Postcard from the Past: A Beneficial Snowstorm
by Dick Perue
With my computer having a fit, I was forced to call upon a past Postcard for this week’s column. Following is one from 2011. Enjoy!
Upon returning from a warm, sun-drenched trip to the southwest, my wife and I were greeted with below zero temperatures and a snowstorm in Wyoming. It reminded me of a story I read recently where the editor of the local weekly newspaper described a February 1906 snowstorm as beneficial.
The article reads:
The storm of snow which began here last Saturday left about 12 inches of snow in its wake. Coming as it did from the north, it was expected it would be followed by extreme cold, but the temperature grew quite warm, and on Monday morning this valley was visited by a Chinook wind which swept two-thirds of the snow from the ground.
Again on Tuesday morning a warm snow set in and continued for some time, melting almost as fast as it fell. The consequence is the moisture which has fallen in this time has, in a great measure, gone into the ground, leaving the roads in very muddy condition.
The stages have been from two to four hours late each day, and strange to say, there has been more passenger travel during this time than for weeks before. The rough weather seemed to startle everyone who had to travel out on the road, bad and disagreeable as the weather was.
The storm will prove of great benefit. The ground was warm and the moisture was soaked up at an alarming rate, thus ensuring a great grass crop when the warm weather comes in the spring.
The people of this valley may expect a great deal of moisture to fall during this month, for this storm will hardly have expended itself before we may look for another, which will probably show up around the 22nd of this month. Look for it.
