If you think it was cold for the parades this weekend, you should have been along the route on February 13, 1899. (Or maybe it was better not to have been.)
That date was the Monday before Mardi Gras (now commonly known as “Lundi Gras.”) To the rest of the world, Mardi Gras was Valentine’s Day. There was no love for the weather in New Orleans though. The polar event would be remembered as “the Great Blizzard of 1899.”
As reported by Mardi Gras Guide publisher Arthur Hardy, historian Christopher Burt described that February as witnessing “the greatest cold wave in modern U.S. history.” There were 45 states at that time and all of them recorded a temperature below zero during this event. The Mississippi River was frozen north of Cairo, Illinois. Large chunks of ice backed up the river at New Orleans and some made their way down to the Gulf of Mexico.”
That Monday evening parade slot has traditionally belonged to the Krewe of Proteus, but the rapid march of winter pushed it aside. The temperature that night was seven degrees, the lowest recorded in the city’s history. Among the issues that Proteus faced was the fear that the mules pulling its floats would slip on the ice.
In a precedent-breaking move, the Proteus parade was rescheduled to the following Friday, presenting the rarity of a Carnival parade rolling during Lent.
Rex did parade on Mardi Gras but it was a challenging ride, particularly when the King of Carnival’s moustache froze. There were three inches of snow on the ground, nevertheless the god Comus, whose debut parade in 1857 began the New Orleans parading tradition, persisted that night through the bitter cold.
For all the problems that the freeze caused there was at least one advantage. According to Hardy, Willis L. Moore, chief of the United States Weather Bureau in 1899, extolled the benefits of the freezing temperatures to the Times-Picayune:
“This polar wave … should be looked upon as a god-send to the southern people,” he said. “Its sanitary effects as a germicide have been immense, and I doubt if any lurking bacteria could have withstood the killing agency of the high pressure and cold… Now, can you grasp the enormous hygienic benefit due to such intense cold?… I may hazard the opinion that not only the fever germs have been annihilated, but that all kinds of gases and effluvia noxious to an animal life have been driven away, dispersed and rendered innocuous by the inrush and influence of the cold wave.”
So, if you went to any of the parades this past weekend and you are feeling healthier, perhaps you can credit the Krewe du Vieux.
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To contact Errol, email elabordenola@gmail.com!
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS: Errol’s Laborde’s new book, “When Rex Met Zulu: And Other Chronicles of the New Orleans Experience,” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2024) is now available at local bookstores and websites.
Laborde’s other recent publications: “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at the same locations.
WATCH INFORMED SOURCES, FRIDAYS AT 7 P.M., REPEATED AT 9:30 A.M. Sundays. WYES-TV, CH. 12.
