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Ask MOHAI: A look at Seattle’s worst winter weather



Twice a month, we ask the experts at the Museum of History and Industry for a tidbit about Seattle’s history. Here’s the latest.

What were Seattle’s most severe winter storms?


Snow, cold temperatures, and destructive windstorms are typical of Western Washington winters, just as they are in many other parts of the nation. But here in the Pacific Northwest, we seem to have unique obsession with tracking, predicting, and remembering our “extreme” weather patters. Due to the many comments we’ve recently received requesting more detail and photos of Seattle’s major snowstorms, MOHAI’s Phyllis Franklin has taken another look of our city’s most severe winter conditions.

Seattle buried under a blanket of snow in 1880. (Photo from MOHAI collections.)

I have to admit, I’ve been skeptical of Seattle’s seemingly excessive focus on its weather until I read weather guru Cliff Mass’ statement that, despite our idyllic summers and mild temperatures, we in the Northwest get hit with “some of the most damaging storms on the planet.” Ok, ok, I give in. A 1971 article by columnist Don Duncan surmises that bad weather follows a roughly seven year pattern, and while I can’t highlight each seven-year storm, I have picked some that are particularly notable.

Seattle’s first reported hard winter was 1862-63, when the city was just a struggling frontier community. Though there is no official record of the snowfall, it was said to have been three to five feet. However, it’s the Big Snow of 1879-1880 that still holds the record for the heaviest snow to ever hit Seattle– 64 inches. This photo shows a storefront collapsed at the end of Cherry Street just off the Yesler dock.

Remember the windstorm of 2006 that left thousands without power — some for weeks? In November of 1875, gale force winds damaged chimneys, roofs, barns, and waterfront warehouses, but most notably, it dislodged two of the four solid stone columns of Seattle’s Territorial University.

Speaking of the University, normally, temperatures don’t drop near freezing, but in 1909, with preparations underway for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition on the current University of Washington campus, temperatures teetered near freezing for nine days. The ultra-cold temperatures didn’t deter construction for Seattle’s first world’s fair, but they must have taken a toll on the millions of young plants recently installed to adorn on the fair grounds.

Of course, there’s also the cost of major storms to human life and limb. In a 1949 newspaper story, a nurse at Harborview is quoted as saying she couldn’t understand how so many youngsters could get so seriously hurt in sledding accidents. Frank, a 14-year-old in traction, understood — his hat fell over his face and he bashed into a tree. His father wanted Frank’s tale to be a cautionary one so other parents would warn their children to be careful.

Seattle doesn’t usually get hit by big snowstorms, but when deep snow falls, cars stay off the streets and children rush for their sleds. In this photo, taken after a large storm around 1920, a group of children try out their sleds on a neighborhood hill. (Photo from MOHAI collections)

Finally, in late November 1978, local newspaper headlines were filled with the fall-out from the year’s biggest snowstorm, superseding articles about the mass suicide of People Temple leader, Jim Jones and hundreds of his followers in Guyana. Local weather trumps all.

Want to learn how to research Seattle’s major storms on your own? Sign up for MOHAI’s award-winning workshop, Nearby History: An Introduction to Doing History from Scratch, offered Saturday, February 12th. For details, check MOHAI’s calendar at

Got a question for next time? Send it here.

More Ask MOHAI:

Seattle has a history of cold-water swimming
ASK MOHAI: Remembering Christmas at a Japanese relocation camp
What might have Seattle’s first Thanksgiving been like?
Seattle had a golden age of chicken ranching?
Where are Seattle’s historic haunted hot spots?
What were Seattle’s real speakeasies like?
What were Seattle’s earliest schools like?
Was Seattle ever a jazz city?
Eddie Bauer and Seattle as the birthplace of quilted down parkas
The tale of Seattle and bicycles – a love story
How did Capitol Hill get its name?
Where was Seattle’s gay culture born?
Bad dad? To the Lazy Husband Farm you go
Beer and baseball: Why they go way back in Seattle
What is the oldest building in Seattle?
Has Seattle ever had a female mayor?
A history of charity: How Seattle Children’s Home got its start

What was the Puget Sound area’s most famous kidnapping?
When did the UW win its first Olympic gold medal?
What was Seattle’s most disruptive construction project?
Who started Seattle’s Christmas Ship Festival — and why?
WTO: What other civil unrest has marked Seattle’s history?
What was the first legal drinking age in Washington?
Looking back: How Seattle handled another flu outbreak
What’s the oldest public art in Seattle?
Why is it called “grunge”?
Who was Seattle’s most popular mayor?
Why are there so many motels on Aurora Avenue?
What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to the Space Needle?
How long has Seattle supported gay rights?
Why are cars allowed to drive on Pike Place?

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