Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1881 — Is the Climax of the Winter Passed? [ARTICLE]

Is the Climax of the Winter Passed?

The recent rain-storms which took the place of snow-storms and extended from the south to the lake region, taken with the low pressure and milder southerly winds in the northwest, seem to mark the past week as the turning point of the winter. It would be an interesting and important inquiry to determine the average date of maximum cold in these latitudes, that we might have an inkling of the future weather and guess at least when the reign of snow and slush will end. “In the southern part of the United States,’’ says an able investigator of climate,* “the greatest cold occurs soon after the winter solstice; in the latitude of PhiladelShia it occurs about the middle of anuary; at Toronto nearly a month later, and at Van Rensselaer Harbor (latitude 78 degrees 37 minutes north) in March.” This statement is probably very near the truth. During the seven winters from 1873 to 1880 the intensest cold atPhiladelphia fell in three seasons during Decemlier and In four it fell in January, but in none of these winters did the lowest temperature occur lat£r than January 16, the greatest thermal depression being 5 degrees below zero on January 10, 1875,. In New York the maximum winter cold during the last eight years occurred twice in December, three times in January and three times in February—the average date being between the 18th and 22nd.of January. We have, therefore, probably passed theclimax of this “winter of our discontent,” The probabilities, however, from these and other data are that we shall have some severe “cold waxes” in the first half of February, if not sooner. As the expensive force oj the sun’s now increasingly vertical rays is exerted over the North Pacific basin, driving its air eastward over the Rocky mountains, whence robbed of its vapor, it goes to swell the continental reservoir of dry, cold air in the northwest, we may ex. pect late visitations of the “blizzard.” But theJiope that the worst of this memorably severe winter lias pasted will gild the remainder with promises of spring, and make it more endurable especially to the poor and the invalided waiting the ordained hour when— Turely winter passes off, Far to the north, and calls his ruttian blasts.