Weather rambling — April 1888

“’Twas April, when the brown birds sing, and woods with bustling land are gey: We met — and watched the face of spring, growing more lovely every day,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls quoted from a poem by E. Nesbit on April 18, 1888.

The Glens Falls area weather in April 1888 started out lovely enough, but would be interrupted mid-month by ugliness, before ending on a promising note.

“F. Gates, East Lake George, drove in a wagon from that place to Sandy Hill yesterday for a load of lumber. His was the first wagon of the season to pass over the road,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on April 6, 1888.

The ice on Lake George was “becoming honeycombed and is now unsafe for travel.”

Lakes deeper in the Adirondacks were still frozen solid.

“Our correspondent at Blue Mountain Lake tells us that the ice on the lake is between three and four feet thick.”

A few days later, ugly weather of all sorts visited Glens Falls.

“Yesterday morning the west wind whisked the dust around the corners of the streets, converging at Fountain Square,” The Morning Star reported on April 11. “In the afternoon, a heavy snow storm set in and the same locality was covered ankle deep with slush.”

A week-and-a-half later the outlook was promising.

“The roads leading to Glens Falls from all directions are now in good condition,” The Morning Star reported on April 20. “Gentlemen who drove to this place from Catskill Bay, yesterday, report the traveling better than expected.”

To the north, some sections of Lake George still had solid enough ice to walk on.

“Adelbart Brown, custodian of Long Island, Lake George, walked on the ice from the island to Bolton on Thursday (April 24) to attend town meeting,” The Morning Star reported on April 26. “The performance is noteworthy only in this, that Lake George rarely has any ice for a person to walk on at this time of the year.”

The month ended with signs of spring.

“The first snake story of the season comes from Sandy Hill, and is to the effect that J.P. Byrne, while in the district of Kingsbury yesterday, killed a black snake which measured four feet in length,” The Morning Star reported on April 30. “An organ grinder, the first of the season, made his appearance on our streets Saturday.”

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