Weathering the blizzard at the Weather Bureau
 

At this time the National Weather Service was known as the Weather Bureau and the Bismarck office was located in the airport terminal. During the early afternoon of March 2nd, 1966, snow began to fall at Bismarck, and a full blown blizzard developed by that night. The storm raged with north winds gusting to 64 miles per hour until the 5th, with visibilities at zero to 1/8 mile for over forty hours. Fifteen and a half inches of snow fell on the 3rd alone setting a new record for that day, and the storm total of 22.4 inches also set a record.

The employees who worked that blizzard went above and beyond the call of duty. Leroy Nordahl arrived with some difficulty to man the midnight to 8 A.M. shift of the 3rd, and worked thirteen hours alone. He was relieved when the sheriff brought out Alan Hanson and Martin Baumann at 1 P.M., and dropped Leroy near his home in town. The two new replacements worked continuously for thirty-three hours. At 5 P.M. on the 4th, Leroy Nordahl and Clarence Pruitt walked to the office, but it wasn’t until 10 P.M. that a North Central employee took Mr. Hanson and Mr. Baumann into town. Unfortunately, the car got stuck in a drift and they had to walk the rest of the way home. Meanwhile, the two employees remaining at the station worked nineteen hours straight until they were relieved by Herb Monson and Dan Meyers at noon on the 5th. These two ended up working ten hour shifts. During this ordeal, the employees had very little to eat and were forced to pick the lock on the restaurant door downstairs for food.

Bismarck Observations

A list of our Scheduled Tweets for the 'Live Tweet' March 2nd - 4th here.