A low pressure system developed over Arizona on April 16, 1901. The morning of the 17th found this low in Texas and the 8:00 am weather map for the 18th showed the low on the border of Mississippi and Alabama with a central pressure of about 29.75 inches.
The 8:00 am weather map for the 18th also showed another low located right over Ohio. There was a long band of precipitation running from the Gulf of Mexico up into Canada. However, the low over Ohio pulled off to the north-northeast by the 19th, leaving colder weather in its wake. Meanwhile, the morning of the 19th found the southern low now over Georgia. Pressure was down to 29.65 inches, and there was a solid but irregular band of precipitation stretching from southern Ontario and Quebec as far south as Cuba, as far west as Mississippi and as far east as the Atlantic
Most of the precipitation attending this low was in the form of rain, but snow was falling in central and eastern Ohio. The low was forecast to move east-northeast, but it turned straight northeast. By 8:00 am of the 20th, the low was located over North Carolina and Virginia with pressure down to 29.55 inches. Precipitation had reached west-central
Ohio
The morning of the 21st found the low still in Virginia with pressure down to 29.50 inches. A huge precipitation shield had developed from northern Georgia to central Quebec, Canada and westward into central Indiana where snow was also falling. The low was forecast to move to the northwest due to a large blocking high coming down from Newfoundland. This high had slowed the progress of the low and resulted in several days of rain and snow in various locations.
In extreme southeastern Ohio along the Ohio River, most of the precipitation, while heavy, fell as rain. Heaviest snow fell east of a line from Lorain County to east of Columbus and down to eastern Brown County. At Sugarcreek (Tuscarawas County), snow began to fall during the night of Thursday, April 18, 1901. The snow continued to fall until late in the evening of the 20th. Snowfall did not begin at Wooster (Wayne County), however, until prior to daylight on Friday the 19th. Snow continued to fall without intermission and sometimes heavily for 36 consecutive hours there, ending at 12:30 pm of the 20th. The wind then began to increase, and soon the snow began to fall heavily again. Mansfield (Richland County) and Crestline (Crawford County) saw little snow until the morning of the 20th. Meanwhile, the snow at Alliance (Stark County) had reached a depth of three feet in the rail yards by afternoon of the 20th. Three trains, including the mail train, were buried in snow in Stark County between Stark Siding and Alliance.
Temperatures throughout the storm hovered right at or somewhat above freezing throughout the state, and rain at times mixed in with the snow, making this a very wet, heavy snow. At Millersburg (Holmes County), the ground was already covered with snow on the morning of the 19th and the snow and occasional rain continued to fall there for the next 48 hours.
Winds were quite strong on the 19th and 20th, hitting 55 mph from the north of Cleveland in the early hours of April 20. The heavy, wet snow combined with the strong winds, felled many miles of telephone and telegraph wires. In fact, by very early on the 20th, there was not one wire in working order between Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York. All telegraph communication from Cleveland to the east and south was cut, also. In addition, all rail traffic east of Cleveland was between two and seven hours behind schedule due to the snow storm.
Various locations in several counties were so clogged with snow that neither mailmen nor horses could get though. One mailman in Wayne County found that the snow on the road was three to four feet deep for stretches of several hundred feet. Snow drifts in places came up to the sides of his horse, and one road had drifts as high as the top of this mailman's buggy. He could only get through by taking down fences.
The strong winds of the 19th and 20th managed to pile this wet snow to a depth of 8 feet southwest of Wooster (Wayne County) while in most of Holmes and southern Tuscarawas counties snow depths on a level reached between 2 and 4 feet with drifts of between 8 and 15 feet.
At Gratiot (Licking County), snow fell for 56 consecutive hours. At Warren (Trumbull County), 35.5 inches of snow fell on the 19th and 20th - 30 inches just on the 20th. In Green Hill (Columbiana County), 28 inches of snow fell in 36 hours. In the Warsaw (Coshocton County) area, a large number of cattle and sheep were killed when the roofs of the sheds they were in, collapsed under the weight of the snow.
The 26.6 inches of snow from this storm at Akron (Summit County), set a record for the most snow ever to fall up to that time in a single storm at that location. Canton (Stark County) and Gratiot (Licking County) took top snowfall honors, however, for the most snow officially reported in the state from this storm - 42 inches.
The writer's grandfather recalled that when he was plowing his field near Trail (Holmes County) a month later in May of 1901, he set his water jug into a snow drift left over from the April storm.
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