Historic Highlights: ‘Sudden change’ of 1836 dropped temperatures 40 degrees in minutes

Winter in Illinois can bring fast, sharp drops in temperature. None, though, were ever like the “sudden change” of 1836.

On Dec. 20 of that year, central Illinois was hammered by a monster cold front that dropped temperatures 40 degrees in a matter of minutes and left settlers awestruck. The freakish event killed at least five people in Illinois, as well as thousands of stock and game.

Though it sounds outlandish today, numerous accounts verify the phenomenon, which modern meteorological research terms a “flash freeze.” Weather reporting stations of the era, mostly in military outposts, recorded mind-boggling temperature drops from Minneapolis to New Orleans.

Central Illinois was hit the hardest, and in a time of rudimentary weather prediction, few were ready for it. Not surprisingly, there are discrepancies in the time – and in some cases, even the date – of the event. But no one questioned its severity.

Tuesday, Dec. 20, 1836, dawned rather mild in the area, and an intermittent rain fell throughout the morning, turning lingering snow into slush.

However, the weather in extreme western Illinois began to decline precipitously around 10 a.m. as the front rolled through. By noon, the system had reached Jacksonville and had blown through Springfield by 2 p.m.

Most accounts report that the temperature fell as much as 40 degrees in just a few minutes. John Moses of Winchester, who later became a judge and pre-eminent historian, wrote in 1889 that the sky “began to grow dark, from a heavy, black cloud which was seen in the northwest. Almost instantly the strong wind … swept over the land, and everything was frozen hard.” He estimated the winds at “70 miles an hour” and “accompanied by a deep, bellowing sound.”

Witnesses recalled that the slush turned to ice almost instantly, and puddles in the muddy roadways froze solid. Moses noted that the puddles “froze in waves, sharp-edged and pointed as the gale had blown it.”

Chickens and geese were frozen in their tracks, and cows and pigs were trapped in the freezing slush and mud. The struggling animals were forced to be cut away from the ice to save them.

Many accounts marveled at the number of animals that were lost that day. In 2008, McLean County historian Bill Kemp described the aftermath as “apocalyptic.”

Washington Crowder, who lived near Chatham along Sugar Creek, was scheduled to be married the next day and rode into Springfield to obtain his marriage license.

Around 4 miles south of Springfield, he ran into the massive storm. He closed his umbrella and reached for his bridle rein as the “cold wave struck him … at that instant water was dripping from everything about him, but when he drew the reins taut, ice rattled from them.”

Once in Springfield, he found his overcoat was frozen so stiffly that he was unable to dismount, “holding him firmly as though it had been made of sheet iron.”

Two men tried to help from his mount, but “his clothes were frozen to the saddle, which they ungirthed, then carried man and saddle to the fire and thawed them asunder.”

Other episodes were more grisly. Andrew Heredith, a Springfield man, was driving some 1,000-1,500 hogs to St. Louis, and was near Scottville in Macoupin County when the storm hit. Heredith and his men scrambled for shelter, but his entire herd was lost.

Over 500 of the hogs were found dead in a pile the next morning, while the rest had “scattered … and finally perished.” One account claimed that the loss eventually broke Heredith’s spirit, “and he pined away and in a year or two died.”

Moses wrote of “two young men [who] were frozen to death near Rushville. One of them was found with his back against a tree, with his horse’s bridle over his arm.” In other cases, the bodies of the dead were not found for weeks.

Elsewhere, wagon wheels froze to the ground, and Moses noted water freezing to ice 6 inches to a foot thick. A Cass County account reported that “after six hours, men were hurriedly crossing the Illinois River on ice.”

A 1905 history of Greene County remembered that “travel was almost entirely suspended, and the whole county bore the appearance of a vast field of ice.”

Though unusual, the phenomenon is not unprecedented. A recent meteorological study compared the “sudden change” to similar events in the central U.S. in 1909, 1911 and 2011, as well as the infamous “Armistice Day” storm of Nov. 11, 1940, when 157 people died and winds on Lake Michigan were clocked at 126 miles per hour.

The horrific day was burned in the collective memory of central Illinoisans for decades. Forty years later in 1876, Springfield historian John Carroll Power noted as he collected materials for a history of Sangamon County that “I was frequently asked the question, ’Has any person told you about the sudden change?’”

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.