The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-03-03
CITY EXPERIENCES
SEVERE SAND STORM
Wind Attained Velocity of 90
Miles an Hour.
FOR A CONSIDERABLE TIME
There Are Still No indications
of Rain.

! For the first time in years Wichita
( experienced a real old fashioned sand
storm last night. According 70 old resi-
dents of the city another has not been
experienced in years. although during the
days Of the early settler such occurrences
are said 10 have been frequent.
The storm came up about six O'Clock
in accordance with a weather bulletin
issued early in the day to the effect that
Wichita would experience a storm and
that it would be considerably colder. The
suddenness with which the wind began
to blow caught many pedestrians IN
aware as they were on their home from
work. The dust was fairly binding and
at time it was scarcely possible for d
person 70 keep his feet.
Due to the sheets in which the wind
blew the dust and TO the fact that the
air was literally full OF flying denris many
collisions were narrowly avoided. Even
railroad trains Stacked down to a slow
speed after once entering the limits Of the
city and the street cars made their reg
ular trips al a terrible disadvantage. The
atmosphere was much harder TO penetrate
than if heavy fog had enveloped the
city.
Owing to the fact that the weather
bureau is closed at the close Of the day
no explanation Of the sand and wind storm
could be ascertained from Observer Todd
As the storm had been predicted, however,
there is no doubt little explanation TO
make for the sand storm except that it
was due to the continued dry spell which
this part OF the state has undergone re-
Gently.
At one time shortly after the storm
broke over the city the wind gained a
velocity Of 90 miles an hour. Half an hour
later however, 1t slackened some and
settled down to an average speed OF forty
miles. II blew a gale at that velocity
until nearly twelve o'clock at which time
it further abated. The sky remained
clear throughout the storm and at no
time was there an indication OF a rain
which the ground is in such need Of
Commencing from the time the storm ar
rived in Wichita there was a continual
drop in the temperature ana up until
two o'clock the thermometer was still
falling.
Forecast for Wichita and vicinity to-
day: Partly cloudy and colder. Fore
cast for Kansas: Colder
Partly cloudy or cloudy weather is gen
orally shown in all sections except over
the extreme southwest. Rain was falling
al the morning observation at San Fran
cisco and snow at Bismark The pre-
cipitation in the past "a hours has been
unimportant and confined TO the north
eru half Of the Pacific coast and states
bordering on the British northwest ter
ritory. The Pacific northwest disturb
ance that was central Tuesday morning
over Oregon has moved To northeastern
Colorado with greatly increased intensity.
1t has caused general rise in temper
ature over the middle and southern
Rocky mountain slopes and the lower
Missouri valley and is followed by wave
OF high pressure and a rapid decline in
temperature over the northern plateau
and stations bordering on Canada. The
temperature this morning ranged from
= degrees Glow zero at QuAppelle To 66
degrees above on the western gulf coast.
The minimum temperature for the
twenty four hours yesterday was 80 de-
grees; the maxiuam So degrees.