The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1899-09-07
THE REMARKABLE DROUGHT.
n Hot and Dry Heated SUM
NOR Follows Cold ana hainy
Winter

NOR FOLLOWS II So'" ""'
Winter.
, Columbia State.
The month OF August has boon q
record breaker for heat ana drought
J Since the weather bureau was estab
lished If years ago, the month OF Au'
gust has never presented as many con
socutiye days OF heat as 1T has this
wear. The mornings and evenings
have been pleasant for the past week
O.. so, but the heat during tho day has
been severe. The whole summer has
been warm, and in July abnormally so.
Mr.. j. w. Bauer, director of the
weather bureau, has given some In
tcresting facts in connection with the
wear was July 18th, when tho ther-
mometcr reached lO5. The coolest
day was one degre below zero, showing
! q variance OF 1906 degrees At this station
since the year began.
While the summer has becn remark
ably hot and dry, the winter was
colder than usual. The average tenn
pcrature for January WAS 1 degree
colder, and for February 6 degrees
colder than the normal. March, how
ever, was trille warmer, and April
was colder than ordinarily The aver
age deficiency in temperature for the
entiro winter was 4 degrees per day,
or in other words, each day this past
winter was degrees colder than the
average for the past III years. The
deficiency in temperature was 252 in
February and for the entire season BIB
degrees.
The precipitation this year has becn
abnormal. When the growing season
began in March there was an excess of
5 inches in the rainfall. This contin-
,,l> IN A
when the excess reached as high as
81 inches. The "dry spell " then be-
gon, and has continued uninterrupt-
cdly.
The average normal precipitation
between March and September is 25. rs
inches. This year 1t has bccn but l6.-
30 inches, showing that while the rains
OF tic spring ran the average rain
fall 81 inches in excess OF the normal
tho hot weather has reduced that eX-
cess until it has become an actual dc.
hc;cncy OF 945 inches for the sum-
MGR months, or about I inches since
January /.
There have bccl 81 days since May
| when the mercury ran over the 80
degree mark. May 3 was the first day
wncn the maximum temperature was
over 80 degrees. There were If days
in May when that maximum was
reached. The rainfall in that month
was but inch, reducing the previous
cxccss to | ! inches.
The hot weather record kept up in
June. There were % days in that
month when the thermometer regis
tered over 30. Five days showed ~
maximum OF 100 degrees and over.
There was but half the usual amount
OF rainfall and the previous excess in
precipitation became deficiency Of
10 Of an inch
1t was abn0rmally hot in July.
There were % days when the thcrmo
meter registered over 30. For four
consecutive days there was q record as
follows 102 I05, l0l, l03. July 18th
was the hottest day recorded since the
weather bureau WAS established II
years ago. The rainfall this month
was about normal.
But the real drought commenced in
August. OF the 25 days SO far recorded
there has been for 23 days a maximum
temperature Of over SO, and the other
two days the maximum reached over
IS. This has been the hotties, and dry.
est August recorded in II years. The
average normal temperature for this
month for tho first ~ days has been
1876, but tho mean temperature for
August, 1899, ~ days, has bccn 81, ovcr
degrees in cxccss OF the normal.