Meteorological Observations* 133 



Total amount of rain and melted snow, 48.33 inches ; two hun- 

 dred and sixteen fair and one hundred and fifty cloudy days, being 

 eleven more fair days than in the year 1831. 



. The mean temperature for the winter months is 34.00° 



" " " " spring " 52.76 



" " , " " summer " 69.00 



" " " • " autumn " • 53.58 



The winter being 8° warmer than that "of 1S31, and the summer 

 2^° cooler. 



The amount of snow in the winter of 1832-33 has been very 

 small, not over two or three inches, and our rivers nearly free of ice. 



Remarks. — The winter of 1831-32 was one of great severity* 

 The cold being very intense over -the whole of the United States. 

 In the parallels north of 40°, the temperature was at several times 

 20° below zero, all through the valley of the Mississippi, from the 

 banks of that river to the southern extremity of Lake Erie. At 

 Marietta, a little south of this line, and lying a good many feet lower 

 on the banks of the Ohio, the mercury sunk to 10° below zero. 



Flood in the valley of the Ohio. — About the middle of February, 

 the whole of the bottom lands on the Ohio, from its head waters to 

 the mouth, were inundated by the greatest flood know since the set- 

 tlement of the State. The earth was covered with snow more than 

 a foot deep in the valleys, and three or four feet deep on the moun- 

 tains and uplands at the heads of the river. The weather suddenly 

 became warmer about the 10th of the month, with southerly winds 



t 



attended with thunder and discharges of rain so copious that eight 

 inches fell in the course of a week. The flood was at its height in 

 Pittsburgh, Penn., early on the 11th day of the month, and at the 

 falls of Ohio, on the 19th, averaging in its progress about one hun- 

 dred miles to each twenty four hours. As the mighty flood rolled on 

 its course, it received continual accessions from all the tributaries ly- 

 ing on its northern and southern borders. Each one of these, swelled 

 by the continual rains, would in some regions be viewed as majestic 

 rivers, rushing and foaming with impetuous haste to add their strength 

 to that vast ocean of waters, which now swept over the fair valley 

 of the Ohio, bearing on its bosom, the ruins of many a village and 

 the productions of a thousand farms. The damage cannot be es- 

 timated at less than a million of dollars. The water was from five to 

 six feet higher than any former flood since that of 1784, which was 

 about the same height as this; but it took place at a period, before any 



