Extreme Winter: Weaving Weather and Climate into a Narrative Through Laura Ingalls Wilder

Abstract

The Hard Winter of 1880–1881 was featured in the Laura Ingalls Wilder historical fiction account, The Long Winter, as well as in several local histories across the region. Both meteorological records and historical accounts indicate that the winter was particularly long, snowy, and cold. As a result, homestead settlers in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest regions of the United States were stranded for weeks or months at a time, many in inadequate shelters and with fuel and food supplies that ran short. The compelling narrative of Wilder’s perspective on the Hard Winter, linking scientific information about the winter of 1880–1881 to a cultural icon, provides a natural vehicle with which to communicate weather and climate concepts. A narrative constructed around The Long Winter and other books authored by Wilder provides a means of audience engagement and interest in weather- and climate-related topics, which was at least partially quantified by surveying audiences of the narrative. Overall, the extreme winter weather, combined with a familiar narrative voice, transmits weather and climate understanding to a wide audience.