The Oskaloosa herald., 1904-01-28
Cold Wave Extending Over Country
Hits Oskaloosa Hard.

The cold wave tnaC nad DeSn nov
ering about for almost a week tight
ened its grip Sunday morning and
neld it firmly until Monday noon AT
IL o'clock Saturday night it was s
above zero. BY one o'clock Sunday
morning it was still two above BY
five o'clock it had dropped down to
four below, while at o'clock at was
IA below Many thermometers went
as low as 16 below, while others In
the country registered 20. Sunday
was bitterly cold day, and at no
time did the temperature get above
s below zero. A damp wind followed
by a skiff of snow made the atmos-
phere almost unbearable Sunday
night. Monday morning was fully
four degrees colder, bringing the rec
ord down to anywhere from Is to "a
below zero. This is the coolest OF
the winter and discounts anything ex-
perienced last year
The severity of the cold has also
added to the damages wrought by the
heavy coating of ice that still clings
to wires and trees, and has delayed
the work of repair. BY Tuesday a full
week will have passed since the icy
embargo was placed on all telepragh
and telephone lines.
No change has been made in the
situation, other than the Western
Union succeeded in establishing an
office near the Iowa Central depot
Saturday afternoon and is able to do
little work with Chicago and other
centers. The Postal hopes to get re-
pairs made soon so that its Office may
be opened A few more small Cir
cults have been opened by the light
company, but the telephone compa-
MES are in little better shape than
they were Saturday, despite the fact
that large force or men worked all
day Sunday.
TO add to the troubles of the peo-
pie many water pipes froze and burst
ed during the two cold nights and
every plumber in town Las had about
three times as many calls as he could
attend 10, The disabling of the tele-
phones has made it difficult to place
orders for coal and many people
awoke this morning to find them
selves out of coal So far Few cases
of suffering have been reported, but
the fact is potent that many must ex.
list in different parts of the city.
The cold snap has not been merely
local touch of cold weather, but has
spread all over the country, and even
in the usually hot Santa Fe, the best
that New Mexican sun could do was
to raise the mercury to SO above
while during Sunday it went down to
IA degrees.
At Galveston and Ell Paso, where
cold, weather is ordinarily unknown
k4sxs,z7 A-n1-S--gsslR --:"---- -~lnGEsinFS.
the mercury dropped to so, which
was the warmest weather experience
ed during the day.
Only two other places reported
colder weather, however, than was
right here in Oskaloosa. ,
One was Bismarck, South Dakota, !
where the natives feel bad unless
there is an average temperature or
several points below zero during the
winter months. The other was Sioux
City with 81 below Bismarck saw
BUR IS below and went us 10 degrees
better, reporting % below.
At Dubi que it was fairly chilly yes
,erday, though there was no SUCH
pronounced variation in the temper
ature as there was here. At Dubuque
he mercury went down to 16 below,
and stuck there all DAY. But it was
cold enough at that
At Davenport the weather was
quite warm, comparatively speaking,
rs the mercury only went to 10 below.
This was the lowest point reached,
however, and during one hot spell 1t
scared up to six below.
Omaha reported the same tempera-
lure, both maximum and minimum,
as Davenport, the influence of the
rivers evidently having been the
same in each case.
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