The Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899
From February 11 to February 14, 1899, Cape May, Wildwood, the state of New Jersey, the rest of the continental United States—and Cuba—suffered through what came to be called The Great Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 1899 and the Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899, among other names. According to the state climatologist, the storm and freeze deposited the largest total snowfall ever recorded in one storm in New Jersey: 34 inches in Cape May.
“Probably what was the deepest snowfall and most continued storm known here within the memory of those living was that which began last Saturday evening and continued until after midnight on Tuesday morning. The snow came down steadily for 52 hours … it ceased snowing just after the night on Tuesday morning …”
Cape May Wave, Cape May, N.J.
Saturday, Feb. 18,1899
“Snow storm upon snow storm, blizzard upon blizzard, and colder following cold have recently been the order of the day. In addition to previous snows, the flakes fell incessantly Saturday night, nearly all day Sunday, Sunday night, all day Monday and Monday night, drifting badly all the while. Eighteen inches depth on the average now, sure, with drifts from four to six feet deep. Have you ever seen the like of this before? A question for some town older than Holly Beach to answer.”
Five Mile Beach Weekly Journal, Holly Beach, Wildwood and Anglesea, N.J.
Friday, Feb. 17, 1899
“This storm was impressive for many reasons,” said Meteorologist Joe Martucci, President, Cup A Joe Weather and Drone, at cupajoe.live. “First, it was a near all-snow event for the county. That’s hard to do with the moderating, warmer influence of the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. You really need winds to be north or north-northeast for a constant land breeze, which is colder. Secondly, an upper-level ridge of high pressure to the north blocked the nor’easter—a low-pressure system—from moving northward. That’s fairly common, but its persistence and strength was unusual. Finally, it was one where South Jersey saw more snow than North Jersey. Less than an inch fell in typically snowy New Jersey places like Sussex County.”
The incessant snow accumulated, and the arctic temperatures caused the county to come to a halt, as did much of the rest of the country. The storm set temperature and snowfall records from Michigan to Florida.
Nearly three feet of snow fell in Cape May, while 19 inches fell in Philadelphia and 16 in New York City and Boston, according to History.com. “In Brooklyn, the bitter temperatures and 36 consecutive hours of snow left mail carriers so frostbitten that the postal service restricted delivery to just one round a day.”
“Snow weighed down the fronds of palm trees in Fort Myers, Florida, while an icy crust formed on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Nearly three feet of snow buried the nation’s capital, and ice encased steamboats on Lake Michigan. There’s cold—and then there was the Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899. The polar vortex delivered an icy slap to every corner of the continental United States, making all other Snowmageddons to follow seem mild by comparison.
“The bitter cold first hit the West Coast in the first days of February as temperatures reached lows of 33 degrees Fahrenheit in San Diego and 12 degrees in Seattle. The frigid air then barreled east with freezing temperatures reaching as far south as the Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle.
“On February 11, residents of Fort Logan, Montana, awoke to a temperature of -61 degrees. Wind chills in southern Texas were estimated at -25 to -40 degrees, downright balmy compared to the wind chills approaching -100 degrees on the northern Plains. Between Feb. 11 and Feb. 14, the Great Arctic Outbreak set record low temperatures in Grand Rapids (-24 degrees), Wichita (-22 degrees), Oklahoma City (-17 degrees), Atlanta (-9 degrees), Fort Worth (-8 degrees) and Baton Rouge (2 degrees).”
“The Extreme Cold Snap of February 1899,” History.com
Stories from Five Mile Beach Weekly Journal consist of a derailed train near the Holly Beach Engine House, which the snow train managed Wednesday to assist in putting back on the tracks; the loss of 13 pigs to the freezing cold, a supper for benefit of the school library indefinitely postponed, and the unfortunate, or fortunate, August Lotz.
“August Lotz, a German in the company of John Hoefer, had occasion to go out in the snow on Monday night and was benumbed by the intense cold and was unable to get through a big drift. Mr. Hoefer and James Johnson who lives nearby heard his cries for help and but for their timely assistance he would probably have frozen to death. His hands were badly frozen and he has required medical attention from Dr. Cohen.”
Coal shortages were widespread since deliveries halted.It is estimated that 100 people died from the nationwide storm. Not only people, but livestock and wildlife succumbed to the frigid cold. Bird populations were decimated, with many species affected, as documented in a report published in 1899 by The Auk: Bluebird, Blue-headed vireo, Catbirds, Chipping sparrow, Dark-eyed junco (also known as snowbird), Fox sparrow, Grass finch, Hermit thrush, Killdeer, Meadowlark, Mourning dove, Pine warbler, Quail, Savannah sparrow, Song sparrow, Swamp sparrow and Woodcock.
“This was the largest snowstorm in recorded history for the county,” Martucci said. “Those records reliably go back to the late 1800s. However, notable events have been reported in Cape May County as far back as the 1804 New England hurricane. So, I believe it’s fair to say that [this] was the biggest snowstorm in the past 220 years.”
