Remembering ‘The Big One’
Today (April 4th) marks the twentieth anniversary of a major blizzard that dumped up to two feet of snow over parts of North Dakota.
The Tribune reports the 1997 storm "killed about 100,000 cattle, knocked out power to tens of thousands of people and led to massive spring flooding in eastern North Dakota."
Older North Dakotans compare it to the blizzard of 1966. As ranchers note, part of what made the 1997 storm so damaging was the timing: it was calving season.