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2024 Hennepin County All -Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan <br />Volume 2 — Hazard Inventory <br />Feb. 22, 1922. <br />Blizzard, ice and thunderstorms across Minnesota, with winds hitting 50 mph in Duluth while <br />thunderstorms were reported in the Twin Cities. Heavy ice over southeast Minnesota with 2 inches <br />of ice on wires near Winona. Over two inches of precipitation fell in many areas. This was also one <br />of the largest ice storms in Wisconsin history with ice four inches in diameter on telegraph wires. <br />One foot of ice -covered wire weighed 11 pounds. <br />Jan. 9-10,1934. <br />Sleet and ice storm over southwest Minnesota. Hardest hit was Slayton, Tracy, and Pipestone. The <br />thickest ice was just east of Pipestone with ice measuring 6 to 8 inches in diameter. At Holland in <br />Pipestone County 3 strands of #6 wire measured 4 % inches in diameter and weighed 33 ounces <br />per foot. The ice was described as: "very peculiar in formation being practically round on three <br />sides, the lower side being ragged projectiles like icicles: in other words, pointed. The frost and ice <br />were wet, not flaky like frost usually is. In handling this, it could be squeezed into a ball and did <br />not crumble." <br />March 3-5,1935. <br />Called "the worst ice storm in Duluth's history," the area covered by this storm was centered on <br />Duluth and extended up the Lake Superior coast to Beaver Bay, and east to Ashland, WI. The worst <br />of the storm extended about 40 miles to the west and south of Duluth. The storm began in the <br />evening of March 3, with rain and wet snow falling at the Duluth Weather Bureau, and a <br />temperature of 26 degrees. By morning the snow stopped but the rain continued. Ice had <br />accumulated to % inches by 11 AM and %e inches at 4PM, at which point the lights started going <br />out. By the morning of the 5th, ice coatings were measured at 1.5 inches and Duluth was virtually <br />cut off from the outside world, except for short wave radio. A local ham radio operator sent the <br />Duluth Weather Bureau reports. Four streetcars had to be abandoned in the storm, three of them <br />in the western part of the city. A heavy salt mixture and pick axes were used to try to free the stuck <br />streetcars. A one -mile stretch of telephone poles along Thompson's Hill was "broken off as if they <br />were toothpicks" due to the ice. A Duluth, Masabi & Northern Railway engineer estimated up to <br />7 inches of ice on cables in Proctor. 75% of shade trees were reported ruined in Moose Lake, with <br />thousands of trees stripped of their limbs. Hibbing also had damage due to ice with the breaking <br />of large and small branches. The Portal Telephone Company in the city of Superior, Wisconsin <br />noted ice from % to 1 % inches in diameter. <br />Nov. 10-11, 1940 <br />(Armistice Day Storm). This destructive storm also produced up to % inch of ice on wires with ice <br />thickness to 1 inch in Pine City and Lake Benton. Combined with fierce winds, damage to power <br />poles was widespread. In correspondence with M.R. Hovde, the meteorologist in charge of the US <br />Weather Bureau Office, Northwestern Bell reported: <br />• Northwestern Bell and Tri-State Telephone & telegraph Company Repairs and <br />Replacements. $79,000 total estimated cost. <br />• Thickness of ice on wires- Generally 1/8-to-1/2-inch diameter. 1 inch in diameter in two <br />small areas. <br />• Time ice first began to form- Early morning of November 11, 1940 <br />• Length of time ice remained on wires- About 24 hours. <br />• Locality of heaviest ice formation- 1-inch diameter in small area near Pine City. 1-inch <br />diameter in vicinity of Lake Benton. <br />209 <br />