What the National Weather Service has called the worst winter storm in five years not only left Sullivan County digging out from a considerable snowfall this week, but battling an Arctic blast of frigid temperatures, as well.

It also left people talking about major storms from years past, and once again debating about the worst winter ever.

In such a debate, most folks of a certain age are likely to reference the winter of 1957-58, when so much snow fell in Monticello the large dump trucks from the construction of Monticello Raceway had to be employed to haul it away, while real old-timers will repeat stories they’ve been told about the winter of 1888, which culminated in the March blizzard many consider the worst storm in local history. But there are other candidates, largely unknown by even the most avid historians.

The winter of 1883-1884 was a particularly frigid one, and in 1858-1859 there was an extraordinary amount of snow. That winter, the first snow fell on Thanksgiving Day, and according to the New York Times, “from that time until March 28, 1859 there was but one week during which snow did not fall every day.”

The winter of 1822 was also a brutal one and was long thought by many old-timers to be the benchmark against which all other severe winters should be measured. And at least one Sullivan County old-timer, whose name was not recorded, considered the winter of 1800—before the county was officially formed-- the worst ever. Sometimes, like on Sunday this week, it is a single storm rather than an entire winter that stands out.

While not part of a particularly terrible winter, the blizzard that struck in late January of 1939 was severe enough to paralyze sections of the county for a time. Still, much like this past weekend’s storm, the county fared much better than many other parts of the state.

“Winter cracked down on Sullivan County as well as most of the northeast last weekend,” the Liberty Register reported in its January 26 edition. “Sullivan County was swept by a blizzard in which a wind of sustained velocity drove a downfall of snow before it in temperatures that were consistently near the zero mark. “The storm came up suddenly just before noon on Sunday, when the sky darkened suddenly as if preliminary to a summer thunderstorm. In a moment a thick blanket of snow was swirling down. This lasted but a short time, but in the early afternoon the wind rose and kept at almost hurricane velocity through the rest of the day until near midnight Sunday. “At the same time, the temperature dropped from near 40 in the afternoon to around the zero mark. Some reports recorded temperatures down to six below zero, but the general average was zero or one or two above. Throughout the state nine deaths were reported due to the blizzard but in Sullivan County no serious accidents have come to light.”  

A one-two punch of storms that started on Friday the 13th in February of 1914 was severe enough to cripple traffic—both vehicular and railroad—for most of that weekend, and just when county officials thought they had things under control, an even worse blizzard hit, the latter storm now immortalized by a series of photographs that have survived, finding their way onto social media virtually every winter in recent years. “One of the most severe winter storms that this section has experienced for a long time came up from the Southwest the latter part of last week, and all day Saturday the country roads were thoroughly blocked around Liberty. The snow began to fall on Friday night and continued through a greater part of the next day,” the Liberty Register reported on February 20.

“The wind and cold were both intense and business was practically at a standstill. The walks and roadways in the village were drifted in many places and no one ventured out unless necessity called. It was estimated that considerably more than a foot of snow fell during Friday night and Saturday.”

But that was just a preliminary. On Sunday, March 1, at about four o’clock in the afternoon, the main event commenced, and before it was over it was being compared to the heralded “Blizzard of ‘88.” “Sullivan County, and in fact the entire state, is just recovering from the most severe storm it has seen since the great blizzard of 1888,” the Register noted on March 6. “Those who remember well the blizzard of 1888 say that while the storm of last Sunday was equal in its severity to that of 1888 it was not so destructive because of its shorter duration.”

Snow was said to drift as it fell, as fierce winds tore the roofs off homes and businesses and downed utility lines so that virtually every community was cut off from the outside world for the better part of two days. Not only were telephone and telegraph lines down, but the O&W was forced to halt rail service and area roads were mostly impassable because of drifts that reached as high as 15 feet in some places. The Register reported that “many signs were blown down, shutters from windows torn off and windowpanes blown in. We have heard many stories of people staying up all night, fearing at every moment that their dwelling would be shattered by the awful gales.”

Damage from the storm was so extensive that some school districts in the county were unable to resume classes for more than a week. Heavy snow accumulations and powerful winds may be memorable, but for many youngsters of the day, that prolonged vacation from class was reason enough to remember the blizzard of 1914.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. E-mail him at jconway52@hotmail.com.