The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-01
FIRST SNOW OF WINTER
BEGAN TO FALL SUNDAY AT II
O'CLOCK.
AND STOPPED YESTERDAY AT S O'CLOCK
Snow Fall Record for the Past Ten Years.
February Weather for the Past Eleven
Years--The Average Tempera-
ture Has Been a..

ture Has Been a..
Raleigh has just had it's first snow
storm.
The fall of the beautiful began Sunday
morning at IL o'clock, and with Ions
pauses between, continued until late yes
terday afternoon. All Sunday night ant
all day yesterday the bitter Jan
uary wind wihistled and stung; the ligh
flurires of snow spun and whirled, nip
ping the cheeks sharply and settling like
hoar frost on limb and twig and house
top.
At IL o'clock the largest fakes ever
long, if it had the ground would soon
have been deeply covered.
But it did not stay there long, the
ground had not yet had time to freeze
and occasionally the sun would peep out
from behind the clouds and turn the
snow into a heavy drip, drip, all day.
The cold wave had not yet arrived
The storm originated early Sunday
morning off the coast of Florida and
came rapidly up the coast. 1t was CEN
trail off North Carolina yesterday morn
ing. At the same time an extensive de-
preston existed in the east Lake region
and 1t was showing east and north of
Cincinnati and raining at Hatteras and
Norfolk. Light precipitation occurred at
almost every station east of the Mississ-
ippi yesterday, except in Florida. In
the west clear weather prevailed under
the influence of an extended high pres
sure area over Dakota, where temporal
lures below zero were reported.
The storm here ended with a very
black cloud, a heavy wind and a down
pour of mingled rain, hail and snow.
that came shot from a gun before the
blast. 1T looked as if tornado was be-
ginning, but in quarter of an hour it
was all soyer and the sun shining.
Colder, clear weather followed the
SNOW storm and the mercury began to
tumble toward the zero point early last
night, drying off the ground and freezing
the earth as hard as a brick.
There was a trace of snow on the
night of December 25th, but this is the
first real snow Raleigh has had this
winter.
Last winter the first snow came on
December End and 3rd, when rs inches
fell and stayed on the ground for many
days. On January 2Sth there was
fab of Is inches.
The winter preceding this 1S95-'96),
was marked by only one snow. That
came ON February 18th and 1Sth-7
inches.
During the winter of 1S94-'95 there
was sonw in every month. The first
snow $50 inches) fell in December.
January furnished only trace of the
beautiful, but February contributed 90
inches and March 10 inches.
The most remarkable winter, though,
was that of 1928, during which
there was 29.5 inches of snow-9.5 inch
es in December and 20 inches in Janu-
airy.
None of the other winters back to
1887 were remarkable in any way for
their snow fall, except in 1887 and 80
small amounts of snow occurred in the
month of April.
On the principle that the future may
generally be judged pretty accurately by
the past the following data for the
month of February, covering a period
of eleven years, and compiled from the
Weather Bureau records in this city,
may be of interest:
Temperature-Mean or normal temper
allure, A degrees; the warmest month
was that of 1890. with an average of 30
degrees; the coolest month was that
1895, with an average of 33 degrees;
the highest temperature was so degrees
on February %, 1890; the lowest tenn
perature was 4 degrees on February
Sth, 1895; average date on which first
"killing" frost occurred in autumn, No
yember list; average date on which
last ''killing" frost occurred in spring,
April Sth.
Precipitation (rain and melted snowl-
Average for the month, 4.32 inches;
average number of days with Oh of an
inch or more, II; the greatest monthly
precipitation was 6.73 inches in 1896:
The least monthly precipitation was 266
inches in 1895; the greatest amount Of
precipitation recorded in any "A consec
utfve hours was 2.95 inches on the 9Th
and 9th, 1896; the greatest amount
of snowfall recorded in any a consecu-
tive hours (record extending to winter
of 1887 only was 100 inches on Feb
ruary Dist and 22nd, 1889.
Clouds and Weather-Average num-
Der of clear days, q; partly cloudy days,
&; cloudy days, IA.
Wind-The prevailing winds have been
from the southwest; the highest velocity
of the wind was 30 miles from the
north ON February q, 1891.