From a 1996 article by Robert Grise on the weather just south of me . 1778 Madison County Ky , immigrants caught in a blizzard , then flooding from the ensuing thaw had to cut meat from drowned deer carcasses from the floodwaters to survive as no live game could be found . Winter of 1778 - 79 snow and ice covered the ground continuously Nov through Feb with no thaw , the fords in the Kentucky River frozen solid to the bottom . Those fords no longer exist due to manmade manipulation . When people went hunting all that was to be found were frozen , dead birds and animals . May 05 1803 four inches of snow fell . Frost during 11 months in 1816 , no crops and no summer .