Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-01-09
Peculiaritics of the Cold Snap.

There have been some very peculiar feat
ures in the distribution of the recent cold
snap. The ordinary laws of climate seem to
have been quite disregarded. For instance,
at the same hour it was actually colder in the
late fever-infested Memphis than it was here
in Boston In Philadelphia the thermometer
ranged some fourteen to sixteen degrees low
err than it did at Portland and Eastport, Maine
while in the former city considerable mum
Der of persons were sent to the hospitals with
frozen limbs. While we were quite comfort
able here we were told that in Washington
water pipes were bursting and health-seekers,
finding themselves in the wrong places, were
hurriedy leaving the city. Chicago, howev-
er, appears of late to excel in the accumula-
ton of cold. The other evening while the
mercury at Buffalo was some degrees above
zero. il was 90 below at Chicago If the city
goes on at that rate she will soon rival Fran
coma, n. II. We are reminded of young
acquaintance in this vicinity who said he had
become tired of our cold New England sea-
sons, and was going West He had the privi-
lege of writing home next winter that he was
in the midst of colder weather than he had
ever known in Massachusetts, and that it had
held on nearly three weeks. He still resides
somewhere in the region, but not, probably,
on account of the superior amenities of the
climate.
This tendency to excess of severe and fire.
quent cold storms at the West appears to have
increased of late, as compared with former
years. What cold weather we have had
this winter has been from the overlapping of
the outskirts of the Western cold waves
These circumstances have given rise to innu-
merable inquiries and speculations as to pos
sible permanent change in our national eli
m Rut tho trnnbIa hae haau that han
the theorists seemed to come the nearest to
unanimity, season was likely to arrive which
would upset all their conclusions. Thus,
when few years ago it was the general i'm
preston that our winters were growing mild
er, Professor LOOmis of Yale College encoun-
tered a day which was colder than any on his
New Haven records for, we think. over seven
ty years back. 1t is not improbable that the
clearing up of country should somewha
change its climatic conditions, but whether the
United States have yet advanced far enough
in that direction to bring about such result
is not yet determined. When temporary
meteorological movement has begun, the
Signal Office can instantly collect the condi-
tons of the atmosphere from every quarter,
and thus, even in the majority of cases, make
very accurate predictions. But to deal with
the general climate of a continent over broad
periods, is a very different matter.
1t is worth noting that we are likely to have
got erroneous impressions from the traditions
of our fathers to the terrors of the winters
in their times. They would naturally charge
their memories only with the remarkable
seasons; and as they were but poorly pro-
vided with protection against the rigors OF
cold, they would much more wildly recall
such trials than the pleasant seasons.
We know that at the time of the battle OF
Lexington the spring was much farther adj
] vanced than il has been at the same date for a