow than Seattle, but winds up to 70 mph piled it into drifts as deep as 12 feet in road cuts. Dairy farmers stored milk in bathtubs, buckets, barrels and other containers when trucks could not reach their farms to take the milk to market.

The 1950 storm was even more severe east of the Cascades. Two children, 8 and 9 years old, froze to death when they tried to walk a mile from a stalled car to their farm home near Ritzville with their father. The father was rescued and hospitalized.

Five hundred sheep froze near Ephrata in Grant County. Roadblocks were set up around Spokane to prevent people from driving into the country during the height of the storm.

Gears froze on the Ballard and Fremont bridges, keeping them shut for hours. Police emergency runs were eerily quiet; the sirens froze on most patrol cars. Green Lake and Lake Sammamish froze over, as did the north end of Lake Washington.

The year 1916 saw Seattle's heaviest snowfall, at least since records began in 1890. Snow began swirling the morning of Jan. 31 and continued nonstop through Feb. 3.

When it was over, snow was 35 inches deep on the flat and much deeper in drifts.

It was wet, heavy snow. The dome of St. James Cathedral collapsed. Building owners frantically shoveled snow from flat roofs.

Motormen walked away from stalled streetcars. It was a week before the streetcar system returned to near normal operation.

What may have been Seattle's greatest snow of all was in 1880, before official record-keeping began. Arthur A. Denny, a city pioneer, wrote that the snow began on Jan. 8 and continued night and day for a week. When it finally stopped, Seattle's streets were smothered by 5 feet of snow, he said.

Six horses pulled a snowplow to open a road to Lake Union, where a few families were cut off from town.