Evening star., 1940-01-06
Mercury Halls Drop
AT IS; Fails 10 Hit
Record Low
Atmospheric Race
Turns TobIes on
Weuthermun

An unexpected atmospheric race
turned the tables on the weather.
man today and instead of the once
predicted zero weather overnight,
the mercury did an about-face and
by noon showed signs of regaining
its lofty perch of yesterday in the
high thirties.
The forecaster explained that a
warm mass of air swirled down
from the Great Lakes region, after
genuine cold wave had headed in
from the Northwest and promised to
send temperatures in this section
tumbling.
Even after the warm mass became
evident, he said, the cold snap was
| expected to get in all it's work first,
| but, instead. the warm section
gained velocity and reached Wash
ington shortly after midnight to
turn the temperature upward from
low of Is degrees.
The mercury had climbed
steadily during the morning to the
28-degree level at noon and was still
| rising.
A change was expected during the
afternoon. however. and a low of at
least IA was the prediction for to-
night. Don't be surprised if it gets
colder than that" the forecaster
said determinedly.
Skating at Ref1ecti,~ Pool
Though the temperature drop fell
Tar short of the prediction, the re-
turn to subfreezing levels lifted the
one-day ban on skating at the Re-
f1ectlng Pool. and at o'clock this
morning skaters skinned and tum-
oled depending on their prcwess)
across the freshly smoothed surface.
When the mercury scared to the
high 3Os yesterday and skaters were
kept of the pool, park police had
some of the rough spots on the POOLS
ice coat shaved off.
Meanwhile the United States En-
gineers' Office issued warning
against skating at the Dalecarlia
Reservoir, Conduit road and the
District line, and all other District
reservoirs.
Off1cials explained that the rapid
intake and outflow of the big water
supply pond, particularly, caused
swift cross-currents beneath the
surface, making the ice treacherous.
This ice is extremely dangerous"
one official commented. "If any one
should go through, he wouldn't
have chance"
Too Many on Ice.
The reservoir water is from 10 to
Is feet deep in some places. Three
United States deputy marshals regu-
larly police the shores, but yester-
day when the temperatures rose
above freezing and the ice became
particularly thin, a number of en-
ployes at the main filtration plant
were called out to aid in keeping
skating enthusiasts from the invit-
ing Ice.
Officials estimated that as many
as 300 or 400 have been on the sur,
face of the reservoir at one time
when the skaters crowded the shores
in numbers too great for the three
guards to cope with.
The mercury did duck below the
zero mark, as predicted, in Hagers-
town, Md, the Associated Press re-
ported, and many ships were re-
ported trapped by ice to 7 inches
thick in the upper Chesapeake Bay.
The ice breaker Annapolis creaked
into Baltimore Harbor last night to
take on fresh supplies after three
days OF battering foes. Crewmen
said the bay was frozen solidly from
shore to shore above Turkey Point.
In the Cumberland area the tenn
perature followed a similar rebel
hous course, as in the District, stay
ing above the 15-degree mark most
OF the night, while Oakland and
Frostburg reported temperatures
near zero and slightly above.
Freezing temperatures along the
Atlantic seaboard extending as far
south as the Carolinas and Georgia.