The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-07-27
GOVERNMENT TELLS
WHEN II WAS HOTTER
United States Weather Bureau
Contains Information About
North Yakima Climate

Eastern Washington and the Yak
ina valley come in for some extended
notice II a bulletin Just publ she'd by
the United States Weather bureau.
The bureau has been publishing sum-
maries of the clinatolosicaI data for
the United States by sections. Eastern
Washington is Section 90.
In view of the somewhat torrid
summer North Yakima is having tn $
year. it may be a matter for encour-
Hgement, or Il scOuragement, as one
looks at it, to know that there Is on
recoid in the data of heat and cold at
the Mckee observatory of II. B. Sued
der time when the mercury reSched
los. This was in August.
The Warmest summer within the
last 20 years for this section, accord
ing to the bulletin was that of 1888.
All the months from June to Septern-
Der, inclusive, We're above the normal
temperature, but there were two mo-
table hot spells; one during the clos
ing days of July and the first two
weeks of August, and the other dur
ing the twelve days succeeding the
sixth of September. The hottest days
were between August and 10, when
the thermometer reg stored 113 at
Walla Walla, ia at Lind and 115 at
Kennewick. The latter is the highest
temperature in the shade ever record
ed by government weather bureau
thermometer in the state. In the hot
spell of September a temperature of
SO was recorded at Fort Spokane on
September II.
Coolest Winters
The coolest winters within the last
20 years were those Of 1923, of
1889 when the thermometer hung
around % and 80 below and got down
to SO in Cusick in both January and
February, the lowest ever recorded in
the state and in January, 1909, when
the mean temperature of the section
was 20 degrees, eight below normal.
and the cold spell was both severe
and the longest protracted Of any on
record.
The Yakima country has an aver
age January temperature of from %
degrees in the upper valley to 80 de-
grees in the lower and an average
July temperature of 65 in the upper
and - in the lower valley. The low
est recorded is 80 degrees below zero.
The average annual precfpitatio
ranges from to 13 inches in the diff
ferent portions.
Few Prostratfons.
In. the Snake, Walla Waiia and
Yakima valleys, says the bulletin, and
over the plains of Adams, Franklin
and Douglas counties, temperature
ranging from 1J5 to lis degrees have
sometimes occurred, while tempera-
lures above 100 degrees occur every
esummer. Tii; heat is seldom very
oppressive, owing to the great dryness
Of the air favOring evaporation, which
is a cooling process, rendering the
temperature Of the surface of the
human body ceveraI degrees lower
than the temperature of the air. Heat
p. ostrations are, therefore, very rare.
SunnySidc Is Dry.
The bulletin is filled with cabalistic
tables which, when deciphered, seem
to- give copious information about
rainfall. Winds. temperature and such.
Sunnysiue looks to be about the drest
place in the section with it's annual
precipitation of SIX, seven and eight
inches. There are one or two desert
places in the Big Bend country more
arid, but only by fraction.
The table showing the frost data is
of interest. For the North Yakima
district, the reckoning being made in
the Mckee, the average date of the
first killing frost in autumn is Sep
TENDER u, and for the last killing
frost in the spring May 80. There
have been killing frosts, however, as
early as September and as late as
June IA. At Gle EIum there was once
killing frost July 26.