346 Harshberger on Relation of Ice Storms to Trees. 
meteorologists prefer to call such storms ice storms, locally 
near Philadelphia they are denominated sleet storms.2 A 
brief résumé of the effects of the two ice storms above men- 
tioned upon vegetation is of scientific import. 
The records show that on Sunday, February 16, 1902, 
snow began falling about two hours before midnight and by 
daybreak the ground was covered with a deep mantle which 
continued to increase steadily until Monday afternoon, Feb- 
ruary 17th, when eleven inches had fallen. Traffic on steam 
roads and trolley lines was seriously impeded, and pedes- 
trians found it a laborious task to wend their way against 
the storm. At one o’clock Friday morning, February 21, 
1902, sleet began to fall, which changed to rain and slush at 
nine o'clock. The rain continued during the day and well 
into the night with mean temperature of the day at 32 
degrees. 
Very few trees escaped damage from this storm. Trees 
that had withstood the storms of several centuries were 
uprooted, or had their larger branches snapped off by the 
weight of the ice. The large sycamore trees, Platanus occi- 
dentalis, L., in the yard of the Pennsylvania Hospital on 
Pine street were seriously damaged. These trees, noted for 
their large size and graceful branching, had their larger 
branches broken off as so many pipe-stems and the ground 
was littered with the fragments of branches that had stood 
the blasts of storms for over a century. Silver maple trees 
suffered most. At Haverford, Pa., where the storm reached 
its height, the avenues of trees along Lancaster Pike and 
intersecting roads were so badly destroyed that the high- 
ways were made impassable from the branches that had 
been torn from these trees. Fairmount Park presented a 
desolate appearance. On every hand, the ground was strewn 
with broken branches and splintered tree-trunks. From 
*The Standard Dictionary (Twentieth Century Edition) defines sleet 
as “a mixture of snow or hail and rain, particularly a drizzling or driv- 
ing partly frozen rain, or rain that freezes on the trees or ground.” 
