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Marion County
Alabama
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ALABAMA
HISTORIC WEATHER TIMELINE - 1711 - 1900
HOME
Taken from: HISTORY OF ALABAMA ADAPTED TO THE USE OF
SCHOOLS by L. D. Miller. Published by Roberts & Sons,
Birmingham, Ala. 1901.
Submitted by Veneta McKinney.
COLD WINTERS AND HOT SUMMERS, FLOODS AND DROUGHTS.
A. D. 1711 — Mobile visited by a destructive storm and
flood, which caused the settlers to remove to present site of the
city.
1740 and 1746 — Destructive storms and floods, which
destroyed the rice crop near Mobile.
1748 — The Mississippi
at New Orleans was frozen thirty to forty feet from its banks.
1768 — Another cold winter.
1772 — A cold winter
followed by an extremely hot summer. August 31st to September 3d. a
terrible storm, which blew the water from the bay over the city of
Mobile. Vessels were stranded in the center of the town.
1779-80 — Cold all over the South. No thaw from November
15th to middle of February, and constant succession of snows.
Domestic fowls and wild turkeys were frozen. Deer sought shelter
around the cabins of the settlers.
1783 — Winter clothing
worn in July and August. White frosts in September.
1793,
1794, 1796, and 1799 were cold winters.
1807 — February 7th
first "Cold Friday." Afterwards turned warmer and then suddenly cold
again, with high wind from the North. On February 16th the frozen
sap in the trees caused the bark to explode.
1816 — This is
known as the year without a summer. On 16th of April spray blown
from the waves would freeze in the rigging of vessels at Mobile.
June 8th there was a killing frost south to latitude 33 degrees, and
frost every month of the year north of latitude 34 degrees. Corn
meal sold at $5.00 a bushel in Tuscumbia the following winter and
spring.
1817 — A year of constant rains.
1819 —
August 25th to 28th a gale from the gulf flooded Mobile and stranded
a large brig on Dauphin street.
1823 — February 16th the
thermometer down to 5 degrees at Mobile, the lowest on record up to
that time.
1825 — Dry summer. Year without a winter. The
cotton crop, which seemed almost ruined by the drought, was open
early in the fall. Showers in September caused a second growth and
fruitage,
which matured a fine crop during the winter. This
entailed great loss on speculators, who had bought up the first crop
in the fall and were holding it for higher prices.
1827— A
killing frost 27th of May.
1829 — A year of continuous rains
and poor crops.
1832 — Year of heavy rains and extraordinary
floods. Cold winter. The thermometer dropped to 9 degrees below zero
at Huntsville.
1833 — Great floods. Rivers higher than ever
before. The great meteoric display occurred on the night of November
13th. Most people thought the world was coming to an end, and they
confessed their sins and prayed as never before.
1834-35 —
Extremely cold winter. February 6th and 7th. 1835, have since been
known as the "Cold Friday and Saturday." The writer has been told by
early settlers of Calhoun county that the creeks, where not very
swift, were frozen over so as to bear the weight of a horse. They
say also that the frozen sap in trees caused the bark to explode
with a noise like the firing of pistols in the forests.
1839
and 1840 — Extremely dry. Alabama river got too low for navigation,
but good crops were made in this State.
1844 and 1845 — Both
very dry, but fair crops were produced in Alabama. The last named —
1845 — is known as the dry year in the States of the South farther
east. Crops in South Carolina and Georgia were a complete failure.
1846 — Cotton caterpillars first made their appearance north
of the black belt. Damage from them and from boll worms was fearful
this year in Middle and South Alabama.
1847 — A year of
rains and floods. Crops much below the average.
1849 —
Unusually mild up to the middle of April and all vegetation well
advanced. Wheat in some sections was ripening and corn waist high.
Cotton up with from four to six leaves, and the leaves
of the
forest about grown. On the 16th of April there was a killing frost,
and ice formed on still water. Corn and cotton had to be replanted.
Small grain crops were killed. In the States east there was a heavy
snow, being four inches deep in Charleston, S. C.
1851 —
High waters in April. Summer hot and dry.
1852 — Thermometer
down to 8 degrees at Mobile on January 20th. Much rain in July and
August, causing cotton insects. Equinoctial gale flooded Mobile.
1853 — Heavy rains and floods. Cotton crop greatly reduced
thereby. Rainfall at Mt. Vernon 106.57 inches.
1855-56 —
Cold winter. Standing water in ponds near Mobile at one time was
frozen hard enough to skate upon.
1857 — Spring backward. On
April 13th a heavy snow storm. Vegetation not being advanced was not
injured as in 1849, except wheat, in Middle Alabama, which was
killed.
1858 and 1859 — Heavy spring Hoods, but good weather
later made fine crops.
1860 — Summer very hot.
1865
and 1867 — High waters in the spring.
1868 and 1871 — Great
damage from cotton caterpillars.
1874-75 — Winter mild. No
frost of consequence until December 8th.
1876 — Heavy snow
storm March 19th, especially in West Alabama. December 30th heavy
snow storm, which culminated in extremely cold weather during first
week in January, 1877. (See next below.)
1877 — Thermometer
fell to zero on the 1st of January at Columbus, Miss., where the
Bigbee was frozen over. In Calhoun county the mercury fell to 10
degrees below zero. All mill ponds not immediately below large
springs were frozen hard enough to skate upon.
1881 — Noted
for being the hottest summer recorded in this State. Temperature
during June, July and August at many places 3 degrees higher than
the average for thirty years. Heavy rains in March caused the rivers
to be higher than in 1865. This was followed by a protracted
drought, but average crops were made. Eggs are said to have been
hatched by the temperature of the atmosphere ten days after the hens
abandoned their nests during the hottest spells in July and August.
The writer's thermometer — in Calhoun county — reached 102 degrees
in the shade one time in July, and 101 degrees once in August — the
only times it has gone so high in twenty-eight years, the nearest
approach being 98 degrees in July, 1897.
1883 — Long drought
during the summer and fall. Many wells dried up. More sickness from
malaria than ordinary.
1884 — Noted as the year of freshets,
tornadoes, wet summer, dry fall, and poor crops. In parts of
Northeast Alabama the streams in April were higher than ever before.
Probably a total of less than
two dozen people were killed by
the eighteen tornadoes in this State during the spring of 1884, the
greatest fatalities from storms in the history of the State. Two or
three of these tornadoes passed into
Georgia. and according to
newspaper reports, each of them wrought ten-fold greater destruction
of life and property in that State than in Alabama. Notwithstanding
the April flood, and the wet weather
of June, when only two days
plowing was done in Calhoun county during said month, the total
rainfall of the year was less than usual. Following winter cold.
1885 — This year noted for number of tornadoes next to 1884.
1886 — Very cold in January. Thermometer down to 8 degrees
below zero in Northern Alabama on the 8th of January. From the 3d to
5th of December, 1886, the heaviest snow storm recorded in
this
State — twelve inches deep in South Alabama to twenty inches deep in
portions of North Alabama. Rivers in the spring of 1886 higher and
more destructive than for many years past.
1889-90— Mild
winter.
1891 — January, February and March wet. April and
May dry. Good rains July and August. Crops good. Cotton crop first
reached 9,000,000 bales. Alabama's crop amounted to 1,000,000 bales
for the first time — only a few thousand ahead of that of 1860, but
about double any after the war up to 1875 of this State.
1892 — Rained all through the month of August. Corn crop
good. Cotton crop short.
1893 — Much rain in the spring.
Crops short.
1894 — Very miid and vegetation was more
advanced than ever before up to the 25th of March. Leaves of the
forest half grown in Northern Alabama. On the 25th it turned cold
suddenly and there
was a killing frost on the 26th. Corn that
was up and all garden vegetables were killed, also such trees as
white mulberry, mimosa, etc. Wheat and oats were thought to be
killed but recovered.
1895 — First week in January and about
the middle of February considerable snow and extremely cold. For a
few hours during each of these two spells the mercury stood below
zero throughout a large
part of the State. All the blue birds,
which were very numerous, were killed by the February freeze. The
snow extended farther south in Florida than ever before, and the
orange trees were killed in the main orange belt of that State, Few
blue birds have reappeared in Calhoun county up to this time,
1896 and 1897 — Each hot and dry during the summer and fall,
especially the latter year. Many wells and springs dried vp.
1898 — May and June very hot. Fall very wet, so that cotton
picking was much delayed, and the cotton badly stained. Much fine
bottom corn was destroyed in the fall by overflow of the creeks.
1899 — Very cold for a week previous to the 11th of February
,when a heavy snow storm began and continued until 9 a. m. the next
day, when the snow was eight inches in Calhoun county. The next
morning, February 13th, 1899, the thermometer dropped to zero
everywhere in this State for the first time on record. At Mobile it
was 1 degree, Montgomery 5 degrees, Calhoun county 7 degrees
to
10 degrees, and at Valley Head, DeKalb county, 17 degrees. Thus we
see it ranged from one degree below zero at Mobile to 17 degrees
below at Valley Head. For the second time in twenty-eight years the
peach blooms were killed in the bud, so that there were no peach
blooms in the spring throughout a large part of this State.
Strangely to the writer, the mill ponds were not frozen so hard as
twice before during his observations since 1873, although the snow
in the roads furnished good sledding for nearly a week. Several
tornadoes in this State during March, 1899. Owing to wet weather but
little plowing was done before April and much good land lay out.
1900 — Like the year previous preparation of land for
planting greatly delayed by wet weather. Continuous rains in June
ruined low bottom corn, greatly injured other crops by preventing
work in
the fields, and almost destroyed early peaches just as
they began to ripen.
The following years produced unusually
good crops: 1823, 1825, 1835, 1837, 1839, 1840, 1842, 1844, 1855,
1858, 1859, 1870, 1872, 1875. 1878, 1879, 1885, 1886, 1889, 1891,
1892, corn; 1894, 1897, cotton.
The following years produced
crops below the average: 1816, 1817, 1827, 1838, 1843, 1846, 1847,
1849, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1857, 1867, 1868, 1871, 1876,
1884, 1890, 1893, 1899, 1900.
None of the foregoing crops
were complete failures all around — such as are often experienced by
the farmers of Texas and the Northwest, and occasionally by the
farmers in the States to the East, on
account of drought. With
the exception of 1816 — which had summer and of which we know very
little as only a small part of the State was settled up — there is
not a year when two-thirds of the
cultivated land devoted to
food crops would have failed to produce an abundance for man and
beast. Many of our people fear drought — probably on account of
disasters from droughts in other States — but a study of the weather
notes here given shows that the wet years in Alabama produee the
short crops.
TORNADOES IN ALABAMA.
The term cyclone
is often improperly used for tornado. The latter is a furious and
terrible storm of wind, or of wind and electricity combined, which
revolves with lightning rapidity, and with a deafening roar sweeps
for itself a straight, narrow swath and demolishes everything in its
course. The path of a tornado is usually only a few hundred feet
wide, while a cyclone is a great storm with a breadth of many miles,
and with a reach that is continental in extent. Lieutenant Finley,
of the United States signal service, has made a record of 112
tornadoes which occurred in Alabama during the sixty-seven years
from 1822 to 1890. The year of greatest frequency was 1884, with
nineteen tornadoes. Sixty-six of the 112 occurred during the three
months of February, March and April — fourteen in February,
twenty-eight in March, and twenty-four in April. The months without
tornadoes are July, August, September and October, although some of
the most destructive cyclones at Mobile have occurred during August
and September. Hours of greatest frequency of tornadoes, 6 to 8 p.
m. Prevailing direction of movement, northeast. Width, 100 to 3,900
feet. It will doubtless surprise many readers, as it did the writer,
to learn that seventy-three of the 112 tornadoes occurred in the
twenty-seven counties of the mineral belt, which is probably more
hilly and mountainous than any of the three other great belts of the
State. There were fourteen tornadoes in the cereal belt, seventeen
in the cotton belt, and only eight in the great timber belt of South
Alabama. All the counties of the timber belt lying east of the
Alabama
and Mobile rivers, except Pike and Henry, have escaped
tornadoes so far as reported, as have the contiguous counties of
Lowndes and Wilcox, in the cotton belt. The tornadoes most
destructive of life
and property occurred as follows: In Colbert
county, 6 p. m.. November 22d, 1874. Same date in Shelby county at
midnight. Talladega and Calhoun counties, February 19th, 1884.
Jeflferson and
Cherokee, March 15th, 1884. (The writer has been
unable to get report of tornadoes from 1891 to 1896.) On the 18th of
March, 1899, there were destructive tornadoes in Cleburne. Shelbv.
Jefferson, Montgomery, Dallas and Walker. The counties in which the
greatest number of tornadoes have occurred so far as reported are as
follows. Cleburne 8, Cherokee 8, Tuscaloosa 7, Calhoun 6, Blount
6, Jefferson 6, Pickens 5, Lee 5, Talladega 4, Chilton 4, Etowah
3. Most of these counties are noted for their numerous beds of iron
ore — and when we consider that no tornado is reported for a large
section of South Alabama, where no iron ore is found, some
interesting questions arise as to the part played by electricity in
a tornado, and whether vast deposits of iron ore is one of the
agencies, which produce a tornado.
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