Hmmm... the worst weather I have been in that is a curious question.
Since I live in an area of the country where do not have a lot of earthquakes and hurricanes, we get floods, snowstorms, windstorms and thunderstorms.
There are so many to choose from... The winter of 1996-97 was not a fun winter... AT ALL!
A quick geography lesson. The Red River of the North flows north and is at the bottom of an ancient glacial lake called Lake Agassiz. There fore a lot of things flow into the valley, including overland flooding.
I would have to say one of the worst was in March 1997. During the winter we had over 140 inches of snow and that is way above our normal amount of snow. It was very dangerous for driving in towns as one could not see another vehicle approaching from an intersection. There were places where the snowbanks were so high you could on them from a second story window. We had a lot of blizzards that winter and including three in one week. Due to the amount of snow we received that winter, they were already telling people to prepare for a severe spring flood. The entire Red River Basin had between 90 to 140 inches of snow and all the water had to go somewhere. One report of snow cores from different areas had the water level in the snow at over 8 inches and as high as 15 inches of melted moisture.
In March 1997, we had an ice storm just as the rivers were starting to rise. The rain melted a lot of the snow and the rivers were full. In the Wahpeton area they were sandbagging in a blizzard. The ice storm brought 50 tp 70 mile an hour winds in addition to precipitation creating interesting patterns on houses. The power and phone lines snapped from the weight of the ice on the lines. We did not have power for nearly a week in Thompson. Temperatures were in the 20s and I wore many layers of clothes. The river did go down a little and left ice shelves on the trees in the Wahpeton area. It was rather cool looking. Less than a week after the storm it started to warm up rapidly and the rivers were on the rise and fast. Fargo was within two inches of being lost due to the height of the river. Water started to flow in from the tributaries and overland flooding as the Red River is the lowest spot in the area.
I was in Grand Forks the day the city went under. The sirens sounded about 6 am as water started to top the dikes in Lincoln Park. It was surreal.
The flood of 2009 in Fargo was another surreal esperience. We had heavy snow in the winter but not to the level of 1997 and heavy rain that spring. The river rose rapidly and again Fargo barely survived as we had a blizzard and it created ice chunks on the river. Ice chunks are not good for earthen dikes.
