New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-02-20
LOOK OUT FOR A STORM.
A WARNING RECEIVED FROM WASHING
TON YESTERDAY

THE orrY HAS SNOW sQUALL-INTEREsrINo
FACTS FROM THE TRIBUNE FILES OF
THIRTY YEARS AGO
II all signs be true New-York will be visited
by another storm to-day or tonight. which will
cause the mercury to take another drop. Two
storms are forming one over Lake Erie and the
other on the northern coast. and as both are
moving In this direction. 1t is not unlikely that
they will combine and develop into storm Of
considerable force
The local Weather Bureau has received the
following from the Bureau at Washington:
Advise all shipping to remain in port during , The
next twenty-four hours dangerous onshore WINDS:
shifting TO northeast on Thursday
A cold wave will probably follow in the wake
Of the united storm, and those who have been
concentrating themselves on the passing OF the
cold snap will be disappointed, as 1t has only
suspended operations for breathing spell. A
considera BILE rise occurred in the THERMOMETERS
Yesterday, the mercury registering % degrees at
a. m, % at noon and SO at p. m AT O'Clock
in the afternoon violent snow squat passed
over the city, and 1t lasted more than an hour.
six-tenths Of an inch Of snow falling In that
time During the sluall objects could hardly
be seen dozen yards away. and on the water
It had the same effect on navigation would
heavy fog.
REMINDED OF OLD TIMES.
The following letter was received from Z
prominent Brooklyn official yesterday
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: In your Issue OF this morning. under the
heading. Another Record Lowered" the following
paragraph occurs
In a heated argument over the cold weather and
on the Battery discussed startling fact II true,
the only question under discussion being the exact
Thermometer dropped in this city to IA degrees
below zero; the other that the extraordinarly cold
mon statement that IA degrees below was the potot
reached by the mercury in one or the other q
those years
Now. have special reasons for remembering ths
cold snap TO which your "od salts evidently REFER
and have therefore. been greatly interested In
their statements and amused by their heated argu-
ment over a matter OF fact to which both were
wrong.
so far as the year Is concerned. the truth les a.
r. so often does in the affairs Of this life. between
the extremes" the cold snap In question hay!ng &C.
Cured during The first week in January, 1860. AS
10 the temperature II my memory IS trustworthy.
the disputants came nearer to 1t in the aggregate
than they did separa,ey that Is waS 1nseed
mercury, touched % degrees below zero ,,,.a -
Several remarkable circumstances combined 70
impress the facts upon my memory. among others
these:
First on the evening Of the "a or 30 Of January
I was obliged go for a physician. who lived but
five short blocks from my home. and both going ana
tears forced by the intense cold congealing before
they could fall from the eyelids:
Second. on the 81 q think OF January caught
a hooking bird the outskirts OF the Elys!a1
Fields. Hoboken. 1t had escaped from a cage, as I
afterward learned. day or TWO before. Wnen !
captured It It was IN perfect condition with ono
In consequence. had to feed it Tor some time by
hand. The mandble soon grew out again, and by
April the bird a was in n fun rG s9n 30, kindly ask your
genera! utility man to consult the Tribune Mes
give the public the results OF his investigation r as
that famous cold snap The matter VIII Dc po'o
timely ana interesting. l am sure
WHAT THE TRIBUNE FILES SHOW.
The cold snap referred to by the correspond.
ent according to the files Of The Tribune, took
place on Monday. January s, 1863 The follow.
ing is an extract from The Tribune OF the
following date:
Yesterday was not only the coolest day OF tho
season, but the coolest we have had according 70
the old Inhabitants for the last twenty-hye years;
degrees below zero. and stood but little above zero
during any par, OF S the T ra f 5 boa
freezing and noses without mercy and causing
positive suffering to pedestrians ana al 'n0S0 '0'
The article describing the cold wave further
adds:
1t appears from the best sources OF Information to
be mad that the mas 30 ~"
this latitude since the year 1895. The coolest perod
In the past twenty five years was In January, 1884,
when .he range OF the thermometer showed for sew
eral days average temperature OF only teW ae'
grees above zero On that occasion the East River.
between New York and Brooklyn was frozen over
and some OF our citizens walked across on the Ice,
In the winter OF 1906 the North River was covered
by crust OF Ice so thick that teams OF horSes
passed between New York and Jersey City
The lowest figure reached by the Thermometer
was in Utica. n. Y. where the mercury regis
tered 81 degrees below zero. The cold wave APP
peared to have been general. for The Tribune
Of the same date contains dispatches from
numerous places where the cold was almost un-
precedented. At Richmond, Va, the temperI-
ture was degrees below zero at Philadelphla,
- below; at Baltimore degrees below. and at
Boston 10 below. The Weather Bureau was
established twenty-five years ago. and In that
time there have been two days In which the
thermometer showed degrees below zero ana
one Monday when ga below was reached.