Indian Cyclone Leads To Deadly Blizzard, Avalanches

Rescuers carrying a body off of a high
Himalaya pass after a blizzard started
by the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud.  

Tropical systems like hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones almost always weaken and fall apart rapidly once they come ashore.  

Still, the remnants of these systems can cause torrential rains and severe flooding days after breaking apart as deep moisture from these systems travel hundreds or even thousands of miles inland.

This just happened in India but with a twist: When the moisture from the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud hit the Himalayas, they unleashed a huge blizzard that has killed 27 people and left many more missing. 

According to the New York Times, the extreme snowstorm caught about 350 trekkers in a high mountain pass. Only 244 reached their destination which means close to 100 have been killed or missing.  

Snow from Hurricane Sandy, 2012, W. Virginia.  

Some of those missing people could be hold up in high mountain lodges, however.

There were a lot of people hiking up in these mountain passes because October is usually the prime trekking season. It's the driest time of year, temperatures are usually on the moderate side, and it doesn't usually snow.

But the remnants of Hudhud changed all that, tragically.

Here in the United States there have been a few other examples of "snow hurricanes," though none were as tragic as the one last week in the Himalayas.

In 1804, the famous "snow hurricane" hit New England when a strong hurricane moving northward from the Carolina coast collided with cold air over New England.

Up to 48 inches of snow fell in the Windsor, Vermont area. The storm destroyed crops and orchards, flattened barns and killed 16 people. In northern New England, snow remained on the ground until spring.

Hurricane Ginny dumped several inches of snow on Maine in 1963. And horrible hurricane Sandy in 2012 dumped up to four feet of snow on West Virginia.

Yes, tropical storms and hurricanes are creatures of hot air and humidity. But sometimes, they team up with winter for truly terrible results.