Things were nowhere near as bad as it was in West Virginia on November 24, 1950. Over 150 million Americans were enjoying (?) leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and more than 2 million of them (Americans, not leftover turkeys) were from West Virginia.
In the atmosphere far above the eastern US a storm was brewing. It was a storm that would last nearly a week and it would go down in history as one of the worst blizzards to ever strike the area. It was the Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950.
I lived through Ohio's blizzard of 1978 in which we suffered from wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour, wind chills of 60 degrees below zero and snow drifts 25 feet deep. One truck driver near Mansfield was rescued after spending six days trapped in his truck which was buried under a mound of snow. Fifty-one Ohioans lost their lives. Trust me, blizzards are no fun!
The West Virginia blizzard was really bad. Twenty-two states were affected, but West Virginia bore the brunt of the storm and of the 353 people who died in it, nearly half were in West Virginia.
There's a small town of Pickens (current population 66) located in the central part of the state where the storm's official greatest snow was measured at 57 inches. Although not official, other locations measured 62-63 inches of snow.
Yesterday while browsing the West Virginia Chess Bulletins from 1950 I came across the following game from the State Championship that year that was played in Beckley. The tournament was played over the Labor Day weekend in September, so the blizzard was a ways off. Here's a snappy little game from the event.
Ed Faust–William Hartling1–0A00WV Championship, Beckley1950Stockfish 15.1
Catalan 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 The opening develops into the Catalan
which is a sort of mix between the Queen’s Gambit and a Reti. It's safe and
solid. c6 4.g2 d5 Black's P-formation gives him a playable, but difficult
position. 5.b3 White has tried a plethora of different moves here, the
most usual being 5.Nf3. bd7 6.c3 c7 7.f3 dxc4 8.xc4 White is
slightly better here owing to black's cramped position. b6 Black's best
plan is to free his position with ...e5 8...c5 9.f4 b6 10.b3 and
black has no good square to which he can move his Q. c4 11.xc7 cxb3 12.axb3 bd5 13.e5 favors white. 8...e5 fails to 9.dxe5 xe5 10.xe5 xe5 11.xc6+ 8...d6 9.0-0 0-0 followed by ...e5 9.d3 d7 This is too
passive. His intention is to castle Q-side, but that turns out badly. 9...d6 to play ...e5 is now too late to be effective as after 10.e4 e5 11.xe5 xe5 12.dxe5 xe5 13.f4 with a plus for white. 10.0-0 d6 11.e4
e5 This is practically forcedm but as above, it is no longer
effective. 12.dxe5 xe5 13.xe5 xe5 14.f4 e6 15.d6 c4 Naturally
black wants to get the annoying B off d6, but this is tactically refuted. Even
so there was nothing that was really better. 15...0-0-0 16.ac1 c4 17.f4 he8 18.d4 b6 19.b3 e5 20.b5 b8 21.d6+ xd6 22.xd6 d3 23.xf7+ xf4 24.gxf4 c8 25.d6 with a decisive advantage. 16.e5 xd6 17.exf6
This is the right capture. 17.exd6 0-0 18.fe1 f5 19.d4 fe8 Black's
defensive task has been eased. allowing the Qs to come off also allows
black to equalize. 17.xd6 xd6 18.exd6 0-0-0 17...0-0-0 18.fxg7 hg8 19.xh7 Piling up the pressure with 19.Rad1 was good, too. f6 20.fd1 xg7
This meets with a very nice tactical refutation. 20...e5 21.h4 xg7 22.b4 g6 23.ac1 White is clearly better, but at least black can play on. 21.xd6 Wins a piece! xc3 A nice try to save himself. 22.xd7 A nice shot that wins a piece. 22.bxc3 xh7 Black is still
lost, but with two Rs on the board he at least has a forlorn hope of salvaging
a draw. 22...xd7 Even here white has only one move that secures the win. 22...xh7 23.xd8+ xd8 24.bxc3 23.h8+ Black resigned. Very well
played by Faust. 23.h8+ d8 24.h3+ b8 25.bxc3 1–0
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