As the Evansville area has recently experienced ice, snow, and frigid temperatures, it is interesting to recall the snowiest and one of the coldest winters in the city’s history. This occurred from December 1917 through January of 1918. In this two-month period over 66 inches of snow fell on Evansville—25.1 inches in December and 41 inches in January. That January was also the second coldest month in Evansville’s recorded history with an average temperature of 19.4 degrees. (In January of 1977, the coldest month on record, the average temperature was 14.8 degrees.) In addition to cold temperatures and record snowfalls, the Ohio River was engulfed in a spectacular ice gorge in February of 1918 that stretched from Howell to Newburgh. The ice caused damage to river crafts and halted shipping on the Ohio River.
This image, taken on what was then known on Riverside Avenue, depicts some of the results of the monumental snowfalls of late 1917 and early 1918. The first major snowstorm occurred on December 7-8, 1917, as 13 inches blanketed the city. Classified as a blizzard, the storm left drifts four to six feet deep. A day later, a second snowstorm brought the accumulation to 16 inches with winds reaching 44 miles per hour. As cold weather engulfed the Tri-State, the normally busy Christmas shopping season was curtailed.
This photograph depicts Second Street looking toward Locust Street as the city experienced its snowiest month on record in January of 1918. This record accumulation included over 22 inches that fell in a three-day period beginning on January 13. As a result of this snow, and an additional 19 inches that fell during the month, the citizens of Evansville were innovative in dealing with this situation. This included digging tunnels to access downtown store entrances as snow piles of up to eight feet tall dotted Main Street.
This image depicts the depot of the Evansville, Suburban and Newburgh Railroad on Fifth Street across from the present-day Children’s Museum of Evansville, cMoe. At the height of the snowstorms in 1918, streetcar service stopped for one week.
