Historic Winter Is Lingering, Legendary and Lethal

Johnny Carson was a longtime comedian and late night show host. He had a phrase he would use to describe unusual things. “That is some weird, wild stuff.”

If Johnny were still around, he probably would’ve used those words to describe the weather endured these past couple months.

Feeling winter’s wrath in a big way have been the Plains states and the upper Midwest. Rapid City, South Dakota and Miles City, Montana experienced the coldest February since record keeping began.

Rapid City also had 20 days of sub-zero temperatures last month. And winter storm Ulmer in March – yeah, that’s right, we’re up to the U’s already – was one for the ages.

Record-Breaking Snow

In Sierra, Nevada, they had 22 feet of snow during February. That’s 264 inches.

Eau Claire, Wisconsin had its snowiest month in history with 53.7 inches. Also experiencing their snowiest February ever were Minneapolis and Duluth in Minnesota. As well as Des Moines, Iowa, Omaha, Nebraska, and even far West Seattle, Washington.

And not that we’re going to feel sorry for anybody living in Los Angeles during the winter. But the temperature never reached 70 degrees in L.A. during February.

That’s the first time that has happened in 132 years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Devastating Flooding Knocked Out Power to Thousands

Down South where it was too warm to snow for the most part, they got historic amounts of rain.

Among those cities getting more rain than ever before were Tupelo, Mississippi and Huntsville, Alabama. Plus Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.

The flooding in Tennessee just a couple weeks ago was disastrous and deadly. It killed one civilian, knocked out power to thousands, and forced the state to declare a state of emergency.

And it doesn’t end there. Historic floods were also recorded in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin as early as last week. Already killing at least four people, the major flooding has also made all three states to declare a state of emergency.

More than 7 million people were under flood warnings last Tuesday, reported the National Weather Service in the aftermath of snow melt from the bomb cyclone. But more on that later.

Tornados Kill 23, Injure 100-Plus

As bad as the weather was in the rest of the country, no state suffered more in one day than Alabama did on March 3.

Twenty-three people including four children were killed when powerful tornados ripped through Lee County. The victims ranged in age from 6 to 89.

More than 100 people were injured after wind speeds reached an estimated 170 miles per hour. And thousands more lost power.

The tornadoes left a path of destruction more than 20 miles long. It marked the highest tornado death toll in the U.S. in six years.

Bomb Cyclone Blows Away Records

No sooner had the tornado done its damage that Winter Storm Ulmer struck.

This bomb cyclone storm reached record-breaking pressure with winds gusts of well over 90 miles per hour killing two people. Four states had blizzard conditions, while others had massive flooding.

In Texas, wind gusts of over 100 mph were recorded, knocking out power to many. And Casper, Wyoming saw 13.6 inches of snow in one day, its second snowiest March day in recorded history.

In Colorado, the National Guard was sent to rescue more than a thousand motorists who were stranded on highways across the state. Of them was Greg G reported the Gazzette, who attempted to get gas for his generator only to be stuck at the pumps in the middle of the blizzard. He was forced to dig himself out.

Live at the Scene

One of our great customer services reps, Christina, had this to say about Ulmer. Here is an image sent by her on her snow-covered car:

“Here in Yoder, Colorado, Snowmageddon 2019 was pretty bad. We had sustained winds of over 50 miles per hour and zero visibility. Some 1,100 motorists had to be rescued, from Colorado Springs to Denver.

“We lost power for over nine hours and then lost Internet, cell service and our land line for 11 hours,” she continued. “We had drifts anywhere from two to eight feet by our tree line.

“Everything was covered in a sheet of ice and the main roads were closed. We saw social media posts from people all around asking for help. It was crazy.

“Thank goodness we know how to be prepared. We had food, water, our Halo XT flashlight, our power cells and other items.”

Be Prepared for Your Power to Go Out

Whether it’s a polar vortex placing Americans in the deep freeze, record-setting flooding trapping in your home, or deadly tornados… one thing is for certain, wild weather is not slowing down any time soon.

In just the last few months alone, these storms have knocked out the power to hundreds of thousands, and have taken the lives of twenty-six people.

Now unfortunately, we can’t change the weather. The only thing we can change is how we prepare ourselves for it. Especially with hurricane season only a few months away.

An obvious choice to help with the likely storm power outages is to have a generator on hand to protect yourself and your family.

But if that generator runs on gas, there could be a bigger problem than not having power.

That’s why we recommend using a solar generator instead.

You can use it to run kitchen appliances. Power your personal or medical devices. Or light up a room with an LED light string… for weeks at a time.

There is no worry about running it inside your house because it does not produce fumes like a gas generator.

And it recharges using only the power of the sun, so you don’t have to worry about gas shortages either.

See this personal solar power system in action