Nearly the entire state of Ohio was covered in a foot of snow. High winds and a severe cold wave swooped in Nov. 24, the day after Thanksgiving.
» PHOTOS: The Thanksgiving Blizzard of 1950 in southwest Ohio
Dayton at a standstill
The blizzard worked it’s way from northern Ohio to the south, and it eventually hit Dayton beginning on Friday.
More snow fell Saturday, creating dangerous drifts over five feet tall in the Dayton area.
The region was paralyzed for days. Dayton Mayor L.W. Lohrey declared the first official emergency since the 1913 flood.
Vandalia-Butler High School opened its door to 176 “storm refugees.” The Dayton Daily News reported the youngest of the refugees was three weeks old and the oldest was an 80-year-old woman. The stranded people slept on chairs, benches or the floor. Volunteers gave out food in the school cafeteria.
All flying was halted at the Dayton Municipal Airport and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Stranded vehicles on the snow-packed roads blocked fire trucks from answering emergency calls.
Funerals were postponed and burials delayed because cemeteries were packed with snow. Hearses were unable to get through the roads for services.
When the blizzard finally subsided, 55 people had died in Ohio, and three deaths in Dayton were attributed to the blizzard.
The ‘Snow Bowl’
Despite the severe weather conditions, Ohio State took on Michigan that Saturday in Columbus for a spot in the 1951 Rose Bowl.
Although Ohio State, Michigan and the Big Ten Conference considered canceling the game due to the extreme conditions, they decided to play.
On that Saturday, five inches of snow had already fallen before the game kicked off, and it kept falling during the game.
The snow blinded the players and obliterated the yard markers.
The temperature warmed up from 10 degrees to 13 degrees during the course of the game. But, it was the winds that kept many fans away. Winds gusted to almost 30 mph, creating near white-out conditions at times.
A crowd of 50,503 was announced. Normally a sell-out would have over 83,000 fans in the stands.
Workers had to repeatedly sweep the lines on the field so that the game could continue. Vic Janowicz kicked a field goal for the only Ohio State points, while Michigan players forced a safety and recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown.
All the points were scored in the first half.
If the game had been canceled, Ohio State would have won the Big Ten title. Instead, Michigan won 9-3 with 27 total yards and without even one first down.
The aftermath
Bulldozers were used to clear roads so that ambulances could reach those in need. The Ohio National Guard had to transport people to hospitals and deliver food to rural areas. In parts of Ohio, wires and trees were blown down by winds as high as 60 mph. Many buildings collapsed under the weight of two to three feet of snow, with even deeper drifts.
Credit: Clark County Historical Society
Credit: Clark County Historical Society
As bad as conditions were, Dayton had survived the worst of it. One forecaster pointed out they could have been worse. The snow was dry, a wet snow would have added much worse conditions for travel and communications. There was not a severe icing which would have put extra weight on communications and power lines, causing them to snap.
Any disruptions of those services would have been caused by wind, but during this storm, with 30 to 40 mph winds, the lines had mostly held up.
It was 28 years before Ohio saw another similar, historic blizzard — and that one occurred in late January of 1978 — which became an even more famous Ohio storm.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
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