Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-08-27
A REMARKABLE MONTH.
1"lNS Record of Precipitation in New
England Has No Parallel

J"ly'S Record of Precipitation in New
England Has No Parallel.
The monthly report of July of the
climate and crops of New England sec
ton indicates an extraordinary condition
as to rain fall. We all know that Ad-
olson county experienced an unusual
amount of wet weather Our july
record of S.7l inches was small as com
pared with many other parts of New
England. The extremes in the total
falls OF the month were 2G2 inches at
Portland, Me-, and 1890 inches at South
lugton, Conn, a most remarkable var
lance considering the comparatively
small area of this district. Three great
storms, namely, those of the 18th and
l4th, the 22nd, and the 10Th produced
the bulk of the abnormaly large totals
In the interior of New England. for i'm
the coast sections the precipitation was
barely normal. The first storm will
probably stand as a memorable and dis
tinctive one in Connecticut and western
Massachusetts. The downpour lasted
from thirty to thrty-six hours. and at
the close of the storm it was found that
from five to over ten inches had fallen
In many sections, exceeding previous
records for any single storm. Southing-
ton, Conn. had 1910 inches lin 33 hours)
Bridgeport, Conn, had 9.39 inches:
Windsor and Hartford, Conn. 9.22 and
9.l7 inches respectively, while at the
mouth of the Connecticut 1ver the
measure was nominal Further north.
through western Massachusetts and into
Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine
the amounts reached five and 6 inches.
but along the eastern coast the precipi-
tation was very small.
The second heaviest storm of the
month came on the 22nd. This had re-
marksble local Irregularities in Connec-
ticut' where the precipitation was the
greatest In some localities the storm
resembled cloudburst and the conse-
quent floods were worse than for many
years. Finally, on the 29th, the third
deluge occurred, accompanied by severe
electrical disturbances. These storms
created flood conditions in various
regions which assumed altogether colos-
sal proportions. Several lives were lost
and thousands upon thousands of dol
lars worth of damage must have been
done to bridges, highways, etc. On the
10th the Connecticut river at Hartford
Conn, was nearly 20 feet above low
water mark; on the 23rd it was II feet
above, and on the 3Oih. 1885 feet above.
These are said to have been the first real
floods in this river in July since 1853,
according to Professor Hart of Trinity
college.
The following is a partial list of ex-
cessive precipitation occurring in local
storms and thunderstorms in one hour
or less: At Chelsea, VT. on the 9Th.
3.GS inches in one hour: at Stratford, n.
H., on the 9th 30 inch in - minutes dur
ing thunderstorm; at Brattleboro. VT.
severe thunderstorm, with hail, on the
9th gave l.29 inches in 20 minutes, and
on the next day 2.2G inches fell in a
thunderstorm in the same length of time;
at Somerset, Mass. on the 9th. so inch
in 26 minutes by thunderstorm: at
Hyannis, Mass, on the 18th. inch in 80
minutes. thunderstorm at Wnslow, Me,
on the 3lst, thunderstorm with heavy
hail, 90 inch in 10 minutes at Southing-
ton, Conn, rainfall of 21O inches in
10 minutes on the 2nd has been exceeded
in only one instance in Is years. Hail
storms visited IIillsboro county, y. H.,
on the l7th, Franklin Co., Me-, on the
23rd ana northern Connecticut on the
3lst, doing great damage. Thunder and
lightning occurred somewhere in the
district on p days.