Blizzards, Ice & Cold

When the world froze, blizzards, ice storms, cold waves and the great winter storms that paralysed nations.

Part of Natural Disasters

41 moments in this segment.

1. 1888-01-12 - The 1888 Schoolhouse Blizzard. A sudden blizzard struck the U.S. Great Plains as children left school, killing 235, many of them children.
2. 1888-03-11 - The Great Blizzard of 1888. A blizzard buried the U.S. Northeast under up to 1.3 metres of snow, killing over 400 and stranding New York.
3. 1888-03-11 - The Great White Hurricane. The Blizzard of 1888 buried the U.S. Northeast in snow days after the Schoolhouse Blizzard hit the Plains.
4. 1899-02-11 - The Great Blizzard of 1899. A cold wave and blizzard in February 1899 brought snow to every U.S. state, even Florida.
5. 1947-12-26 - The 1947 New York blizzard. A surprise blizzard dumped record snow on New York City the day after Christmas 1947.
6. 1963-01-01 - The Big Freeze of 1962-63. The coldest winter in Britain in over 200 years froze the sea and buried the country in snow for months.
7. 1977-01-28 - The Blizzard of 1977. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds buried Buffalo, New York, in one of the worst U.S. snow disasters.
8. 1978-02-05 - The Blizzard of 1978. A historic blizzard buried the U.S. Northeast, stranding thousands on highways around Boston.
9. 1998-01-05 - The 1998 North American ice storm. A massive ice storm coated Quebec and the northeastern U.S. in ice, collapsing power grids and leaving millions in the cold.
10. 2008-01-01 - The 2008 Afghanistan blizzard. An extreme cold wave and blizzards killed over 900 people and hundreds of thousands of livestock across Afghanistan.
11. 2008-01-25 - The 2008 Chinese winter storms. Ice storms paralysed southern and central China during the Lunar New Year travel rush of 2008.
12. 2010-01-01 - Mongolia's dzud disasters. The 'dzud', a summer drought followed by a brutal winter, periodically kills millions of livestock and threatens nomadic herders.
13. 2010-02-05 - The 2010 'Snowmageddon'. Back-to-back blizzards buried the U.S. Mid-Atlantic in record snow in February 2010.
14. 2010-12-01 - The 2010 British big freeze. The coldest December in a century froze Britain, closing airports and stranding travellers.
15. 2012-01-27 - The 2012 European cold wave. An extreme cold wave killed over 650 across Europe and froze the Danube and Venice's canals.
16. 2013-07-01 - The Andean cold snaps. Sudden 'friaje' cold snaps freeze the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, killing livestock and children.
17. 2013-08-22 - The Siberian cold poles. In Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk, Siberia, winter temperatures plunge below -60°C, the coldest inhabited places on Earth.
18. 2014-01-06 - The 2014 polar vortex. A dip in the polar vortex plunged the U.S. into record-breaking cold in January 2014.
19. 2014-01-28 - 'Snowmageddon' in Atlanta. A few centimetres of snow and ice paralysed Atlanta in 2014, stranding drivers on highways overnight.
20. 2015-01-27 - The winter of 2015 in Boston. A relentless series of blizzards buried Boston under nearly nine feet of snow in the winter of 2015.
21. 2018-02-06 - The 2018 Fukui snow crisis. A record snowfall stranded over 1,000 cars for days on a highway in Fukui, Japan, in 2018.
22. 2018-02-26 - The 'Beast from the East'. A blast of Siberian air buried Britain and Europe in snow and paralysed transport.
23. 2018-03-01 - The 2018 Beast from the East in Ireland. 'Storm Emma' met the Beast from the East to bury Britain and Ireland in snow in March 2018.
24. 2020-01-17 - The 2020 Snowmageddon in St. John's. A record blizzard buried St. John's, Newfoundland, in 2020, prompting a state of emergency and army help.
25. 2021-01-01 - Japan's record snowfalls. Record lake-effect and sea-of-Japan snowfalls regularly bury Japanese towns under metres of snow each winter.
26. 2021-01-08 - Storm Filomena. 2021.
27. 2021-01-11 - The 'Sanpachi' snow disaster. Record snow buried the Hokuriku coast of Japan in 1963 in the disaster remembered as 'Sanpachi'.
28. 2021-02-01 - The 2021 European deep freeze. Arctic air spilled south in February 2021, bringing snow to Greece and record cold across Europe.
29. 2021-02-13 - The 2021 Texas cold wave. A polar-vortex cold wave froze Texas, collapsing its power grid and leaving millions without heat, killing hundreds.
30. 2021-02-13 - The 2021 Texas freeze. A polar outbreak crashed the Texas power grid, leaving millions without heat for days and killing over 200.
31. 2022-01-25 - The Knickerbocker Storm. A blizzard collapsed the roof of Washington's Knickerbocker Theatre in 1922, killing 98.
32. 2022-01-26 - The 1967 Chicago blizzard. A blizzard dumped record snow on Chicago in 1967, stranding thousands of cars.
33. 2022-12-23 - The 2022 Buffalo blizzard. A ferocious lake-effect blizzard buried Buffalo, New York, over Christmas, killing dozens trapped in their cars.
34. 2023-01-10 - The 2023 Afghanistan cold wave. An extreme cold snap killed over 160 people and countless livestock across Afghanistan.
35. 2023-11-11 - The 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard. An unforecast blizzard trapped duck hunters and travellers across the U.S. Midwest, killing 145.
36. 2024-01-03 - The 2024 Nordic deep freeze. Temperatures plunged below -40°C across Scandinavia in early 2024 in a historic cold snap.
37. 2024-02-03 - The 1972 Iran blizzard. The deadliest blizzard in history buried villages in southern Iran under metres of snow, killing about 4,000.
38. 2025-01-21 - The 2025 Gulf Coast snowstorm. A rare, record snowstorm blanketed the U.S. Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida in January 2025.
39. 2025-02-01 - The 2025 Arctic outbreaks. Repeated Arctic outbreaks in early 2025 brought record cold and snow deep into the U.S.
40. 2026-03-01 - The 1956 cold wave in Europe. A brutal February cold wave froze rivers and killed thousands across Europe in 1956.
41. 2026-03-05 - The Great Lakes Storm of 1913. A blizzard and hurricane-force winds sank a dozen ships on the Great Lakes in 1913, killing over 250 sailors.