Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-17
CALIFORNIA; COLD SNAP.
Severe Weather In the Semi TrOpl-
cal State---Its Probable
Consequences.


The San Francisco Chronicle in a
recent issue says,
The weather records of this State
since the coming of the Argonauts
show nothing like tho continued cold
snap of the last fortnight. When the
mercury falls at Sacramento to fifteen
and seventeen degrees below freezing
point, as it did on the nights of the
10Th and 9th insts., it is almost as
startling a phenomenon as a settled
rain in the month of August would
be. Our driest winters are always the
coldest, because they are accompanied
by northerly winds, while the rain
winds all blow from the south, gener-
ally at a temperature ranging from
forty eight to sixty degrees Fahren-
heit. The ordinary winter north winds
come with a perfectly clear sky, and
produce range of temperature in the
great inland valleys from about freez-
ing point (thirty-two degrees) in the
night to fifty-two degrees in the after
noon. This year the range, both at
Sacramento and Stockton, has been
much lower, both day and night and.
though the cold would not incommode
an unacelimated person from Illinois.
Massachusetts or Pennsylvania, it is
keenly felt by all old residents, who
require as heavy wooden clothing and
as hot fires at ten to fifteen degrees
below freezing point as the inhabitants
Of the Northwestern States do at ten
degrees below zero.
All old Californians will remember
the fine open winter of 1850-5l-the
driest experienced since that time,
1864 not excepted-though the lat
ter has the distinction of I" the famine
year." because agriculture had then
become a considerable and reliable
pursuit, on which account the drouth
was a calamity. In l850-51 it was not
a calamity, because we then imported
nearly all that we consumed, even to
potatoes and onions. The winter of
185O-5l was what we should now call
a cold one but we all got along with.
out overcoats, and most of us with
only the common wooden shirt then
worn by everybody. Ali through De
cember and January there were heavy
7 frosts at Sacramento, and thick ice
formed all along the foothills; but it
was not thicker on dead water, either
at Sacramento or Stockton, than one
fourth or one-half an inch. This wear
they tell Of ice two and one-hali
inches thick at Sacramento, formed in
two nights. In 1850 there were, as in
this year, slight rains in September
and October, but none in November
and December. The dry, cold north
wind blew all through these last two
months. January and February gave
together, less than an inch Of rain al
Stockton. March gave nearly two
inches, and April one and one fourth
, May, three -fourths of an inch.
That was by great odds our driest
season. The total rainfall was about
four and cight-tenths inches in Stock.
ton and about six inches in San Fran.
cisco. The " famine year of 1856
gave nearly eight inches at Stockton
and over eleven inches here. W.
know now, from the experience Of
lS76-77, when the total rainfall al
Stockton was seven inches, that with
the summer fallow at least half the
crop of wheat could have been pro.
duced either in 1850-51 or lS63-64
} 1t was accomplished in 1877 with
three-fourths of an inch less rain than
fell in the famine year" Where
fore there is no good ground as yet t.
anticipate a total failure of the wheat
harvest next summer, though these
cold and dessicating north winds will
if they continue a fortnight longer
destroy all that has so far been planted
in the great valleys Of the interior