Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1902-12-13
BLAST FROM BOREAS.
COLD WAVE COMES OUT OF THE
FRlGID NORTH.
Medicine Hat Ships a Consignment OF
Wintry Breezes to the Mississippi
Va11ey-Mercury Hovers Around the
Zero Mark-Cities Lack Coal.

Zero weather broke away from its hi
bernating quarters at Medicine Hat Sat-
urday and sped down over the Northwest
at automobile speed, bound directly for
the great lakes and a tour of the Mis-
sissippi valley. All the upper Missis-
sippi valley and the lake regions are In
frigid grip. Out of the far Northwest
enough arctic atmosphere was sent to
change this temperate zone into the do
main of King Cold for an indefinite Pc
riod.
Besides freezing over ponds and
streams, executing fantastic designs on
window panes and giving to death the
usual harvest caused by violent change
in weather, the cold delayed traffic On
railroads, resulting in accidents to pedes-
TRANS and carriages and bringing dis
comfort to city street car passengers.
It was 20 degrees below zero at Med
icine Hat Saturday and all the way down
to Huron, s. D., the temperature was
proportionately low, with a brisk north
west wind, driving before it the extreme
cold from the Canadian center. Though
the suddenness of this frigid wave alarm
ed many who had been unable to obtain
a good supply of coal, the Chicago wealth
err man offered the consolation that the
cold wave would remain only few days
this trip. The thermometer lowered
around zero throughout the Mississippi
valley.
The cold wave was we'll defined, COM
ing from the British Northwest, where
it has been threatening to break away for
some time. The cold was accompanied
with a stiff northwest wind. The great
lake region and the entire Mississippi
valley felt the low temperatures. 1T
was a general storm. Storm warnings
were sent ont by the weather bureau
throughout Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas
and Missouri. Some of the coolest points
were the following:
Williston, N. DIS Bismarck, N. D. g
Moorehead, Mimi ,2 2aayre, Mont '.''-o
Swift Current, Canada .......-lS
Canada ........-16l Medicine Hat 30
Medicine Hat, Qu'Appelle and Swift
Current are i'll the province Of Assinlbola,
where the extreme cold has been accumu-
lating for some time, ready to break for
the south.
Coal Scarce in Cities.
Many cities are facing a coal famine.
Chicago's limited supply of hard coal
is, for the most part, in the hands of the
small dealers, who have taken it with
their own teams from ships in the har-
Dor. The dealers are demanding prices.
Detroit is living from hand to mouth as
regards it's supply of hard coal. For four
months during which time Milwaukee
usually received an average OF 6OO,OOO
tons of hard coal, not a pound came 10y
lake, while in the month just closed the
receipts were only 22,601 tons, as COM
pared with 15S,245 tons in the CORE
spending month of 1901.
| There is no anthracite coal in Duluth
that is not sold. The supply of bitumin-
GUS for sale is about $4,000 tons. St.
Paul coal dealers estimate the supply OF
hard coal on hand at 100000 tons
enough to last a month. Cincinnati has
on hand about two million bushels If BIZ
luminous coal. The anthracite variety
has been practically out of that market
since the beginning of the strike. Kan
sas City, Mo-, is facing a hard coal short
age unless the railroads begin to haul IN
supplies before long. Omaha is in bet
ter condition to stand the cold than any
other western city. There are between
5000 and 5000 tons of hard coal in that
market, and the amount of soft coal Is
practically unlimited. There is no dam
ger of a shortage of coal in Omaha.