The blizzard was precipitated by the collision of an immense Arctic cold front with warm moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico. On January 11, the massive cold air mass that had formed around January 8 around Medicine Hat, Alberta and Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, had reached a spread of over 780 miles (1,255 km).

on January 12 and finally into southwestern Wisconsin by 11 p.m. The strong surface low rapidly moved into southeastern Nebraska by 3 p.m. on January 11, while the temperature had increased to 28 ☏ (−2 ☌) by 7 a.m. The temperatures in advance of the low increased some 20–40 degrees in the central plains (for example, Omaha, Nebraska recorded a temperature of −6 ☏ (−21 ☌) at 7 a.m. On January 11, a strengthening surface low dropped south-southeastward out of Alberta, Canada into central Montana and then into northeastern Colorado by the morning of January 12. The weather prediction for the day was issued by the Weather Bureau, which at the time was managed by Adolphus Greely it said: 'A cold wave is indicated for Dakota and Nebraska tonight and tomorrow the snow will drift heavily today and tomorrow in Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin.' The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 6 through January 11, which dropped snow on the northern and central plains, and was followed by an outbreak of brutal cold from January 7 to 11. The Schoolhouse/Children's Blizzard of 1888

1 The Schoolhouse/Children's Blizzard of 1888.

Heroes of the storm keeps freezing