A Brief History
On February 3, 1972, Iran suffered what the Guinness Book of World Records called “the deadliest blizzard in history,” an event known as “The Iran blizzard of February 1972.” Sadly, an estimated 4,000 or more people died in the extreme weather event.
Digging Deeper
We have almost all experienced the struggles of dealing with extreme snowfall, getting our cars stuck in the snow or sliding all over the road. Trying to drive in a blinding snowstorm is terrifying and dangerous, and people have died just trying to shovel snow from their drives and walks.
Some areas of Iran received 26 feet or more of snow during the blizzard, leaving some small villages without a single survivor! As many as 200 small villages were buried to the point of being “erased from the map.”
The Iran Blizzard of 1972 dwarfs anything you have ever experienced, if you are from the United States, since the worst blizzard to hit the US, back in 1888, dumped a comparatively small 50 to 55 inches of snow from Washington, D.C. up the East Coast to Maine, killing over 400 people.
Other American snow events have created extreme disruption over smaller swaths of ground, sometimes with only a couple feet of snow enough to cause major problems, stopping road, rail, and air traffic, and closing businesses for days. Sometimes these snowstorms are dubbed with catchy names, such as “Snowmageddon” or “Snowzilla.” Other blizzards are referred to as “Great” or “The Blizzard of whatever date or year it occurred in.”
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is the worst blizzard you have experienced?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Becker, Trudy. Blizzards. North Star Editions, 2025.
O’Gara, W. H. and Ora Clement. In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of January 12, 1888. J & L Lee Co, 1947.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of people helping a crashed car some days before the height of 1972 Iran blizzard, is now in the public domain in Iran, because according to the Law for the Protection of Authors, Composers and Artists Rights (1970) its term of copyright has expired for one of the following reasons:
- The creator(s) died before 22 August 1980, for works that their copyright expired before 22 August 2010 according to the 1970 law.
- The creator(s) died more than 50 years ago. (Reformation of article 12 – 22 August 2010)
In the following cases works fall into the public domain after 30 years from the date of publication or public presentation (Article 16):
- Photographic or cinematographic works.
- In cases where the work belongs to a legal person or rights are transferred to a legal person.
The media description page should identify which reason applies.
For more information please see: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Iran.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
