A dozen paces from the door, your throat begins to feel raw, your lips dry and crack, tears sting the corners of your eyes. If the wind is calm and your body, head, and hands are covered, you feel preternaturally alert and focused. After a breath or two, ice builds up on the hairs of your nasal passages and the clear film bathing your eyeballs thickens. When you first step outside from a heated space, the blast from 46-below-zero air clears the mind like a ringing slap. Objects etch themselves with hyperclarity on the dense air, but it's hard to keep your eyes open to look at them steadily. The senses first become sharp and then dulled.

It's hard to find vocabulary for weather this cold. Only if you can handle it,Ī must read provided you can handle the subject matter.“The Minnesota State Weather observer at Pine River Dam recorded a minimum temperature of 46 below on December 29 observers at Pokegama Falls and Leech Lake Dam were unable to take temperature readings that day because the mercury inside their government-issued thermometers froze solid. With a terrible story and it is worth a read. Needless to say, many of them never made it home.

Of children were on their way home from school (hence Children’s Blizzard).

The blizzard came out of nowhere when the vast majority How cold it is you can actually start to feel it. This is one of those books where when the author tells you (and goddamn depressing) story by making you feel everything the characters areįighting against. Laskin gives a great recap of the then capabilities of the Laskin tells the story of the blizzard at its nexus when it blasted through the Mostly known as one of the worst storms the east coast has ever seen. This is not for the squeamish or probably for anyone with young kids. This might be one of the most horrific stories ever. While it is evident children are much more closely watched nowadays, this book brings you back to a time when even the youngest children might go miles by themselves. Weather forecasting used to be much worse! And in the Midwest, it meant a massive snowstorm could come out of nowhere and leave people to die. The story of the blizzard of 1888 in the Midwest which surprised the heartland and caused massive sadness. If this book doesn’t make you cry then you are a sociopath. Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Children’s Blizzard:

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin