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Philipstown Potpourri
Rage Attired in White (Part 1 of 5)
by Don H. MacDonald
"Washington City, Sun., March 11, 1888, 7am. Indications for 24 hours, commencing at 3pm, Sun., March 11, 1888. Fresh to brisk easterly winds, with rain, will prevail tonight, followed on Mon. by colder, brisk westerly winds, and fair weather throughout the Atlantic states; colder fresh westerly winds, with fair weather, over the lake regions, the Ohio and Mississippi valleys; diminishing northerly winds, with slightly colder, fair weather, in the Gulf states; light to fresh variable winds, with higher temperature, in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado."
"Mon., March 12th, 1888: the weather today in New York City and vicinity (including points within 30 miles of the city), promises to be generally fair and colder, preceded by partial cloudiness near the coast. Tues., it promises to be slightly warmer and generally fair."
In reality, New York City citizens, (then numbering a million or so), and those residing in the hinterlands, including the two upstate municipalities of Cold Spring and Nelsonville, in Putnam County, awoke to a raw, blustery, gray, and depressively somber morning on Sun., March 11, 1888. A steady, chilling rain, which the Washington City weather bureau had predicted for later that evening, had begun probably around ten o'clock that morning, changing rapidly to a thunderous cloudburst of unusual magnitude, worsening dramatically as the day wore on.
The War Department's "Signal Service", headquartered in Washington City (D. C.) had been the nerve center for national weather forecasting in 1888, and perhaps earlier. Numerous other towns and cities throughout the country relied substantially on the Washington bureau as the basis for foretelling the weather from their own weather stations or observatories. Not unlike today, the "S.S." of '88 served in the same capacity as does our national hurricane center in Florida; relaying its findings on such storms to the nationwide network of weather stations, alerting them of up to the minute changes in "storm tracks", of patterns concerning "category" strengths, and all the rest of it.
While back in '88 most all meteorological stations maintained an up-to-date inventory of maps, graphs, charts, and instruments vital to predicting reasonably precise weather, it remained essential, however, that facilities such as the national "S. S." be utilized in helping further more accurate forecasts nationwide.
A number of weather bureaus throughout the country, as well as the W. C. station were, as early as Fri., March 9th, giving casual attention to two storm systems: one out of Colorado, barreling northeast, the other, from Georgia, heading likewise on a northeasterly course. The Colorado juggernaut had raised particular havoc on Duluth, Minnesota, depositing shocking amounts of snow thereon. Georgia's violent disturbance was, meanwhile, blasting areas of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi with merciless gale force winds. These two "lows" were later regarded as having been the nucleus out of which was unleashed the snarling Blizzard of 1888.
Yet just prior to these two lethal "fronts" having joined forces off the New Jersey coast, the "S.S." had calculated that some snow and rain, possibly occuring inland from the two major storms, would dissipate well before hitting the eastern seaboard. It was their feeling additionally that the rambunctious upstarts would, in all probability, blow harmlessly out to the Atlantic.
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