55 Years Since Record Bowling Green Snow

Yesterday marked the fifty-fifth anniversary of Bowling Green’s biggest snowfall of all time. The snowfall began on the evening of March 8th and continued into the following morning, dropping the heaviest single-day snow total on record for the city: 23.9 inches. The National Guard was called in to clear the streets and to transport doctors and nurses up to the hospital. Snow remained on the ground for 11 days after the storm (NWS Louisville).

Record Snow
Photo courtesy of Amy Hughes Wood, via BG Daily News

 

Many Hilltoppers were not present at the start of the storm, however. According to the BG Daily News,

Several hundred people had set out to Lexington before the storm to watch what is now Western Kentucky University defeat the University of Miami in the first round of that year’s NCAA basketball tournament. 

About 500 people riding the train back from Lexington were stranded en route and had to be rescued by an L&N Railroad “mercy train” at Elizabethtown, Upton, Bonnieville, Munfordville and other towns, according to the Daily News.

March of 1960 was the snowiest March on record, as well as the snowiest month on record for the entire state of Kentucky (Kentucky Climate Center). That month also holds the record for the coldest March in Bowling Green.