Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1903 — A Two Year Old Spell of Weather. [ARTICLE]

A Two Year Old Spell of Weather.

The wefither never gets so bad, or the temperature tumbles so far and fast, but what some “old inhabitant comes up with a story of what occurred way back in the tumties that beats it clear out of sight. The remarkable performances of the weather here Saturday and Sunday, can be beaten however without going back quite two years, and beaten by indisputable official records, too. On Dec. 12 and 13, 1901, the temperature ’reached 03 degreeiT~dr 9 i! egrees warmer than last Saturday. On the 13th there was, like last Saturday, an all day’s rain, ending finally in 3 inches of snow. The total precipitation was 2.55 inches, or 57 more than on last Saturday’s storm. The temperature hit the toboggan on the night of the 13th aud fell down from 52 above to 4 below the next morning. This was a total drop in about 18 hours of 56 degrees.

The drop in about the same length of time from last Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning was almost the same, or 54 degrees.But let us rejoice that the weather which followed the big change of two years ago is not likely be so duplicated any further. The temperature continued below zero all day on the 14th and the loth at that time and on the morning of the latter day it stood at 15 below zero, or the lowest December* "temperature on record here. For eight successive mornings, then there was Jbelow zero temperature, the record for each succeeding day being 4, 15, 9,1, 10, 8 afiu 7 degrees below zero. That was indeed a spell of Arctic temperature to be remembered, and what perhaps was the most reraarkab'e fact about it was that it came in the twiddle of what was, otherwise, one of the warmest Decembers ever known in this region. Except for that one spell of frigid weather there was not a day in that entire month when the temperature did not get above the freezing point. And on 9 days it was 40 or more above, and on three days above 50, and one day it was 58. Moreover it was oolder right here in Jasper county and a few counties in this vbinity during that I cold spell than it-wa* in anyi other place in North America, south of C mada.