The cold and snow that plunged northern Iran into a “white crisis” the previous week, although unusual and unfortunately very damaging, were incomparable with the blizzard that swept across northwestern, central, and southern Iran many years earlier—an event described in the source as the harshest and most disastrous blizzard in recorded human history.1
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| Image from the original article |
Daily Gazette report dated Friday, February 11, 1972
More than forty years earlier, in early February 1972, an out-of-season precipitation system entered Iran from the northwest and west. Given the amount and intensity of precipitation, it more closely resembled a summer monsoon system. The precipitation began as showers, but with the arrival of a cold-air front it suddenly changed to snow. Sudden transformations in weather systems are common, and precipitation that begins as rain often gradually changes to snow as colder air arrives.
At that time, however, the article suggests that two high-pressure centres—one west and one east of Iran—probably caused the system over the country to remain nearly stationary throughout the event. The combination of a strong moisture-bearing system, sub-zero temperatures, and the system's persistence over Iran due to surrounding atmospheric conditions buried affected regions beneath enormous amounts of snow.
From February 3 to 9, the blizzard covered a broad area of Iran in snow and ice, with the source reporting more than three metres of snow across rural areas of northwestern and central Iran. In southern provinces, it reports extremely heavy snowfall reaching as much as eight metres. After several days of continuous snowfall, the article states that more than 4,000 villagers with no means of escape were buried beneath the enormous accumulation. It notes that such a combination of circumstances normally occurs mainly in high mountain regions, such as the Himalayas, where cold conditions and surrounding terrain can trap precipitation-producing clouds.2
A contemporary report in the Iranian newspaper Ettela'at indicated that Ardakan in Fars Province and surrounding villages were among the areas suffering the greatest loss of life and property. The article states that no survivors remained in the villages of Kakan and Kamahr near Yasuj. In the northwest near the Iran–Turkey border, the village of Sheklab and its roughly 100 residents were buried beneath the snow. Some who initially survived the storm later died amid temperatures of −30°C, shortages of water, food, heating and medical assistance, and the spread of influenza.
The source identifies a February 11, 1972 Daily Gazette report by Associated Press correspondent Parviz Raein as one of the best contemporary accounts. It reported that thousands of Iranian villagers were unaccounted for after a week of blizzards and snowfall reported at 26 feet (about 8 metres), following four years of drought. Iranian state newspapers were said to have estimated the death toll at as many as 6,000. [source] [source]
The report also described an American female student from Aryamehr University (now Sharif University of Technology) and two companions as missing after leaving on Monday for a mountain trip near Tehran. A five-person rescue team dispatched on Tuesday was also reported missing. Officials said mountains around Tehran were covered by 39 inches (about one metre) of snow, while the U.S. Embassy and the university had been unable to identify the missing American student.
The government warned of possible flooding when the snow melted. Reports said at least 4,000 villagers were trapped beneath deep snow around Ardakan in southern Iran. According to Ettela'at, the villages of Kakan and Kamahr had been buried, search teams had found no trace of residents, and road and communications links were completely cut.
Prime Minister Amir-Abbas Hoveyda appealed from Tehran for military personnel and civilians to help search for and assist survivors in the disaster-stricken northwest. After a week of snowfall, clearing skies allowed search teams to reach some trains, vehicles, and villages buried in snow. A team reaching Sheklab near the Turkish border reportedly found no trace of its approximately 100 inhabitants and recovered 18 bodies. The report also said temperatures in Hamadan and Mashhad had fallen to 13°F below zero (about −25°C), causing water shortages as supply pipes froze, while influenza was spreading among snowbound villagers.
Notes
1 The author stresses that the purpose of the article was not to diminish the seriousness of the then-recent “white crisis” in northern Iran, but solely to provide information about what the source describes as the most severe blizzard in recorded history and an event that, according to available records, killed many Iranians.
2 The author notes that a partly similar setup—precipitation-bearing clouds confined between high-pressure circulation to the north and the Alborz Mountains to the south, together with sub-zero temperatures—had produced three days of continuous snowfall and exceptional accumulations in northern coastal cities the previous week. The same setup, without necessarily requiring sub-zero temperatures, is described as a major cause of precipitation in northern Iran and as a reason northern Iranian cities receive some of the country's highest precipitation totals.
Sources in the original article: New York Times archive; an attached Google archive image of the Daily Gazette; U.S. NOAA archive; Wikipedia; additional online sources; and a link described as the only available photograph of the event. The original links are preserved below. [source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source] [source]