Freak snowfall in 1898 became earliest snow on record for Springfield

On October 17, 1898, Springfield accumulated the earliest snowfall on record. The Leader-Democrat started the paper by saying, “It’s all a mistake, this weather. It’s out of place and out of date. Nobody was ready for it.”

Now, 126 years later, a snow this early would still be considered, “out of place and out of date.”

Up until October 17th, by all accounts, it had been a perfectly normal fall. The Leader-Democrat said, “The government weather factory has been doing well by the country of late, and the Indian summer has been unusually attractive and enjoyable.”

On the morning of Monday, October 17, a strong cold front plunged south, through the Midwest and into the deep South, dropping temperatures and record snowfall. The Kansas City area was hit especially hard by the early snowstorm.

Reports from Kansas City show 3.3″ of snow falling on trees that were still heavy with leaves. Downed trees created a significant amount of damage and knocked telegraph lines down for days.

The headlines from the Springfield Republican claimed, “Kansas City almost isolated, hundreds of telegraph poles were blown down, soldiers unprepared for it…”

While the snowstorm was remarkably early, the old-timers said they remembered something similar. A clipping from the Springfield Leader and Press said, “the oldest inhabitants of Clinton recall that in 1855 quite a heavy snow fell on the 18th of October and the following winter was marked by remarkable amount of snow.”

On average, Springfield receives it’s first snowfall on December 5th.

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