The Children's Blizzard

Laskin changes perspective to again examine additional factors in the meteorological situation causing such a devastating weather event. Low barometric pressure caused the sudden turbulence of the initial blizzard, but high barometric pressure created the deadliest conditions of the storm. The cold, dense air from Canada coalesced into a massive “anticyclone,” currents of high pressure radiating out from the highest pressure in the center. Low pressure in the same formation had created a cyclone, the effects of which the Great Plains states were currently experiencing. The low-pressure cyclone and high-pressure anticyclone locked together in a huge weather pattern spanning hundreds of miles. They were “violently reinforcing each other” (174), the low-pressure system feeding even more air into the high pressure. This created extremely strong winds, forcing frigid air southward.

The interaction between the cyclone and the anti-cyclone also created a strange “horizontal thunderstorm,” creating bursts of electricity where the two forces met. This meant that huge amounts of static discharge were witnessed not traveling from high in the sky to the ground but instead right on the surface of the prairie. St. Elmo’s Fire, or “point discharge” was reported by many survivors, who described sparks of electricity traveling from their fingers during the storm or snapping noises coming from metal chimneys and stoves.