In the early days of April 1938 arctic cold that had been building and was bottled up in Alaska and the Yukon came crashing southward along the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The wintry chill reached cities like Cheyenne and Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo and then smashed eastward enveloping Omaha, Wichita and Amarillo. The cold modified as it headed eastward but held firm for several days from Montana to New Mexico and eastward into Nebraska, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Meanwhile off the coast of southern California a storm was brewing. That system headed eastward and spread a blanket of snow from Arizona and New Mexico into west Texas. The storm slowed and eventually stalled for several days in Texas. Moisture came streaming into the system from off the Gulf of Mexico and lifted up and over the cold air in place. The result was an all-out blizzard. It raged for 84 hours and when the storm finally moved eastward on the afternoon of April 8, 1938. Snow drifts reached 20 feet high. Winds at the height of the storm were clocked at 77 mph in Pampa, Texas and 8 deaths were blamed on the storm. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.