Blizzard and Winter Storm in Oklahoma, October 25, 1997

A very strong winter weather storm and blizzard moved across the central plains states through the day Saturday. The 74 year old female from Adams Oklahoma was returning home when her car became stuck in a snowdrift less than a mile from her home. She apparently died from hypothermia after trying to walk through the blizzard from her stranded car to her nearby home. She was found about noon the next day under about eighteen inches of snow in a milo field southeast of Hooker. Reports from the Oklahoma Mesonet sites in both Cimarron and Texas counties indicated wind gusts of 58 to 66 mph from 0830 CST to 1700 CST. Total snowfall accumulations across the Oklahoma Panhandle Saturday were from four to twelve inches across Cimarron and Texas counties and two to six inches across Beaver county. There was also an indirect death which occurred two weeks after the winter storm and blizzard. A man died from injuries sustained in a multicar accident. The accident occurred on a closed road and those involved in the accident had gone around a barricade. Most roads in the Oklahoma Panhandle were closed during the winter storm and blizzard. There were numerous multicar pile ups with many churches and gyms full of stranded motorists. About 12,000 to 15,000 head of cattle were lost in this storm mainly in Texas county, but also Cimarron and Beaver counties. The high winds produced snow drifts of three to five feet.