Annual report of the North Dakota Weather Service 1895

• Language: unknown
• Published: North Dakota State Library
• Subjects: Politics & Government; Arctic
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16921coll3/id/4528

8 REPORT OF THE winds, which in some places blew the seed out of the ground, on account of its being so dry, and in other places buried it so deep that it was impossible for it to come up. These conditions continued until about the first of May, when there was a sudden change in the weather, heavy, warm rains falling nearly every day," with temperatures above the normal, forced everything forward at. a rapid pace — so much so that by the middle of the month grain had caught up with the season, and in some places was ahead of it. These favorable conditions'did not last long, and the weeks ending May 13th and 20th were characterized by heavy frosts in the northwestern part of the state and the Ked River Valley, with light snows in scattered parts, which did great damage to early vegetables, fruits and what flax, millet and barley w'as up, but as the greater part of the latter grains had just been seeded, the damage was confined to that sown earlier in the season. The effect of this cold weather on the wheat crop proved very beneficial, causing it to stool finely and take a deep root, protecting from the warm days that followed during the summer. Both May and June were cold and backward and accompanied by plenty of rain, followed the latter part of June and the first of -July by very warm, dry weather, with high southerly winds which created considerable alarm, but just at the critical period copious showers fell in almost every part of the state, renewing all vegetation and giving it new life. During June heavy and destructive hail storms passed over the state in scattered sections, totally destroying everything that stood in their way. * July and August were very favorable for the ripening and harvesting of grain in all sections except the extreme northeastern portion, where frequent showers retarded harvesting- some. Corn ripened very slowly, on account c.f too much cool weather, but in most sections made a fair crop. Frosts occurred early in the fall, the first one to do any damage being on August loth, and from then on they were often reported, but as nearly all vegetation was far enough advanced to be out of the way, no damage of consequence happened from them. The entire season was an excellent one, in spite of the fact that there was but little rain after the middle of July, and the largest, crop has been harvested that has been raised in a long time. THE WEATHER OF NORTH DAKOTA. The climate of North Dakota is much more pleaeant than it is generally thought to be by those who have not experienced it or consulted statistics on the subject. The popular belief that the winters are of arctic severity is not warranted by the meteorological records that have been kept in the state for the past 65 years*. and although these records have been broken at different times, yet on the whole, enough has been collected to give a fair idea of the climate.