The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1919-12-27
DECEMBER HAS
WEATHER RECORD
DECEMBER HAS PROVED A
MEMORABLE STORM PERIOD
IN COLVILLE VALLEY
Previous Cold Spells RecOunted BY
Old Residents, But Always in
Other Months.

Speaking of cold, December has
set the record of all history for low
temperature in that month for the
Northwest. Be it known that on
each of the first Is days of the
month in 1919, the temperature fell
into depths of zero. In Colvile, we
are told, thermometers indicated as
low as 80 degrees minus in localities
where conditions were favorable to
extreme low temperatures; but the
official government instruments in
the city registered 20 below, as the
minimum. House thermometers along
the valley gave from 18 to 30. At
Middleport, on the Little Pend Oreille
lakes, rs miles east where the eleva-
tion is approximately 3,1OO feet, or
nearly twice the distance at Colville
above sea level, 30 below was res
corded, with 20 inches of ice on the
lakes and IL inches of snow on the
hills. The date of the coolest day
was December IL.
To hear the old timer tell the
story, there has been colder weather
in the Colville valley but not in De-
cember. In 1881 there was a cold
period including the last week in
November and the first week in
December, but no exact record seems
to have been kept; or, if so, it is not
presently available.
In the very early days before Fort
Colville was established, there was
cold weather, but the chroniclers only
referred to it in general terms, as
extremely cold, or bitter cold, judged
according to conveniences for COM
fort. In those days the wntry
blasts were menace to the aborig-
ines who were wont to traverse the
country. When a storm came and
the temperature fell whole families
are. known to have perished in their
teepees when caught on the trail
but when fully prepared for the
season they would be found COM
fortably nestled in large square pits
dug deep in the ground and covered
with boughs of trees and a small
fire in the center on in the corner
furnished warmth, but this was be-
fore the white man brought the
cabin to the frontier.
The winter Of 1862 is memorable
for length, cold, severity and floods,
the like Of which has not since been
experienced in the Northwest. In a
journal kept by the late w. P.
Winans, who was clerk of the L. S.
court at Fort Colville at the time,
these entries may be found: jan
uary Is, 80 degrees below zero;
January II, 33 degrees below zero;
January 18, 80 below. The snow was
from two to four feet deep on a
level in the valley, and there was
not day in the month of January
that the mercury did not fall below
zero. The whole Northwest was
storm swept. AS late as March %
the mail carrier who left for Walla
Walla was forced to abandon the
trip on account of the mantle of
snow from three to five feet deep
which he reported as covering the
Spokane plains. Walla Walla, which
was the nearest neighboring COM
munity to Colville, had Is inches of
snow on April 1, 1862, and wood
from the Blue mountains sold on the
streets for $25 per cord. During the
four months preceding April 1, Fort
Colville was without communication
by mail with the outside world, and
there were lively times in camp
when the November papers from the
east arrived to tell the news of home.
About the year 1868 there was
another hard winter when the mer-
curry thermometers froze, it is said,
and no one knew how cold it was.
One pioneer who lived through the
spell says that the Columbia river
froze so completely that the only
visible movement Of the subdued
flood was at Kettle Falls and Hickey
rapids. On the smoother waters the
ice froze SO thick that in testing it
for safety in crossing, hole was
put down deep enough to accommo-
date the length of an axe handle
without reaching the water space,
SO it was declared safe for crossing
cattle to the ranges on the other
side. In the spring when the break
up came the mush-ice was thrown up
over the banks on either side of the
river and it was many weeks before
it all disappeared.
Another cold winter was that of
1878. There was very little snow
that season until Christmas, and less
than four inches as late as January