Record low temperatures and heavy snow plague Washington state for three weeks beginning on January 12, 1950

HistoryLink File #8079

For three weeks beginning on January 12, 1950, extreme cold and heavy snow grip Washington state. It is one of the state's worst winter outbreaks of the twentieth century.

One Bad Blizzard

Although later many would recall that the 1950 cold wave started on Friday, January 13, the cold actually moved into the state from British Columbia during the morning hours of Thursday, January 12, 1950. It passed both Seattle and Spokane about the same time -- noon -- and temperatures in both cities fell steadily during the afternoon and night from a high of 32 degrees in Seattle and 24 degrees in Spokane. Bellingham picked up a quick seven inches of snow that day, but only light snow was reported in a few other places outside of northwestern Washington.

That all changed on the morning of Friday the 13th. Beginning about dawn in Seattle and a little later in Spokane, a blizzard set in that affected much of the state. The storm's timing turned out to be critical: The snow started early enough in Seattle that schools were closed, but in Spokane it struck after classes had already started.

In Seattle winds gusted to 40 m.p.h. with temperatures in the low teens. One man was killed in a bizarre accident when a truck skidded on a snowy road into a car. A man riding in the car was thrown into Lake Washington and drowned.

Downtown Seattle picked up an average of 10 inches of snow, but farther south Sea-Tac Airport recorded 21.4 inches, the second-greatest 24-hour snowfall ever officially recorded in the city (it was one-tenth of an inch shy of tying the record). Snow reached clear to Washington's southwest coast with heavy snow reported in Longview.

On Vashon Island, pounding waves from Puget Sound that residents said were "high as houses" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 14, 1950) collapsed bulkheads under a store and meat market that sat near the water and swept the entire structure into Puget Sound. 

Farther north, winds in Bellingham exceeded 60 m.p.h. and unofficially gusted to 78 m.p.h. On the coast, the fishing fleet in Gray's Harbor took a big hit. Many small boats sank at their moorings. Men trying to save the boats were sprayed with wind-driven ocean water, which froze and coated them in ice.

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