Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-04-02
FREAK FRosTs AND Foos
Recent Cold Wave Most Damaging In
Years-Some Celebrated Storms
and Winter Weather-The
Famous London Fogs
By GEORGE NOX MCCAIN


be found that the loss amounts TO millions
of dollars.
1t is tho first example in many years of
March gone mad.
1t was. however. by no means the worst
sample of weather that has been furnished
this country or this neighborhoOd.
March is tho frcakicst and the most un-
reliable month Of the twelve. One day 1t
will be hcnd incarnate and the next ~
dCmurc as Il schoolgirl.
The most unusual storms the eastern
part of the United States has known or
CURED in March,
The very worst was that Of March II, Is
and a. 1SSS. Never such Il storm had been
experienced before or since in all the Fast.
In New York city many persisted in the
streets. Now England was cut off from the
outer world.
It was week before New York. with all
the facilities at its command. could resume
street traffic.
Snow was piled in drifts in places to
depth of from ten to fifteen feet.
YNIIE next most destructive storm was that
/ Of December 10, IL and 10. 1901. 1t
swept the entire country, but its worst Cf-
fccts were reported in the W"st.
Tens of thousands of sheep we're destroyed
in Wyoming and tens of thousands of cattle
in the Dakotas and Nebraska froze in their
tracks
In the mountainous valleys Of the East
heavy rains preceded the blizzard. Cloud
bursts wcrc frequent and towns and villages
from New York TO Georgia along the APP
palachian chain were inundated and in
some instances partly destroyed.
Incalculablo damage was done to fruit in
the orang" groves of Florida
One month later the greatest blizzard the
northwestern Pacific ocean and Japan knew
in Swpnt tlC Island E,mpirp
Snow in the mountain passes was twenty
five feet deep.
\ command of 210 men of the Japanese
army. on n practice march. were frozen to
death Only one, corporal, succeeded in
escaping.
THE cold wavc most disastrous to the
L South occurred in January. 1S9J Flor
ida suffered $1,000, 600 damage to its fruit
crop.
At Pensacola the oranges frozc hard on
tn" trees.
Uhc thermometer at Tampa fell TO Is do
Grccs above 2crO--J degrees below the lowest
ever before known
Orange Park had icc two inches thick
on its ponds.
It was the worst cold spell known in
Florida in cighty-iiyc years. or up to the
present.
\ cold wave of equal severity had visited
III" tUWCry peninsula in lS"J, but as tenn
prraur"S wcr" not recorded with accuracy
in those days it is not known Just how low
ia" Thermometer dropped.
Tn BUCKS COUNTY this wcch. within a
i few miles of each other. were orchards
that suffered great damage and others in
which lii" blossoms were barely touched.
In portions Of Montgomery county it is
always very much colder in certain localities
than in others.
L.
crratic fashion and with most remarkable
results.
lIortcuWristS in eastern Pennsylvania
have taken several leaves out of tn" expert
cnrr of Florida and the French orchardsts
and vinCyurdStS
! know of ono large orchard in southern
Pennsylvania whcrc in early spring when
froSts threaten Smoli" and fire pots TO the
number Of several hundred are set out in the
orchard ready to be lighted at an inStui.t's
notice.
In Franco tho vniruIturist uSC> what hr
calls psychromotcr. It consists Of two
thermometers and n printed table by which
Il" as"crtuims the d"w point Of the atmOS-
phCr".
The dow point i the temperature a,
| which dew forms
On II night in March when frost threatens,
an observation is mad" about q O'Clock to
ascertain tho chances Of visit from the
| frost King before morning.
! II the tCmp"rutlr" j. VI degrees and the
| dew point ~ degrees, there is every chance
| Of trouble. and then Hll arrangements arc
| made for artificial clouds Of smoke to cover
vineyard or orchard
TT WAS the late Prof. H. A. Hnzcn. OF
l. the weather service. who originated tho
! saying. I'VE have NOR" kinds of weather in
the uitcd States than ar" known anywhere
! else on earth.
As if justifyng thar assertion there i,
inst tlul\ Ttrpr,lr6 in philn1plIli, l.,