Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — WORST OF THE SEASON. [ARTICLE]

WORST OF THE SEASON.

A Howling Blizzard Sweeps Through the Northwest. A blizzard has raged all over the Northwest, and, according to a late dispatch from St. Paul, is still at it. Reports from the country further to the northwest are meager owing to the prostration of the wires by the storm. It has moved rapidly from Denver in a northeaster y direction, accompanied by snow and high winds. At 8 o’clock Tuesday night at Helena it was 48 below zero, while at Missoula, a little over a hundred miles north, it was 10 degrees above. At the former place there was a high wind from the west. Missoula was simultaneously catching a small hurricane from the east. It was 54 below in Helena at 6 a. m. All through Montana, with the exception of one point, the cold was intense. In Portland it was 25 above, and in St. Paul 15. In Duluth it was 6 below, Winnipeg 10, and Jamestown 9, while at Fergus Falls, Grand Forks, and Fargo it was fully twenty degrees warmer, with high winds from a different point in each one of the six places.The snowfall in the Northwest was not enough to cause serious delays, but the high winds caused drifts that kept back through trains three or four hours. Reports from the lines running north to the lakes and east to Chicago show uniform weather, with high winds, causing the snow to drift quite badly. Late dispatches give additional details of the blizzard, which seems to have been very severe and general. Fine snow fills the air at Benson, Minn., and business has been abandoned, though it is not cold there. Mankato reports a blizzard howling and temperature rapidly falling. A sudden change of wind at Fergus Falls, Minn., was followed by a quick drop from 15 above to 10 below zero. Blinding fine snow at that place has compelled a suspension of business, and as the temperature is rapidly growing colder much suffering is feared. All trains have been abandoned at Watertown, 8. D., on account of the storm. The blizzard is now raging throughout Southern Minnesota, and mercury rapidly falling. At 7 o’clock the signal-service observer in St. Paul reported 10 below zero. At the same time it was 20 below at Pierre, S. D.; 20 below at Moorhead, Minn.; 32 below at St. Vincent, Minn., and Bismarck, N. D.; 30 below at Winnipeg; and 38 below at Helena, Mont. The wind at that hour was blowing from ten to forty miles an hour in different Sections.