This day in history: The deadliest blizzard ever that killed 4,000 in Iran started on Feb 3, 1972

The snowstorm lasted for a week and dumped more than 9.8 feet of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central, and southern Iran.

Iran blizzard 1972 

Iran blizzard, the deadliest snowstorm in the history of the world that lasted for a week and killed 4,000 people, started on this day in 1972.

A week-long period of low temperatures and severe winter storms began on February 3, 1972, and left a trail of gruesome destruction, with several villages lifeless and inhabitable.

The snowstorm lasted for a week and dumped more than 9.8 feet of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central, and southern Iran.

According to reports, the city of Ardakan was among the hardest hit. The areas of Kakkan and Kumar reported no survivors.

On the last day of the snowstorm, rescue helicopters were dispatched to reach several regions that were buried under snow. First-aid workers mobilised in large numbers found corpses buried under the snow.

According to Associated Press reports, many rescue workers dug up the village of Sheklab for two days, burrowing through 8 feet of snow, before finding 18 dead bodies.

Unfortunately, no one from the village survived

"Virtually all Iran’s 1,636,000 sq km (631,000 sq mi) landmass vanished beneath a covering of snow that was so deep in places it literally buried thousands of people, many of whom sat tight in houses that turned into freezing death-traps long before a slow thaw revealed the true horror of this extraordinary happening," Devastatingdisasters.com wrote about the incident.

The Iran Blizzard tops NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) list of top global weather, water, and climate events of the 20th century.

The second deadliest blizzard in human history took place in Afghanistan in 2008. It killed an estimated 926 people.