Growing up in Minnesota as a kid and duck hunter, there definitely was a hushed lore about the "Armistice Day Blizzard".
It all happend on Armistice Day -- Novermber 11, 1940. Armistice Day commemorated the peace treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that ended WWI in 1918.
Thousands of waterfowlers across the Midwest hunted into the afternoon as clouds of snow and clouds of ducks filled the atmosphere. As the weather got worse, the duck hunting got better. What was taking place was a collision of cold, dry polar air from Canada and warm, moist, subtropical air from the Gulf of Mexico. The result was a "perfect storm" blizzard that brought 2 feet of snow, 40 to 50 m.p.h. sustained winds (with gusts of 80), and a 30-degree temperature swing from above freezing to single digits. The two weather collided with each other right over the midwest. 85 duck hunter died on that day.
Now, I've seen large fronts come in and the wild birds will ride the front edge of the storm while heading south to to winter-over in more temperate climates. Once while hunting a slew in southern Minnesota, such a situation arose. Got up early to hunt a public walk-in area near Sherburne, MN. As the sun came up, ducks would jump up and settle down in waves -- from one side of the slew to the other.
I was shaking so bad when legal hunting time finally came, that I flock-shot the first group I saw and missed them all. But thereafter, did not take much time to fill out. Spent an hour or so sipping coffee from my thermos and waiting for the big swarm to rise up off the water. When it finally happend, what a sight to behold! The sky was nearly blackened and the sun blotted out by the cloud of waterfowl rising to head south to warmer locals. It was a glorious and once-in-a-lifetime sight!
