There had been four years of drought in Iran by the beginning of 1972, but for a week in February, the country experienced what has come to be known as the deadliest blizzard in history.
The storm covered a huge area from the north to the south and across the central part of the country during that week in February. In southern Iran, the storm dumped an amazing 26 feet (7.9 meters) of snow which buried entire villages while other areas were hit with around 10 feet (3.0 meters) of snow.
The temperature also dropped dramatically to -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius). Those who survived had to contend with frozen pipes and a subsequent shortage of water. To make matters worse, many of the villages that had been buried had an outbreak of flu.
In the city of Ardakan, newspaper reports had the number of people buried by snow at 4,000 and other reports told there were no survivors in the villages of Kakkan, Kumar, or Sheklab which was a small village with a population of 100 people where rescuers were only able to locate 18 bodies frozen under the snow. At one point, reports had the missing at 6,000, but the final death toll became approximately 4,000, making the Iran Blizzard the deadliest snowstorm in history.
Sources: NY Daily News, NY Times, NOAA, St. Petersburg Times, Schenectady Gazette
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