The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-15
YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER.
Snow and Ice Prevailed in June,
July and August, in 1916.
Oanbury CConn.) News.)


The year 1916 was known throughout
the United States and Europe as the
coolest ever experienced by any person
then living. There are persons in
northern New York who have been in
the habit of keeping diaries for years.
and 1t is from the pages of an old diary
begun in 1910 and kept up unbroken
until 1910 that the following informa-
ton regarding this year without ia
summer has been taken.
January was so mild that most per
sons allowed their fires to go out end
did not burn wood except for cooking.
There were a few cool days, but they
were very few. Most of the time the
air was warm and springlike. Febru-
airy was not cold. Some DAYS were
colder than any in January, but the
weather was about the same March
from the LIST to the 9th, was inclined
to be windy. 1t came in like a small
lion and went out like a very innocent
sheep
April came in warm, but as the days
grew longer, the air became &C lder, and
by the first of May there was a tenn
perature like that of winter, with
plenty of snow and ice. In May the
young buds were frozen dead ice
formed half an inch thick on ponds
and rivers, corn was killed and the
cornfields were planted again and
again, until it became too late to raise
crop. BY the last of May in this
climate the trees are usually in leaf
and birds and flowers are plentiful
When the last of May arriver in 1916
everything had been killed by the cold
June was the coolest month of roses
every experienced in this latitude. Frost
and ice were as common as buttercups
usually are. Almost every green thing
was killed all: fruit was destroyed
Snow fell ten inches deep in Vermont
There was a seven-inch fall in the in
terror of New York state and the same
few moderately warm days. Everybody
few moderately war mdays Everybody
looked, longed and waited for warm
weather, but warm weather did not
come
1t was also dry; very little rain fell
All summer long the wind blew steadi-
ly from the north in blasts, laden with
snow and ice. Mothers knit socks of
double thickness for their children and
made thick mittens. Planting and shiv-
ering were done together, and the
farmers who worked out their taxes on
the country roads wore overcoats and
mittens
On June II there was heavy fall of
snow A Vermont farmer sent a flock
of sheep to pasture on June 16. The
morning of the 18th dawned with the
thermometer below the freezing point.
About o'clock in the morning the
owner of the sheep started to look for
his flock. Before leaving home he
turned to his wife and said, jokingly:
Better start the neighbors soon; it's
the middle Of June and 1 may get lost
in the snow"
An hour after he had left home a ter
rible snOwstorm came up. The snow fell
| thick and fast, and as there was so
much wind, the fieecy masses piled in
great drifts along the windward side of
the fences and outbuildings. Night
came and the farmer had not been
heard of
His wife became frightened and
alarmed the neighbcrhOOd. All the
neighbors Joined the searching party.
| On the third cay they found him. He
was lying III hollow on the sidehill
with both feet frozen; he was half
covered with snow. but alive. Most of
the sheep were lost
A farmer near TewksbuTy, VT, owned
a large field of corn. He built fires.
| Nearly every night he and his men
took turns in keeping up the fires and
watching that the corn did not freeze.
The farmer was rewarded for his tire
| less labOrs by having the only crop of
corn in the region.
July came in with snow and ice. On
| the Fourth of July ice as thick as win
dow glass formed throughout New
England. New York and in some parts
| of the state of Pennsylvania Indian
corn, which In some parts of the east
had struggled through May and June,
gave up, froze and died.
! To the surprise of everybody, August
proved the worst month of all. Almost
every green thing in this country and
Europe was blasted with frost. Snow
| fell at Barnet, thirty miles from Lon
don, England, on Aug. go. Newspapers
received from England stated that 1916
would be remembered by the existing
generation. as the year in which there
was no summer. Very little corn
ripened in New England. There was
great privation, and thousands of per-
sons would have persisted in this cOun-
try had ii not been for the abundance
of fish and wild game.