The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-10-02
SOME WEATHER STATISTICS
First Monthly Report Of Voluntary
Observer H. E. Paine.
SEPTEMBER MAS A SCORCHER
1t Was an Ideal Month for Picnics and
Outings Rain Fell on hut Four
Days-Twenty.T Two Days We're
Sunny and Eight Cloudy.

H. Z. Paine, of this city, as local
weather observer, has prepared his
first monthly report and mailed 1t to
the United States meteorological bu-
reau at Washington, ID. c. Instru-
ments necessary for making the most
thorough and accurate tests were sent
to him when he was appointed volun-
tary observer for Lackawanna county.
His residence on Madison avenue Is
very appropriately situated as regards
elevation and freedom from shelter. so
that he is enabled to arrive very close
ly at the correct measurement of tenn
perature, rains, winds, etc.
His report contains some very inter-
esting statistical and general informa-
ton. He has kept track of the weather
for upward of twenty years past; but it
was not till a little over q month ago
that he was appointed for this section.
There Is no emolument attached to the
office; all the advantage there Is in
being weather observer Is that Uncle
Sam gives out a complete and valuable
set of instruments. thermometers. ane-
mometers, barometers, and wind
guages, and these must be returned at
any time the observer gets tired of us
ing them. There must be a monthly
detailed statement sent to Washington
of the observations made.
The month of September of this year
was the hottest of any September in
twenty-five years. and Sept q, the pass
ing of the autumnal equinox, was the
hottest day of the month. The tenn
perature registered 95 degrees. 1t was
the hottest autumnal equinox noted
since the meteorological bureau was
organized.
Noted for Heat and Drought.
The prevailing characteristics of the
month were heat, drought. and sudden
fiuctuation of temperature. The aver
age maximum temperature was 80 lilo
degrees; the average minimum tenn
perature was 40 $40 degrees; the aver
age mean temperature was Ga 7-l0 de-
grees. These are very high averages,
and have far EXCEEDED the averages of
the past twenty years for the month of
September.
The temperature from Sept 12 to
IA was marked by very sudden and
abrupt change, from very high heat
to frost on the morning of Sept. IA.
In this respect the month was like
May, last spring, when the weather
changed from Iery warm to extremely
cold. There We're eight days on which
the thermometer went to 80 degrees
and above that. The highest was on
Sept. 81, when it registered 95. The
coolest was on the morning of Sept. IA,
when the thermometer was as low as
20 degrees, three below the freezing
point. The second coldest morning was
the last of the month. 1t was then at
freezing point
The average range of temperature
was 30 degrees; that Is to say that 80
degrees is the average that the ther-
mometer varied In any twenty-four
hours during the month. The greatest
fluctuation was on Sept. 81; the tenn
perature was 90 degrees at noon and
1t dropped 40 degrees before the next
morning. If a man went upon the
streets in the early evening, without
an overcoat on. he would find that
about midnight he would be chattering
like cage of monkies.
The Amount OF Rainfall.
Mr.. Paine believes that 1t was the
most arid September that came in fifty
years, to say the least. The rainfall
was very low, only 10 inches. 1t
rained on but four days. There were
twenty-five clear and eight cloudy
days. The prevailing winds were west,
Two thunder storms varied the mono
tony. and one of them was attended by
the heaviest rainfall that descended in
any one twenty-fOur hours. 1t fell to
the depth of nine-tenth of an inch
The month of September will go down
in history as an anomaly. 1t was q di-
rect opposite to the usual rule and a
cheerful refutatiOn of the dire prophe-
cies of earthquakes and siesmatic dis
turbances fo"ecasted by jaundiced ca
lamity howlers