The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-12-06
Sudden Switch in the Weather Condi-
tions When There Was a Drop
Of Thirty Degrees in
Temperatures.
CHRISTMAS SNOW COMES
Weather Bureau Promises That Ma
ture Will be Decked Out in
Full Holiday Attire
Tomorrow.


broke Sunday morning with crack
that was heard for miles around.
After periou of remarkably mild fall
weather, lasting up into December,
the change came suddenly and effect
lively, the mercury making a drop OF
thirty degrees and unattended fish
worms being caught outside of their
huoses and frozen to death.
Saturday night there was rain
storm. 1t rained hard most of the
evening and Sunday morning, the
mercury began to drop. 1t was still
mild at o'clock Sunday morning but
the wind was grumbling in the north
and by daylight the cold wave had ar
rived. The day was bitter one and
the mercury got down to 10 by 700
o'clock in the evening. The water
from the rain, froze on the sidewalks
and while it really was not very
cold day. the people shivered on ac-
count of the sudden change from
Nicaraguan weather to North Pole
summer weather.
Fishing worms have habit OF com
ing up out of the ground during a
heavy rain storm and they were all
out in force Saturday night. Some of
them failed to get back in their
houses soon enough and were frozen
stiff on the sidewalks on Sunday. 1t
was an interesting sight during the
da: to see them on the walks where
death had overtaken them.
This morning the mercury reached
Ia degrees and rose during the day.
Regular Christmas weather is prom
ised for tonight and tomorrow, for
snow storm is forecasted and the
ground may be covered with snow to-
morrow morning. With the snow
is to come milder weather and to-
morrow is not expected to be as cold
as today was.
The cold snap of Sunday will prob
ably ruin good deal of fruit, for the
recent warm weather had almost OPEN
ed the buds of the peach trees and
others and they We're therefore more
susceptible to freezing and Sundays
colo wave fixed them.
The river is at an almost record
stage for December, being and a half
feet this morning, having risen half
foot on account of the Saturday rain
| storm.
| Out in the woods, the little creeks
present beautiful sight, for they
were chock full of water when the
freeze came and they are now cover
ed with ice. If tomorrow covers the
land with snow, nature will be beauti-
flti in her holiday attire
The goose bone prophets are at
sea this year and cannot tell whether
We are to have cold winter or a
mild one. An examination of goose
bones on Thanksgiving day showed
all of them to be of a different color
thus giving no basis to work on in
Iferetelling the coming winters condi
4 tion.
There will likely be many more
nice days before the real cold wealth
4 er of January and February arrive
and perhaps the balance of the presen,
month will see some more of the
4 spring like days which have marked
4 the past few weeks of the calendar.
! For the past four or five years, we
have been having mild, open winters
and many people are of the opinion
that the seasons have changed ani
that we will no longer have the rigor
Gus winters of old when I was /;
boz" The weather bureau official.
al over the country say that the COLI
winters will come back and that W,
have had cycles of mild winters be
fore.
But SO far, the public has the bes
of the argument.