The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-03-13
EXTRAORDINARY COLD WEATHER
HERE AND In AMERICA
AND EUROPE.

From the valuable table OF aver |
age temperatures for each week of
1890 prepared by Mr.. W. R. Castle
and printed in the ADVERTISER of
the 10th, we find that the average |
for the month of February in that |
year was at A. NJ. 68a, at P. NJ.
72t and at 9 P. NJ. 6Sa. Compare
this with the observations recorded |
by Mr.. Curtis J. Lyons and pub
lished in these columns on the 9th
inst. At 6 a. N. on that day his
thermometer indicated "a or
Ii o rs" below the average at the
same hour, for the same month last
year. Mr.. T. R. Walker reading DIT
$40 the day after Mr.. Lyons OBJ
servation was A. other observers
have noted readings varying be-
tween these two, while at Lihue.
Kauai, three independent observer
though not exactly at the same
height above sea level give III .
45 . and 46 Q as minimum.
These are undoubtedly the low
est temperatures ever registered Cat
SO little elevation) on these islands,
and looking abroad we find that
throughout the Northern Henri
sphere the weather has been eX-
ceptionally severe.
One singular feature in the
European winter is the great sew
Gritty throughout the South and the
comparative mildness in the North.
The northwest part of Norway has
been positively warmer than Lon
don, and during the long frost
Blarritz in the south of France was
colder than Norway, and for near
two months the thermometer stood
higher than in the north of Scot
land than IN the south of England.
Spain, Italy and Greece have
been visited with winter weather
of unprecedented severity, with
heavy snowstorms, even Algiers
and Tunis on the south of the
Mediterranean have suffered.
At Oxford a fourth hand was
driven on the frozen Thames q
feat that has not been practicable
for thirty-eight years.
All across the Northern states
we hear of floods, snowstorms,
billiards from New York to San
Francisco, and on the 21st of Feb
ruary the Signal Service officials
announced a cold wave approach
ing. and the thermometer, it is ex-
pected, will fall to zero in Illinois,
Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. At
s A. NJ. on the 22d ult. there were
recorded in Chicago 26, st. Louis
80. New York 80, and Winnipeg s
dogs. minus.
On the 18th of January New
York was visited by blizzard
which wrecked all telegraph, tele-
phone and electric light wires above
ground and broke down the posts,
leaving the city almost IN darkness
and without telegraphic commu-
nication except by few surviving
wires, indeed the condition of the
city was nearly as bad as during
the great storm of 1880.
1t will not be until meteorologists
have summed up their observations
and carried out thorough CON-
parison, that the natural causes of
this departure from the usual or
average weather conditions can be
sought and found, but in the pres
ent stage of systematic cooperative
observations throughout the world
with the constant comparisons and
exchange of scientific intelligence
rendered possible by the electric
telegraph, no doubt IN tin the key
to this atmospheric disturbance
will be discovered, and another
step in advance towards the solu-
ton of some of the great mysteries
of nature.