The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-01-03

This paper Is entered as sccond-class matter
at the Postonace at Washburn. North Dakota.
The Chinook Wind.
Fargo Argus.)
The Dakotas are satisfied with, and feel
that they have fairly won, the title of the
grain field of America, but the testimony
of their inhabitants and the proof of their
weather observation las recorded by the
United States signal service bureau, army
surgeons and voluntary observations, COW
ering in all a period of fifteen years., COM
pletely refute the standard Eastern idea of
Dakota climate.
The mean annual temperature of the en-
tire stretch OF the two Dakotas extending
north from the northern boundary line of
Nebraska-more thar 400 miles-to the
southern boundary of Manitoba, is Ais de-
Rrees an average higher than that of either
the state of Vermont or New Hampshire.
The coolest month Of the year is January,
the thermometer indicating in that month
an average temperature covering the whole
area of this vast country of z degrees
above zero. The mean temperature for
July, the warmest month, is 72 degrees.
The average temperature of the three win
ter months is 11.s degrees, of the spring,
ALL, and the summer, 69.1. The average
temperature of the fall, september, Octo-
Der and November) is AL degrees, or 3
degrees higher than during the three
months of spring. During the month of
January the thermometer will sometimes
register a low temperature, occasionally
going 40 degrees Or more below zero, and
yet, contrary to the general opinion, these
days of extreme cold are not the most try
ing. When it is the coolest the sky is
cloudless and the sun shines with a mid
summer splendor, the atmosphere is at
perfect rest, and the cracking of the frost,
the crunching of the trodden snow, togeth
er with the Intoxicating effect Of each
breath of dry, frozen air, create an exhila-
ration almost Undesirable. An actual in
spection of the thermometer is necessary to
convince ono that it is really 80 cold. The
winter atmosphere, almost absolutely de-
void of humidity, never penetrates and
chllls with that cold one feels in the damp
saturated air of the Atlantic and Lake
states. The most disagreeable storms of
winter occur when the temperature is but
q few degrees below zero, and are accom-
panied by strong winds, generally from
the northwest, which swirl the dry powder
ed snow in whirlpools Through the air,
b~ewildering stock and binding the travel
or. Fortunately storms of much severity
are neither of long duration nor of fire.
quent occurrence. They come about as
often as earthquakes in New York or Can
ada. The most disastrous one on record
was the storm which swept over the terri
tory on the 18th of January, 1888, and the
one concerning which the most woeful ex-
aggarations and distortions were circulat-
ed abroad.
The depth of SNOW upon the ground is
light when compared with the snowfall of
the New England States, of Canada, of
New York, of Michigan, or Iowa, and over
though the season may be one of extraor-
binary severity, the total snowfall of a
winter is less than four feet. Travel, over
land or by rail, is maintained during the
winter months with but an occasional in
t%erruption from drifts of now deposited
by winds in the depressions of the roads.
The Great Northern in North Dakota has
never suffered as much inconvenience or
delay as railways in Iowa and Nebraska.
The summer days are warm, made ex-
cessively so at times by the chinook wind
that remnant of the Japan current
which blowing through the mountain pass
es of Montana, and distributed by the
.,Ieat valley of the Missouri over the plains
of the Dakotas, SO materially reduces the
cold of winter, and adds to the heat of
July. But whatever the unusual heat of
the day, the temperature invariably falls
at night to a degree insuring rest and re-
freshing slumber.
From the report of the chief signal off,
Ger for 1889 it is learned that in the Dako-
tas about 800 days of the year are classed
as either fair or clear, leaving an average
of only five cloudy or stormy days to the
month.
The warmth of summer fingers through
the months of September and October,
and il is not until late in December usual
y that winter assumes the mastery.
For pulmonary or bronchial trouble the
rare, dry and pure air is especially benea-
cial No breath of miasma taints the at
mosphere, and fearful scourges of depopu-
lsting epidemics are unknown.
A Montana Justice rescently addressed a
phenomenon of innocence In q smoke
frock In the following words: APrisoner
at the bar, your counsel thinks you inno-
cent, you look innocent, but a Jury Of your
own COuntrymen, in the exercise of such