The snowy spring of 1967 in Jamestown

Late-season snowstorms in North Dakota aren’t terribly rare if you look back through the weather history of the state.

I stumbled onto some coverage of the spring of 1967 recently.

Winter just wouldn’t quit that year.

On April 17, a snowstorm dumped up to 12 inches of snow on the region including Jamestown. The storm caused power and telephone outages in the city of Jamestown and in rural areas.

This was back in the day before officials closed highways so the newspaper accounts of the storm said travel was “virtually halted” across most of the state.

The editors of The Jamestown Sun headlined the weather brief at the top of the front page with “That wasn’t necessary.”

If that late shot of winter wasn’t enough, another winter storm struck the area on May 1.

This storm hit the western part of North Dakota hardest with Jamestown looking at about 5 inches.

What made this storm especially troubling is not all the telephone lines had been repaired from the damage of the April 17 weather event.

Towns like Napoleon and Gackle were still waiting to be reconnected to the outside world.

The weather continued to be blustery although no storms were reported for the first two weeks of May.

The May 13, 1967, weather headline reflected the Mother’s Day holiday and described the weather as “Anything but motherly.”

Keep in mind the snowy spring of 1967 followed the mega-blizzard of 1966. That storm holds the Stutsman County record for the most snow in a three-day period at 26 inches reported 1 mile north of Courtenay on March 3 and March 4 in 1966.

Winter weather will always be highly variable and a common topic of discussion in North Dakota. Our location at the center of the continent brings more variables into play than more coastal or southern locations.

But it does give us something to talk about.

Author Keith Norman can be reached at

www.KeithNormanBooks.com