Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1895 — TORRID ZONE BURSTS. [ARTICLE]

TORRID ZONE BURSTS.

PAST WEEK HAS BEEN A RECORD BREAKER. Mercury Climbs Up and Peeps Over the Top of the Glass—Many Deaths and Prostrations Be ported—Crops In Many States Burning Up. _ Hottest in Years. There Is not much in the way of weather that the United States cannot dish up in the course of twenty-four hours. Indeed, coincidently there may be every conceivable variety fashioned into a sort of meteorological. mosaic, making up what maybe styled one unified aggregation of universal climates. As a matter of fact the American weather nowadays is not, strictly speaking, weather at all; it is an assortment of samples, no sample warranted to “hold.” According to former rules of computation and average It should be intensely hot do wmßonth; whereas the region of the magnolia has been deliciously cool, refreshed by abundant and frequent rains, with no.w and then a delicate, barely perceptible pinch of frost in the air. In New York, where a reasonable degree of heat would have beep admitted, but cool breezes normal, all records have been broken for hot May weather. ~ While New York was sweiteriugin this way Colorado had lost herself in eight or ten inches of snow. While Texas was being deluged with rain Indiana was burning up with drought. Other sections pined for a patter of rain upon corn leaf and wheat ear, and a cloudburst came aiding to drown out a part of Nebraska. Now, all this is indicative of bad management somewhere. The distribution is performed in a buuglingly incompetent manner. .This business of - turning on a burning glass where the earth is already parched and the' peopio baking, emptying clouds into lakes, and sending a, surplus of rain Into a State that has an instinctive aversion to water, has been carried to a stupid •xcesß. It is time a stop were ordered.

Record for the Week Appalling. Tuesday’s torridity was the climax of a hot week that brokje the record of twentyyears. In Chicago every day the mercury climbed up several times took a peep over the top of the glass. Not since the bureau began regulating the weather had the corresponding week let loose so much caloric. The excessive heat was due to the south wind, the scorching breath from some Mexican inferno that so often sweeps* Across Kansas and Nebraska, leaving death, destruction and mourning in its track. The record shows a remarkably high temperature from an early hour and A striking drop during a shift in the wind. Chicago did not get the worst of the heat, for at Indianapolis, Louisville and Charleston, S. 0., the thermometer registered 100, making the first century record of the season. It was 98 at Washing-' ton and Norfolk, Va. The maximum of 66 was reached at Detroit, St, Louis, Springfield, 111., Cairo, Nashville, Memphis and. Cincinnati; New York, as usual, played a second to Chicago, with only 94. Boston had a lucky day, having A sea wind which kept the record down to 60. At 7 o’clock at night Ohio and eastern Indiana were still sweltering under a temperature of 90 to 92. The Rocky Mountain region was enjoying compensation for the suffering of last week. Beyond lowa and Minnesota the temperature was down to 60 or below. In Colorado and Wyoming it even went as low as 50. There were general rains, with more or less thunder, in lowa, Nebraska And Colorado, and those sections will probably get more showers later. This Is likely to prove the longest spell of wet weather the arid section of the West has had for years. Cairo and Nashville also reported showers. Government correspondents sent In the following as the highest marks for Monday: , v ;

Abilene BS| Little Rock 94 Bismarck 62 Louisville 100 Boston 60 Marquette 72 Buffalo 74, Momphis 96 Cairo 9o; Miles City 66 Cheyenne 60i Milwaukee 78 Chicago 98 Minnedosa 62 Cincinnati 9C[ Montreal 70 Cleveland 90! Moorhead 56 Davenport 92! Now Orleans 84 Denver 56!New York ~. 94 Des Moines 84!Omaha 82 Detroit 96 Oswego 80 Dodge City 68 Palestine 90 Duluth COi Pierre 48 El Paso. 84! Pittsburg 94 Erie ............. 88! Port Huron 94 Galvestoh 86| Pueblo 72 Grand Haven 90; Rapid City 64 Green Bay 78i St. Louis 96 Helena 66! St. Paul 80 Huron 60! Salt Lake City.... 66 Indianapolis 100! Sioux City 76 Jacksonville 92! Springfield, 111.... Qfl Kansas City s 84! Springfield, M 0... 88 Knoxville 00! Toledo 94 La Crosse 88; Washington 98 Many cases of sunstroke are reported. In New York it ia safe to say that at least twenty-five persons have died during the last five days as a result of the heated term, and that over 150 have been prostrated and taken to the different hospitals of the city. In Chicago four persons died Monday from sunstroke and many others overcome by heat will not recover. Philadelphia reports seven deaths and nearly fifty prostrations as Monday’s addition to the heated term fatalities, while Baltimore and Pittsburg each record four fatal cases. The mean temperature for May from 1871 to 1895 is shown In the following tablet 1871 68 18i» «i 1888 63 1872 66 1881 61 1889 57 1873 62 1682'. 61 1890 63 1874 68 1883 53 1891 63 1878 64 1864 66 1892 62 1876 69 1886 63 1893 62 1877 67 1886 67 1894 66 1878 65 1887 00 1895......60 1879 58 The highest notch reached during May, 1893, was 94 degrees, the lowest being 82 degrees. On seventeen days the temperature was above normal, and on fourteen it was below normal. The weather has been more freakish during May this year than in twenty-five years before. On four days—May 4, 29, 30 and 31—thq records were smashed, the mercury beating its competitors in former years. Crops Burning. Up. The most gerious condition which ever confronted the farmers of Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Wisconsin and Michigan reigns in many localities, and every crop is threatened by serious danger—wheat, corn, oats and hay. There has been less than half the asnal rainfall this year, and many es the smaller streams are now dry, while wdUa and cisterns have been dry for weeks. The hot wave of this week' has made ihe condition more alarming. 80 long as it Was coefl the^g rowing vegetation halif Its color, but nnaer the influence of

the sun and wind of this week vegetation of ail kinds is withering. Many of the meadowa are already in August brown. The bine grass pasture will not much longer afford grazing for the cattle, the farmers say, and the wheat and corn are both in danger of being destroyed.