The Children's Blizzard of 1888: A Cause-and-Effect Investigation

On January 12, 1888, a sudden blizzard barreled across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory. Blinding snow and howling wind took rural towns by surprise. Many children were stranded in one-room schoolhouses. Far from their homes on the Midwestern prairie, would the people caught in the storm survive?

To understand the impact of a disaster, you must understand its causes. How did warm weather earlier in the day give people a false sense of safety? How did the lack of an accur...