Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-01-31
Monday


The mercury began its descent Monday
morning about o'clock, when it registered
H. In few hours just before dawn 1t had
taken a terrible tumble and by o'clock
1t had made the zero point. Down, down,
down it continued, the atoms of weather
metal hugging, each other in the bulb In
a vain effort to keep warm. while their
brothers above were making tracks to get
into "the bandwagon." At 10 o'clock 1t
was ., at Ii it was 3. at Il It was Il,
and few moments later il struck the
lowest temperature Of the day, 5. Then
1t receded a little, but only once more dur
4ng the day did Il get above zero. at
o'clock, when it peeped over the mark just
one point t.~--. - .@,si--ss1- - s,.s :.
There wss son1ething Of a snowfall that
accompanied the drop In the temperature.
1t began before the drop. and for time
threatened to get ahead of the mercury.
There was battle royal between the two
for an hour or so. when the snow gave
It up, frozen aut But just to be spiteful,
It kept worrying the mercury at Intervals
all the day long. and when it came down
the hardest the mercury went up the
farthest. And it was the worst sort of
snow, not the beautiful" Of which the
. poets and schoo! misses write, but a par
tfcularly aggravaffng composition which
can be best characterized needle like.
Nothing was impervfous TO it, and its IA
vorite lodging place was in the necks Of
the men. where it retained its watery cold
ness as long as il was possible just to show
bureau gives the amount OF precipitation
at .04 of an, inch.
The region through which the Canadian
Pacific railroad passes is generally con-
sidered synonymous with Alaska and the
North pole, from weather standpoint. but
yesterday Vancouver island and the coun-
try Immediately north of Montana had
about the same temperature as Kansas
City. At Qu'Appelle it was 50 below, ard
nearly a Thousand miles further south,
at Duluth. it was the same. In Portland,
Ore, it WAS summer weather. with 46
above, while at Galveston and New Or
leans the mercury hovered about the 20
mark. This section of the country is in the
immediate track of the cold wave, the
area Of high barometer being in the Da-
kotas, while the low is in Texas. All
through the great mid-continental valley
the temperature is falling, and it will con-
tinue to fall.
lief in sight. It's going to get ''wusser
and wusser." and before the cold spell Is
over, the observer says that another cold
wave is on the way. He SAYS that there is
going to be snow. but not enough to make
any difference, or to cause anyone to get
out with snow shovels.
Inere nave Deen colo Gays before In this
city, and appended will be found a table
that may be studied with some degree of
comfort. The figures are the coolest of the
winters in which they occurred:
Winter of 1SsS-S9. February &C. degrees
below zero.
Winter of 1sss-90. January 16, 5 degrees
below zero.
Winter OF 1S90-9l, February 2S degrees
below zero
Winter of 1912, January 19, IT degrees
below Zero
Winter of 1929 December 26, 13 degrees
below zero
Winter of 1884. January "a, Is degrees
below zero.
Winter of 1S94-95. February s, 12 degrees
below zero.
Winter of 1855 January 8, zero
Winter of 1861, January q and %, de-
grees below zero
Winter of 1888. December 1s. degrees
above zero.
winter OF 1Sss-ss. December 9. degree
below zero; January 29 1892 S degrees below
zero.