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The cold wave was preceded by a phenomenal blizzard in the upper Plains and Midwest on January 12-13. Known as the Children’s Blizzard (as immortalized by David Laskin in his superb book of the same name), the storm led to the deaths of some 200-250 settlers from exposure, mostly children trapped in the storm on their way home from isolated prairie schools in South Dakota and Minnesota. Ironically, this was probably the second deadliest blizzard in U.S. history, aside from the East Coast storm that arrived just a few weeks later.
