The 1940 Valentine’s Day Blizzard

Feb. 14, 1940: Automobiles on Adams Square in Boston were stalled out in the heavy snow. From the time the snow started at 3 p.m., it fell at at a rate of more than an inch an hour for the first nine hours. Winds reached gale force of 60 miles per hour, and it whipped the snow into impenetrable drifts.Dan Goshtigian/Globe Staff

This week we look at photos from the Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 1940. The expected gallery would be photos from the Blizzard of 1978, a storm and photos that many remember well. You can see a gallery here. It was fascinating digging deeper through our archives to find another storm that brought life to a halt. The area was surprised by this storm in 1940 that dropped 14 inches of heavy snow in a very short time. This does not sound like a lot of snow, but the 60 mile per hour winds whipped the wet snow into huge drifts that stopped all transportation. Cars and people were stranded all night and 31 people in New England lost their lives. - Leanne Burden Seidel and Lisa Tuite