Weather Summary, January- April, 1896. 



[Furnished by the Ne'w England Weather Service.] 



January opened cold, and an unusually sharp cold wave 

 prevailed from the 4th to the 8th. At Boston fully sixty 

 people were treated at the Emergency Hospital on the 6th 

 for frost bites. The temperature ranged very near zero all 

 day and a high, cutting wind prevailed. Peach buds were 

 almost entiiely killed by this cold wave and some damnge 

 was done to raspberries and blackberries. Its passage was 

 well forewarned by the Weather Bureau. The last part of 

 the month was milder, but with no pronounced thaw. The 

 ground was not protected by snow during the cold spell, but 

 there was a slight covering during the rest of the month. 



February was a rough, stormy month, with damaging 

 floods, heavy snows and an excess of rainy and cloudy 

 weather. The heaviest rainfall was over the north central 

 part of the State. The rain of the 4th to 7th gave from two 

 to three inches -in that section, but no serious damage 

 resulted. The snow and rain{\dl of February 29 to March 3 

 was not so heavy in this State as in northern New England, 

 but the damage done by rivers flowing into Massachusetts 

 from the north was very great. A severe cold wave pre- 

 vailed on the 17th and 18th, with a strong wind blowing. 

 The most marked cyclone of the month originated near 

 Texas, on the 4th, moved easterly, then northerly, passing 

 across our State just west of Boston on the night of the 6th- 

 7th. Hurricane signals were hoisted along our coast for 

 the first time in the history of the Weather Bureau, and 

 were fully justified, as the wind reached a velocity of over 

 60 miles an hour. On the 11th, at about 9 a.m., while a 

 cyclone centre was passing down the St. Lawrence valley, a 

 short but very severe snow squall or " snow shower " passed 

 easterly across our State. The darkness was almost night- 

 like, and the air Avas filled with fine, driving snow. 



March weather was t3'pical of the month, though rougher 

 and more stormy than usual. The rainfall was considerably 

 above the normal and the number of stormy days in excess 

 of the usual amount. The snowf^iU was more than usual and 

 there was a fair snow covering till near the end of the month. 



