Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1903 — BOREAS' ICY BLASTS. [ARTICLE]

BOREAS' ICY BLASTS.

Storm Sweeps the Mld<U*JV*#t, Canning Buffering end Death. Old Boreas began hi* winter engagement throughout the middle West Saturday with a blizzard which would hnve put a Texas "norther’’ to blush. A heavy rainstorm, which turned to sleet during the afternoon and finally merged itsekf with a blinding snow-storm from the West, was the winter king’s introduction. The storm was general throughout the West and the mercury fall rapidly daring Saturday night. With a minimum temperature of thirteen degrees below zero,-at 8 o’clock day morning and an average temperature throughout the day of seven degrees bolow, Chicago was one of the coldest places In the United States. Three deaths were caused by the frigid wave, two men and a woman being the victims. It was the coldest day Chicago had experienced this early in the year since Dec. 9, 1876, when the minimum temperature was 14 degrees below aero. Another unusual feature from the meteorological viewpoint was the prevalence of below zero conditions from midnight Saturday till midnight Sunday. Th# cold wave “arrived” in Chicago between 10 and 12 o’clock Saturday night At midnight the mercury had dropped to } below zero, from which point It fell steadily till 8 o’clock in the morning l , when tiie low point of 13 below waa reached. Then a slight rise in temperal- - was observable, continuing At th* rate of one or two degrees an hour until 7 p. m., when the mercury stood at 3 degrees below zero. The wind was westerly and had a sharp bite. Shortly after midnight It blew at the rate of thirty-eight miles, and throughout the day averaged twenty miles. Chicago appeared to be the central point of an icy zone, which embraced Michigan, Wisconsin, lowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Dakotas developed the frigid ■pell late Friday night and aent It east and south eqrly Saturday morning. In the meantime eighteen Inches of snow had fallen in Chicago. The snowfall ceased at 7:30 o’clock Saturday evening, and the Dakota cold wave arrived a few hours later. Late Suuday night the Icy chill had reached western Pennsylvania, and by Monday morning it had visited New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington in "reduced form.” Held In the grip of blizzards and of ice, Michigan, lowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are shivering in zero weather. In Nebraska and in Missouri the temperature Is moderating. In Michigan and Wisconsin blizzards raged, the anow being swept before the raging gale. Trains practically made no effort to maintain any schedule, and near New Buffalo, Mich., a passenger train was held prisoner in the deep snow for fifteen hours, the passengers, when rescued, being nearly frozen and famished. In Indiana a miner, Henry Rowe, left Sullivan to walk to the Jackson Hill mine. Several hours later his body «was found in the road, where he had perished from the cold. The lowest temperatures reported were from Unity, Mich., where the mercury touched the mark at 28 degrees below, and from St. Paul, where the temperature dropped to 23 degrees below. Following were some of the cold points In the country -Sunday. Huron, S. D. .. —32 New York 82 Duluth —24 Detroit 4 Bt. Paul —l6 Pittsburg 18 Kansas City.... 0 Medicine Hat .. 2 St. Louis 2 Milwaukee ..... —l4 Denver 20 Green Bay, Wis. —lB Indianapolis ...