First of all, happy Veterans Day to all, especially the men and women who have served.

A very famous and tragic day in Minnesota history, "the 1940 Armistice Day storm". I've read a few articles on this from personal accounts. (I added one link - many more are out there). Many people were still duck hunting because of the nice weather and dressed in moderate gear. In 1940, no one had any idea what was about to happen.

I read a story about two local guys that rode out the storm on Coney Island on Lake Waconia. I was going through the remnants of the old hotels on the island and found a can of beans, walked off 2-3 days later to find their vehicle engine completely snow bound.

People needing a life line just to be able to get to their barn and back to the house, and the large amount of livestock lost from this storm.

I remember seeing a photo of what is now Hwy 169 south to Jordan area. It was just a wall of snow for travel that was over 10' tall.

Armistice day storm

truly a benchmark weather event, not only for MN, but most of the Upper Midwest. The Halloween / early NOV Blizzard of 1991 produced more snowfall but the winds of the 40' event far surpass those of 1991. Couple that with not nearly the same accuracy / technology involved in forecasting shows why so many people we left losing their lives or barley surviving. Prior to this event (1940) , all of the weather forecasts for the region originated in Chicago. After the failure to provide an accurate forecast for this blizzard, forecasting responsibilities were expanded to include 24-hour coverage and more forecasting offices were created, yielding more accurate local forecasts.

The U.S. Weather Bureau was criticized that it failed to predict the huge blizzard, and Officials released a statement that they were aware that the storm was coming but wrong about its strength and scope. The Twin Cities branch of Meteorology was upgraded to issue forecasts and not rely on the Chicago site

White Wolf, We take a lot of things for granted today for sure. One of them is the ability to accurately forecast the weather a few days out and having the weather app with live radar in our pockets.

some more facts i found out today about this record storm.
80mph winds , drifts over 25' and wiped out 1.5 million turkeys and people had a difficult time finding turkeys for thanksgiving that year .

I almost lost a couple of great uncles to this storm. Their stories have been told for as long as I can remember. While they are now gone, their warnings of paying attention to the weather continue in our family.

Lot of duck hunters never made it out of the marsh.

Pinetree: "Lot of duck hunters never made it out of the marsh."

49 lives lost

Random but this same storm is the reason Alcoholics Anonymous got its start in Minnesota. Two men from Chicago were in town for the Minnesota vs Michigan football game and got snowed in. Since they were not able to leave they spent 2 days with a local man and helped him find sobriety. This man then essentially went out and started helping anyone he could find get sober and built AA in Minnesota from there.

Sad to think how many lost their life during this storm but I like to be reminded how many thousands have been given a new one because of it.