Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1873-09-20
ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY RAIN
FALL IN uTAH-THE CHANGE IN
THAT CLIMATE.

! brief dispatch from Salt Lake CITY
informs US that on Tuesday last, there
was heavy storm in that valley; that i.
extended generally over the Territory
that the lightning was very severe and
several persons were injured by it, and
that the fall Of hail and rain was unpsr-
alleled in that region. This is remark
able phenomenon, particularly in con-
nection with the pleasant surprises OF
liberal rains which the people of Utah
and the nsighboring State and Terrific
ries have experienced every month this
year. Those people say that great
change for good is coming over their eli
mate. that it has been in progress for the
last ten or fifteen years, and very remark
ably from year to year since the con-
struction of the Pacific railroad. They
tell us that Great Salt Lake is now higher
than it was ever known to be at this sea
son heretofore; that since Fremont's
discovery and explorations Of the lake in
l844-45 it has never been SO low as then
at the end of the dry season, as he re-
ports it, and that from period soon
after the first settlement in the valley by
the Mormons the rainfall therein has
been annually increasing.
In his "City of the Saints" (lS62l, by
that famous traveller from Arabia and the
lake regions of Central Africa, R. F. Bur
ton, in speaking of the climate of Utah
he says: Between April and October
showers are rare; there are, however,
exceptions, heavy downfalls, with thun-
der. lightning and hail. Clouds without
water is proyerbial expression; dark
heavy pail which, in woodland countries,
would burst with its weight, here sails
over the arid. sun-parched surface, and
discharges its watery stores on the can
yons and upon the mountains. During
the first few years after the arrival of the
Saints there was little rain either in
spring or autumn; in 1860 it extended to
the middle OF jane. The change may be
attributed to cultivation and plantation !;
thus also may be explained the North
American Indians saying that the pale
face brings with him his rain. The sam.
has been observed in Kansas and New
Mexico, and is equally remarked by the
natives in the Eastern hemisphere of
Cairo, the Alden Coal Hole, and Kurra-
choo."
But while the planting and cultivation
Of trees, even in small groves, in desert
regions. have brought down the rain
where rain was unknown before, the
people of Utah and adjoining Territories
attribute the marked increase of their
annual average rainfall within the last
few years to those lines OF iron of the
main Pacific and its branch railroads.
acting as electrical conductors. II this
is true, we may reasonably count upon
such an increased value OF all our arid
lands from the great plains to the Pa
ciic, and FROM the British possessions
to our Mexican frontier, from the build
ing OF our Northern and Southern Pa
cific railways. as will thousand times
over redeem all the costs involved in the
construction Of these roads. In any
event, in region where for fifteen years
and more steadily increasing annual
rainfall has been so generally noticed in
Utah, there is evidently a change at
work in the climate, from which, within
even generation or two, we may count
upon such transformation of those arid
regions as will make their former sterili-
ty and desolation appear incredible to
the observing traveler.-[N. Y. Herald.