Winter officially ended this year with a blizzard. Here in Gothenburg, we were spared most of the storm and had only the wind with little snow. Eastern Nebraska wasn’t that lucky. Now that spring is officially here, and the thermometer is showing temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s we tend to think that there won’t be anymore “winter”. Well, that may not be the case.

Easter this year is April 20th. In 1873 Easter was on April 13, and one of the worst blizzards in history struck Nebraska. The blizzard resulted in only two deaths, a young mother named Kelly and her newborn baby. They didn’t have enough wood in their sod house and so they tried to walk the short distance to her father’s house. They found her frozen two days later with the baby held to her chest under her coat.

Known as the Easter Blizzard survivors talked about the wind being so strong and loud that inside their homes they couldn’t hear each other talk. The snow was so thick outside that you couldn’t see more than a foot or so.

After the storm passed one family opened their door to find the neighbor’s cow. It had used their house as a refuge. One Nebraska farmer brought his hog, dog, chickens, and four cows into the one-room sod house along with his wife and six children.

A second spring storm is the May Day Blizzard of 1911. Leading up to the storm were a number of beautiful warm days with some light rains. People were assured that winter was long past. Nope. Up to 18” of snow fell across the state. Fortunately, no one lost their lives in that storm.

My wife Cindy also experienced a spring storm. As an itinerant resource teacher, she was headed from Cozad to a country school east of town. It was April but the weather was more like January. Cindy ended up in the ditch and a plow driver pulled her out. That was before cell phones, so she was lucky the plow came by.

Lastly, a number of us would regularly canoe the Dismal River in early April. One year we got on the water only to have it start raining. We found a spot, pulled over, and set up our camp. The rain turned to snow. When we awoke the next morning a foot of snow covered everything. We had only one choice, pack the canoes and continue on down the river.

About noon the sun came out and around 6:00 that evening when we set up camp the temperature was in the 70’s and the snow was melted. We hung up all of our wet clothes to dry, built a fire, and had steaks for dinner. About 10:00 we all headed to our tents. Soon we heard the soft pitter-patter of snow hitting the tents. Sure enough, the next morning we were once again under about 8” of snow. With no other choice we continued down river.

We got out of the river at a farmhouse and the owner drove us 10 miles to the highway where our vehicles were waiting for us. He told us that the snow had been falling and then melting and falling again for the last five days.

It may be spring, but this is Nebraska, so enjoy the nice weather, but don’t put that snow shovel away just yet!