182 Ohio State Academy of Science 



2:40 to 2:45 was followed by "a storm of wind and rain whose fury 

 was almost indescribable, though fortunately of short duration, 

 the wind reaching a velocity of sixty-nine miles from the north 

 while the rain came down in such a deluge that one could not see 

 two feet from the window, the thunder and lightning being 

 appalling. The wind for ten minutes or from 2:45 p. m. to 2:55 

 P.M. reached and maintained a velocity of seventy-two miles per 

 hour. At least 2.25 inches of rain fell during the fifteen minutes 

 that the storm raged so violently. Heavy seas were dashed over 

 railroad cars standing at least fifty feet from the water. At least 

 one hundred chimneys were blown down." — From journal of 

 Sandusky Weather Bureau Office. Some of these statements 

 may be exaggerated as others in the journal, but not quoted, 

 ■certainly are. 



August 15, 1879, a severe northeast gale set in at 12:30 p. m., 

 the velocity ranging from thirty to forty miles that day, but from 

 midnight till six a. m., August 16, averaging forty-eight miles 

 and attaining a maximum of fifty-nine miles at 3:30 a. m. In 

 the afternoon of August 16, the direction was north and the gale 

 ■ended with a velocity of twenty-five miles at 5:10 p. m. It 

 caused very high seas and damaged several boats in the lake, no 

 vessels of any kind entered or left the bay after the storm began. 

 The total wind movement in twenty-four hours ending at noon 

 August 16th, was nine hundred and fourteen miles. This and 

 the average of forty-eight miles per hour for six hours are, I 

 believe, unsurpassed in the records of the Sandusky office, while 

 the maximum of fifty-nine miles has been surpassed but three 

 times, viz., in the brief storm of July 11th, already mentioned; 

 in a squall, August 9, 1885, sixty-three miles, northeast; and the 

 following : 



Jan. 31, 1881, a gale from the northeast began at 7:30 a. m., 

 reaching its height, sixty-four miles northeast, at 9:35 a. m., 

 Feb. 1st, and ending at 5:30 p. m. "The storm was one of the 

 most severe known in these parts, the wind average forty -two 

 miles per hour for eighteen hours; no extensive damage done." 

 The water that winter was too low to be raised to an extraordi- 

 nary height even by such a gale. 



The highest water in Sandusky Bay since 1862 occurred 

 April 23, 1882. The northeast gale began at 10:15 a. m. April 

 22, and continued till 4:30 p. m. April 23, the maximum, forty- 

 four miles, occurring at 2:15 a. M. It averaged 32 5-12 miles 

 per hour for twenty-four hours. The bay flooded everything on 

 Railroad Street from one end to the other. At Marblehead a 

 -dock was washed away and three others damaged. The schooner 

 ■Gallatin was wrecked about two miles from Pelee Island. Thirty 

 vessels took shelter behind Kellev's Island. 



