Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-03-04
Record of Some Cold Winters.

FROM the Trenton Gazette.
The prediction that this is to be a remarkable
winter, and one of the old-fashioned kind, led
Prof. John Smock, the state geologist of New
Jersey, to make some seasonable comments on
the kind of weather that our forefathers had
when this country was new. Prof. Smock has
written considerable about the weather, and has
finished the most complete record Of the
weather that has been brought between the
covers Of a book. From the facts and figures
that he has at his command the people who
became frightened a few days ago when the
mercury dallied around the zero point were
unjustly SO, and should be consoied with the
information that the folks of this day and gem
Grafton are not in it with the good old sires of
colonial and revolutionary days for cold winters
Prof. Shocks record goes back to 1907, and it
tells how often the Hudson and Delaware
rivers were frozen over. This record is par
ticulary interesting because it tells of frosts in
June and rivers full of ice in April; frost
making Its appearance in every month in the
year and snow storms in Nav DESTROYING the
crops. There are numerous cases cited where
the mercury had gone way below zero and
remained there weeks at a time.
Some extracts are made from the records and
they tell their own story:
164l-42-Chesapeakeb bay nearly frozen over.
1656-Summer very hot.
l7l7-February 1924, great snow, ssgreatest
ever known up to that time in New England
and on Long Island.
1764-5-Navigation in the Delaware much OBJ
structed by ice from December ~ until Febru-
airy %; February z, an OK roasted whole on the
ice at Philadelphia; March o. snow fell two to
two and one-half feet deep on q level (last Sat-
urday night and Sunday.
1196-7-Delaware closed December %; Sus-
quehanna closed December 6: January 10. as
cold weather as remembered in fifty years At
south and west extremely cold
1797-8-Winter long and cold; Hudson river
closed in November: Delaware frozen over
December !, open again February g.
179S-9--A long and severe winter, with much
snow; March IL, ceep snow.
17s9-Cold weather in spring; ice April 20;
frost June G.
l7ss-lsoo-A remarkably open winter until
January 3; Delaware open again on 18th; snow
three feet deep in Georgia; snow and hail at St.
Mary's river in Florida
1803-May Z, ice; on the 9Th, a snow which
broke down the poplars and other trees in
leaf ssssg
1s2s9-Hudson river closed December %;
1829-S0 Hudson river at Albany closed JAN
uary II (lS3o), and free from ice again March
1sso-1-Winter very cold at southwest; ice
formed at New Orleans.
1S35-January and February both yery cold:
February ., thermometer fell below zero nearly
all over the country north OF Savannah and
Natchez; Long Island sound was closed by ice:
coolest winter since 1779-SO
1S&S-March was the coolest month of the
winter OF 1872 -; snow Is inches deep in
Georgia August. q remarkably heavy rainfall
In Newark. %. "a inches; at Lambertville. Is IS
inches. Hudson river free from ice at Albany
April Is, having closed November &c, 1912.
1852-Winter of 1852 cold; mean tsmpera-
lures OF the months, 8 to degrees below the
average; East river crossed on the ice january
80, and for three days following; Susquehanns
at Havre de Grace frozen over for seven
week.; cold and shows n far south a. New Or
leans and Jacksonville, Fla.