April 4-6, 1997...
We called it that... the April 97 Blizzard. As many you know, we (Robin) reports to the National Weather Service as an observer. Our station is Hereford 12SW. That April storm had lots of wind as you can see in the picture of the snowdrift. We had 17 inches of good wet snow... and then over the course of the next four days we had another five inches... and it stayed cold throughout the week. That proved pretty hard on the calves. We lost a considerable percentage of our calf crop along with eight cows that had drifted into our big dam and drowned. One cow made it though about three feet of water and I when I rode up on her on horseback, she was completely covered with ice. She sounded like jingle bells when she walked. She did survive however.
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I have included two more pics that show the result of sufficient moisture... Plenty of water and grass and the wheat crop was good as well.
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Not everyone can handle living in this region... however we choose to... and we are better for it. And I believe the we understand a little better than most of who is really in control.
