USA > Maryland > Montgomery County > Sandy Spring > Annals of Sandy Spring history of a rural community in Maryland, Volume 1 > Part 24
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February was a beautiful month; the warmest Febru- ary for at least 10 years, with little wind and but 5 days of falling weather.
March 9th. Thermometer 59º at 7 A. M .; on the 10th 17º, a variation of 42° in 24 hours, at the same time of day. 18th, thermometer 11°; 19th, snowing all day (nearly) ; 20th, thermometer 13º, and snowing till noon. 24th, thermometer 70° at noon. Verily, no one can say our climate is monotonous.
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APRIL 1st, 1878.
Without an attempt to treat of all interesting facts connected with the weather for the past year, I shall follow its course and select the most striking features that have been noted down.
May. The first 10 days were very cold, being 2º below the average for April. With the 16th, however, com- menced a week of hot summer weather, averaging 753º, or more than 26° wariner than the first 10 days. On the 20th the thermometer was 93º, which was exceeded by but 2 days during the summer.
June 21st and 26th, violent storms, accompanied by destructive lightning; that on the 21st lodging uncut wheat; that on the 26th scattering shocks about. Great fears were entertained that the noble crop would not be housed in safety, but little was seriously injured. A very large crop raised despite the dry May and wet June.
August 21st. A gust, accompanied with hail, reduced the temperature from SSº to 64° in three-quarters of an hour. There was only 11º variation in the noon temper- ature for the whole month of August-78º to 89º.
September 1st. A slight earthquake at 11 P. M. Not a drop of rain in the last 2 weeks. July, August, and September, taken together, were the driest on record.
October 4th. There began a series of heavy rains. At 3 P. M. the storm culminated in a kind of water- spout. Nearly 43 inches fell within 12 hours. Newly- seeded wheat fields were disastrously washed; Brooke Grove and other dams carried away. On the Sth another deluge, 23 inches fell in 6 hours, making 7 inches within 4 days, nearly as much as the total for 3 months preceding. About 6 inches more rain fell in the month than the average for + preceding Octobers.
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November 4th. The first destructive frost. 22d to 24th the flood-king still reigned. 4 inches fell on the 24th alone. The effects on the Potomac river were ter- rible; the canal much damaged. The warmest and wettest November on record. The same can be said of the whole fall of 1877.
.. December. The heavens were very interesting. On the 8th was a partial occultation of Venus by the moon. Either coquetting with the dark border, or lingering perched on the end of the horn, the planet presented a beautiful sight. On the 13th could be seen all the visible planets in the southwestern sky, including the moon. 29th, a bouquet of S wild flowers was gathered in the open air. Decidedly the warmest winter month on record. Not a flake of snow seen, and the lowest ther- mometer 21°.
January. The ground whitened for the first time. 6th to 8th, the only cold snap, which enabled most persons to fill their ice-houses. The 31st was such a day as comes once in 20 years. Wild blasts from the east dashed sleet and snow everywhere; the tightest buildings were not proof against it. There were but 3 inches of snow on a level, but it piled in drifts 5 and 6 feet high, while fields generally were almost bare. Lanes running north and south were rendered impassable for days.
February. Thaws and rains made the roads like old times, through the first half of the month,-a very warm February. Thunder and frogs heard on the 21st; flocks of robins seen on the 25th. As much appearance of spring as is ordinarily seen a month later.
March contained many lovely days and little disagree- able weather. On the 11th farmers (that is, poor farmers) sowed oats, and wheat looked too forward to make the best
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erop. Upon 10 out of the past 13 St. Patrick's Days has it rained, or snowed, or hailed, or sleeted, or done something characteristic of the day. Some rain has fallen upon 11 out of the past 15 Sundays. 24th, bar- ometer fell to 28.88 inches. There was a rainstorm fol- , lowed by a northwester. Thermometer 20° next morn- ing. Peaches were injured and wheat blades scorched.
A wonderful winter; only 6 days on which snow fell. Average temperature for November, December, January, February, and March was 40.4°, all except January being the warmest on record. This is more than 5° higher than the average for 10 previous years ; so look out for a grand crop of weeds, insects, etc.
APRIL 7th, 1879.
Discarding the system used on former occasions, your statistician will treat of nature's phenomena in a new way, assured that full description will prove more acceptable than bare mention of facts and figures.
Therefore, instead of following through the past year, jotting down notes in each successive month, I shall divide my work into chapters, not confining myself to the exact order of occurrence.
General Temperature.
Last spring was 5° warmer than the preceding year. Summer, owing to a very cold June, and in spite of a hot July, was rather cool on the whole. Fall, normal ; and winter 63º colder than last year, though not one of the very coldest. The year 1878 was the warmest for the past 12 years ; averaging 54°.
Rain and Snow.
Snow fell on 20 days last winter. First snow December Sth. Last snow (we hope) April 5th. Deepest was on
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March 2d. 8 inches. June, July, and October, all had an unusually heavy rainfall, while in September, February, and March it was very light. 52 inches fell during the year 1878, being an average of 1 inch per week.
Early Season of 1878.
Last spring was one of the earliest seasons ever known. The 7 months ending with April had all, except Janu- ary, been remarkably warm. The lowest temperature in April was 41°. Wheat heads were seen April 27th, and by May 8th the fields were fully out. April 30th the following is noted : " Cherry and lilac leaves full-sized ; cats hide the ground ; plenty of clover in bloom; Col- orado and other bugs in profusion." By May 9th the forests were nearly as in June. Fireflies, May 18th. There was a severely cold spell from the 11th to 13th, when the thermometer fell to 37°, and sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, and probably wheatfields, were damaged by a white frost.
The Great Hailstorm. . i
On Sunday, the 28th of April, a vast, copper-colored cloud passed over this section from southwest to north- east, accompanied by violent thunder and heavy rain. In the centre of its path, a strip extending from the District line nearly to Ellicott City, and from 1 to 1} miles wide, was visited by the most destructive hailstorm ever ex- perienced in this vicinity. Where heaviest, the hailstones lay to the depth of 2 or 3 inches in the fields (enough for sleighing), while they were piled in drifts 2 feet deep on the banks of streams. Although followed by hot weather, a pile was found a week later in E. P. Thomas's woods estimated to contain 5 bushels .. Had an army of African
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locusts passed over it, this region could hardly have pre- sented a more desolate appearance than it did on the morning after the storm. Rich wheatfields just coming into head were mangled to pieces, their fine promise utterly destroyed. Not content with tearing off every vestige of blossom from fruit trees, the remorseless de- stroyer so bruised and battered the trees themselves that in all its track there hardly remained a peach tree worth preserving. Rank clover was pared off so close to the ground as hardly to afford pasture; while as for the forests, 6 weeks later they looked almost as barren and drear as we see them now. Fortunately no person was hurt, nor live stock killed, but the damage to crops, etc., in this section was estimated at $10,000. The storm lasted a little over half an hour.
Celestial Phenomena.
On the 6th of May there was a transit of Mercury over the sun's disk. September 5th, an occultation of a bright star in Sagittarius. This phenomenon is well worth watch- ing, as showing how even the brightest stars are but mere points of light. Slowly as the moon travels, yet, even with a good telescope, the instant a star is touched by the moon's edge its light totally disappears.
Special Rains.
There was rain upon 19 out of the 25 Sundays ending with June 9th. On June 17th and 18th, 33 inches fell. Wheat was laid flat, but, fit emblem of truth, rose again. July 19th, thermometer 96° at noon, followed by a storm during which 3 inches fell in 3 hours. 33 inches fell on the 23d of October.
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Hot Weather. A hot spell lasting 26 days ended July 21st.
Low Barometer.
On October 23d, during the storm spoken of above, the barometer sunk to 28.54 inches; and on December 10th, when a warm morning was followed by a heavy rain, turning into a savage snowstorm by night, it was 28.46 inches, the lowest I ever saw it.
Cold Weather.
About noon on Thursday, January 2d, commenced a spell of such weather as we trust not often to experience. After a mild forenoon a powerful northwestern gale sprung up, which hardly paused for 3 days. At 12 M. the thermometer was 37°; at 4 P. M., 21°; at 9 P. M., 6°. Next morning (Friday, January 3d) it was -3º, and blow- ing harder than ever. Saturday and Sunday both, 3º at 7 A. M., after which it slowly moderated. Potatoes froze in cellars always thought secure, while conservatories and pits could not save the flowers in many places.
The Recent Thaw.
On the 11th of March, thermometer reached 70°, and the frost left the ground a few days later; snow that had lain for 3 months disappeared, and the effect on turnpikes is known too well to be recorded here.
APRIL 5th, 1880.
My daily record of current events having been recently discontinued, this report will necessarily be less complete than some that have preceded it. Following no special
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system, since none has been proved the best; wearying you with no long columns of bare statistics, since for general minds these carry little interest, while persons wishing such dry facts can obtain them better by applying to the writer, than by hearing them discharged bombshell fashion into the ears of a public assembly ; with a desire less to cover the whole ground than to confine this report within the limits of your patient attention, I shall now touch briefly upon nature's most striking events since our last assembling together.
Since early fall a warm southern current has generally prevailed. October was the warmest on record, being 8° above the average; December was very warm, while both the following winter months surpassed all precedent ; January being more than 8°, and February 6º, warmer than our average. The winter demands comparison with . those of past years. The warmest known before (speak- ing with the usual conceit of young persons who im- agine their diminutive span of life includes all things worth knowing) was that of 1875-76, averaging 26.6°. : The average for past 12 winters, 323°. This past winter averaged 39}°, being 62° above the normal, 93° above last year, and nearly 22° higher than the warmest before known. There was, naturally, quite a scare about ice ; but we had a spell in carly February that saved us- except those who preferred waiting to get 5 inches of clear ice rather than gather such snowy indifferent stuff as most of us were content with and thankful for. March was colder than January, yet warmer than the average.
There were 11 days on which snow fell, beginning No- vember 20th and ending March 13th. The deepest was but 6 inches, February 2d and 3d.
More than 72 inches of rain fell between the 16th and
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20th of May, while but 3 inch fell on the other 26 days of May. The same irregularity was shown in July; } inch falling upon the first 24 days, and nearly 6 inches upon the 25th and 26th. During this flood, bridges on Hawlings river were carried away, and it was actually dangerous to cross certain places where there is usually no stream at all, the water rushed by so furiously. During 32 days ending August 26th there fell 153 inches of rain, an average of almost 2 inch per day for a month. Then the flood-gates were closed, and with that fondness for going to extremes for which our weather (as well as perhaps some other things in Sandy Spring) is so noted, a dry spell set in that lasted considerably more than 3 months. During this period of over 100 days ending with the 4th of December, but 4 inches of rain fell-less by an inch than during 24 hours of July. It was difficult to get wheat ground in proper condition, and to the drought we owe the present scarcity of timothy.
Several events in October and November were so pecu- liar as to deserve mention. October 1st the thermome- ter was 78°; October 2d, 81°; 3d, S5°, which was 5° higher than the highest recorded in October before. This year there were 5 days above 80º. The average of the first 18 days was nearly 69º, being more than 16° above the October normal, being warmer than any September on record, and warmer than June in 1878. Average noon temperature for this period 773º. November vibrated be- tween Labrador and Florida. Average of the first week 37°, which was lower than that of any month this winter. 2d week averaged 63º, hardly a figure for September to be ashamed of. Then a second Polar wave struck us, and the average for the 3d week was 354º.
The barometer stood highest on October 26th, during
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the heart of the dry spell, 30.11 inches. Lowest, Febru- ary 3d, just after our deepest snow, 28.86 inches.
There was an occultation of Venus on October 13th at 10 P. M .; also a fine one of Mars at the close of St. Patrick's Day, which for an amazing wonder was actually clear.
Now I will ask you to stand with me upon the hill near where the Emory road joins the Washington turnpike. Time, September 3d ; hour, 6 P. M. It has been showery through the day, but now the sun has burst out low on the horizon, casting a brilliant rainbow against the leaden eastern sky. Your eyes are suddenly called to the southeast, where you see a whirling copper-colored funnel driving to the northward. It grows darker and rises from the ground for a short space ; then a white column- like smoke is seen among the tree-tops beneath; they join again, and the air above is filled with tossing shingles, boughs, and no one knows what besides. The colors change, sometimes black and gloomy, then lit up as by an internal (or infernal) fire. A loud, rushing, roaring sound, as of a great loaded freight train crossing a bridge. The spectacle dies away in the northeast, and you realize your first experience of a cyclone. Although more awful in its progress and effects than the hailstorm, this calam- ity occasioned comparatively little damage. Like it, no persons were injured, though who can tell what might have befallen a human being exposed to the full fury of the whirlwind ! Tracing out its path from A. J. Cashell's place, through the lands of G. W. C. Beall, Jos. T. Moore, Jas. H. Stone, Win. H. Farquhar, and others, to where the savage wind-demon spent his wrath upon Cyrus Bowen's little grove, what a scene of enormous destruc- tive energy meets our eyes! . The track of the storm
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varied in width from 25 to 100 or more yards; not all visited alike, but as if dipping down upon some spots with especial severity, then leaving others comparatively uninjured. Giant trees were uprooted, twisted off, or torn asunder, lying in every direction ; branches carried rods or miles-no one knows; potatoes dug up; even the very gravestones wrenched from their places and thrown flat upon the ground. "In the hereafter angels may roll the stones from our graves away," but we trust for the sake of those who come after us that it will not often be done in that way.
ALLAN FARQUHAR.
APRIL 4th, 1881.
With no carefully prepared record to draw from; with only frail memory, aided and refreshed by files of the rough drafts of old weather-charts for the signal service ; you need hardly expect a full report. Such as it is, how- ever, it shall be confined strictly within the domain of fact.
Half of the rain in last April fell on the 29th. Not a drop from that day to the 22d of May. Rain fell on but 4 May days, and the total was less than { of an inch; the least ever known in this month. The hay crop was cut short, young clover killed out, plowing sod resembled quarry- ing, while gardens in some localities painfully near home proved failures. Very hot with it all, being 31° above the warmest previous May (that of 1872).
June 12th was rather the warmest morning in the whole summer; (6° at sunrise. Reached 93º at noon, and soon after 2 P. M. a violent local storm set in, inflict- ing considerable damage to trees and buildings at Fair Hill, Willow Grove, etc., besides lessening the wheat crop
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by suddenly killing off fields that had been green the day before. Two days later fell the first soaking rain since April. It postponed wheat harvest until in some fields wire alone could hold the dead-ripe sheaves together.
July 5th the weather was muggy. No clear sunshine, but not especially ominous. Yet between 7 and 10 P. M., a space of 22 hours, 5 inches were poured out; it did not rain in drops, but the bottom seemed to have dropped out of some immense tank suspended in the air. By half-past 10 the stars were shining tranquilly. The effect of this deluge was observable the whole season; it was largely answerable for the greatest corn crop produced in
recent years. July gave us nearly S3 inches of rain, the most recorded for this month. The weather not oppres- sive except on the fatal 13th, when the heat struck down one of the foremost men in talent and originality of thought that this county ever knew.
But for the kindness of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society we should have suffered grievously with drought in September, as three-fourths of the rain that fell in the month fell on the week of the Fair. The total rainfall for August, September and October was consid- erably less than that for July alone.
This long, cold, hard winter cast its first shadow before on October 1st, when a frost nipped some exposed fields of corn. On the night of the 6th of November a storm centre, only second in violence to the cyclone of the year before, passed through the neighborhood from the same direction as have all our most disastrous storms lately, viz. S. S. W. Its greatest power was shown at Rockland, where many of the trees adorning that beautiful home were torn up or mauled about as if in the hands of a malignant demon. The roof of the Bank was lifted up, and a dwel- 27
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ling near by had its walls cracked and chimney blown off. The storm was very severe at Bloomfield, taking especial delight in slaying down the grove of pines near the house. The yard locusts were doubtless saved, as some at Rock- land had been, by being so slender as to bend before the gale.
Winter began in earnest on the 18th of November. Thermometer on the 19th, 18°; 22d, 12°; 23d, 13º; 24th, 12°, etc. A number were filling their ice houses on Thanksgiving Day. But all other cold spells were for- gotten in the snap which was included between December 29th and January 1st. The thermometers behaved out of all reason. Mine, more sober and dignified than the rest, only recorded -7º,-7º, and -10° for the three morn- ings; but -20° and -25° were common; while in some the mercury huddled way down in the bulb till they thought it was lost. One observer, not being satisfied with only 16° below zero, took his thermometer to a point 100 yards distant from the house and at a level about 25 feet lower, when it fell to -24°.
There were very nearly S weeks of unbroken good sleighing, from December 20th to about the middle of February, when the rain and warm weather carried away the snow so fast that things were generally liquefied. The poor dam at Brooke Grove went out again, this time past recall. Just before the thaw the barometer rose to 30.13 inches, the highest for the year. Lowest, March 30th, 28.61 inches.
Severe sleets on the 9th and 21st of January deserve mention, as some trees that had stood the cyclone and two hurricanes were broken by this new enemy. This was the coldest winter on record in this locality; the average temperature for 6 months ending March 31st, 1881, was
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about Sº colder than for the 6 months ending March 31st, 1880.
What aspect does kind nature wear at this, her favorite season ? We have had just one day of spring thus far; March 16th, when it actually was 63º. Wheat fields are about as forward as sometimes on the 1st of March. What encouragement can there be for early gardening and planting when on a clear day in April I found snow on a tree in our orchard at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, which had lain there all day, even with the sun shining; when it has snowed upon 6 days of the past week, and when the noon temperature thus far in April has averaged more than 25° below the noon average for April last year ?
There were 24 snowy days this winter (besides I don't know how many in April). First snow, November 13th ; last snow (judging from the present outlook) about the 17th of June!
Blessed is the nation that has no history! And we can well hope for less material to fill our Meteorological Reports in future. Striking events in that line may be interesting, but, as a rule, are not profitable.
APRIL 3d, 1882.
There has surely been enough weather in the past two years to satisfy the most ardent craver of excitement. Extremes have been the order of the day; bitter, pro- tracted cold ; fierce, still more protracted, unseasonable heat; washing storms followed by months of almost un- broken drought-all combine to form ample material for a lively narrative ; but I long since gave up my fond- ness for meteorological gymnastics, and would ask no more racy and varied report for 1883 than the following:
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" April, normal ; May, normal; June, normal," and so around to March again.
April 5th, 1881. "Ground frozen too hard to plow sod ; a tramp frozen to death near Laurel," etc. The first week in April averaged 32.9º ; just fair winter weather. Plowed garden on the 25th. Then the pendulum flies back, and by May 12th the thermometer runs up to 92° at noon, and only sinks to 83° by 9 P. M., which is higher than any night during the whole summer of 1880 at the same hour ; and has not been surpassed since, not even by the 7th of September. Next day 94° at noon. The 2d week in May averaged 75.4°, being very nearly equal to the average temperature of the hottest summer known. May 18th, first soaking rain since March. No flies worried us until the 17th of June; but they made up for it at the other end of summer. The great comet was first seen on the 25th. On the 27th two inches of rain fell in a half-hour, washing cornfields and levelling acres of wheat. This storm was especially severe at Norwood. June was the only month between March and December which had a rainfall up to the average. July 6th, ther- mometer 95°,which for two months we fondly hoped would be the warmest for the year. On the 7th a heavy thunder- storm, the lightning killed two large oaks on our place, one of which could ill be spared. Only 4 days in August on which any rain fell.
On the 20th of August began a spell of weather that rivalled the well-remembered four weeks of '76, and is without a parallel at this season of the year. From that . time until October 5th, a period of 46 days, a tropical heat blazed at the parched and thirsty earth, the coldest day rising to 73°, and on but 7 out of the 46 days failing to reach 80° at noon. The climax was reached on the ever-mem-
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orable 7th of September, which was without exception the hottest day I ever saw. No work was attempted, all we did was to esist, and rejoice that our suffering Presi- dent had been removed from the stifling, sickening atmos- phere of the Potomac flats to the cool, healthy breezes of the seaside. Our thermometer was 98°; only 7º higher than I ever saw it in September before; but other instru- ments showed 100°, and one as high as 103°. Next day it fell to 94°, and we reached for our overcoats and arctics. There was no soaking rain between the 10th of July and 10th of September-just the critical two months for corn ; no wonder then that the crop was cut very short. The drought was not finally broken until October 24th, so for the third successive year farmers drove their drills through clouds of dust and among clods like the debris of brickyards.
When the long 7 weeks of torrid summer ended on the 4th of October, did autumn tranquilly descend upon the earth like gathering shades of the twilight, and by a gradu- ally lessening temperature prepare us for the changing season ? Not much, it didn't! After reaching 87º on the 2d, decidedly above any record for October, and more befitting July than the month when chestnuts fall and gums turn crimson, the thermometer subsided for a day or two into its usual rut of about 8?º or S3º. Then with scarce as much warning as is granted us by a summer thunder-gust, a fall of 50° gave us ice half an inch thick, a killing frost, and all the accompaniments of a winter morning-a change in less than 40 hours from Brazil to Greenland. As if satisfied with this display of power, in two days more 46° out of the 50° variation were recovered.
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