Historical Context of Unseasonable Snow in the Area
1816 - The Year There Was No Summer
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Subj: [Tri-Counties] historical late snow
Date: 5/21/2002 3:55:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: der4@cornell.edu (dana richter)
To: PABRADFO-L@rootsweb.com
The messages concerning the late snow reminded me of Heverly's History
and Geography of Bradford County. Here's what our ancestors had to
deal with.
May 14 1834 10 inches of snow
May 20 & 21 1835 15-24 inches
May 25 1839 over 12 inches
September 29 1844 28 inches
July 4 1859 snow flurries Heavy or killing frost each month
July 4 1864 Frost with ice
May 8 1867 several inches
June 14 1875 frost with 1/4 inch ice
Memorial day May 30 1884 2 inches in Barclay
July 5 1884 snow flurries
1885 snow in Barclay last week of August
1897 May 8 and 9 light snow in western parts of county
June 13 1918 Light snow fall,
July 2 1918 snow flakes
Dana Richter |
Subj: [Tri-Counties] Re: [Tri Counties] historical late snow
Date: 5/22/2002 12:03:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: dvkester@hotmail.com (Dave Kester)
To: PABRADFO-L@rootsweb.com
There is a scientific explanation for the observations recorded in Heverly's
history as presented by Dana Richter.
About 900AD a four hundred year period of rising mean temperatures known
as the Medeival Warm Period began. during this time Erik the Red built
settlements on the southern tip of Greenland where they raised cattle on
as many as 280 farms. There is even some evidence that Alaskan Eskimos
settled portions of the north western corner of Greenland. About 1200AD
temperatures began cooling again, in what scientists call the Little Ice
Age, until by about 1675 mean temps were several degrees below what they
were in 1200. The Norse setlers in Greenland had gone on to "greener pastures"
by this time, but the cooler summers caused Icelanders to give up farming
and turn to fishing.
The late 1600s seems to be the point at which climatic changes again
reversed direction, but at a slightly slower rate. By the beginning of
the 19th century mean temperatures had only increased about a degree when
they leveled off until about 1880 when they resumed their upward climb
which continues today. It's just the natural cycle of things caused by
the sun's uneven heating of the earth's surface which is further modified
by prevailing wind patterns resultant from the earth's rotation. Nothing
hi-tech or revolutionary here, just Climatology 101.
Aren't we fortunate that our pioneering ancestors had the pluck to survive
such harsh conditions.
Dave Kester
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Subj: 1816 The Year There Was No Summer.doc
Date: 02/19/2004 1:03:46 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: ksarber@redcreek.net (Kathy Sarber)
To: JoyceTice@aol.com
CC: joycetice@aol.com (Joyce Tice)
1816 The Year There Was No Summer
From the Danbury, Conn., News
The year 1816 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the
coldest ever experience by any person then living.
There are persons in Northern New York who have been in the habit of
keeping diaries for years, and it is from the pages of an old diary begun
in 1810 and kept up unbroken until 1840 that the following information
regarding this year without a summer has been taken.
January was so mild that most persons allowed their fires to go out
and did not burn wood except for cooking…. February was not cold… March
came in like a small lion and went out like a very innocent sheep.
April came in warm, but as the days grew longer, the air became colder,
and by the first of May there was a temperature like that of winter, with
plenty of snow and ice.
In May the young buds were frozen dead, ice formed half an inch thick
on ponds and rivers, corn was killed and the cornfields were planted again
and again… When the last of May arrived in 1816, everything had been killed
by the cold.
June was the coldest month of roses ever experienced in this latitude.
Frost and ice were as common as buttercups usually are. Almost every
green thing was killed; all fruit was destroyed.
Snow fell 10 inches deep in Vermont. There was a seven-inch fall
in the interior of New York State and the same in Massachusetts.
There were only a few moderately warm days. Everybody looked, longed
and waited for warm weather, but warm weather did not come.
It was also dry; very little rain fell. All summer long the wind
blew steadily from the north in blasts, laden with snow and ice.
Mothers knit socks of double thickness for their children and thick mittens.
Planting and shivering were done together, and farmers who worked out
their taxes on the country roads wore overcoats and mittens. On June
17 there was a heavy fall of snow.
July came in with snow and ice. On the Fourth of July ice as thick
as window glass formed throughout New England and New York and in some
parts of Pennsylvania.
To the surprise of everybody August proved worst of all. Almost
every green thing in this country and Europe was blasted by frost.
Very little corn ripened.
There was great privation and thousands of persons would have perished
in this country had it not been for the abundance of fish and wild game.
Another good article on Summer of 1816 - 1816 weather
