Weather rambling — February 1887

It was almost as if Mother Nature was competing in a Winter Carnival contest of persistence.

“It is a noticeable fact that thus far this winter, every time the village authorities have sanded the walks, it has stormed immediately after, as if the elements scorned their good intentions,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Feb. 1, 1887.

Ice men, however, loved the company of Mother Nature’s misery.

“The ice harvest is in process at Lake George in earnest. The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company is getting out several car loads a day to fill its Saratoga ice houses. The congealed agua is as clear as a crystal and eighteen inches thick.”

The ice harvest was reportedly one of the best in years.

“The crop is excellent, firm, clear and easy to cut. … It is estimated that at least 10,000 tons of ice have been cut and stored in Glens Falls this winter,” The Morning Star reported on Feb. 9. “Cutting was commenced soon after the first of January and sustained without interruption up to last Saturday night.”

The temperature in Glens Falls was 10 below zero early on Valentine’s Day morning, but moderated as the day went on.

“For the past week the walk from the Glens Falls Academy to the street has been very icy, and at most any hour you could see one, and sometimes several, of the young ladies on the walk fall,” The Morning Star reported on Feb. 15. “The boys, , of course, were expected to assist them to an upright position.”

According to a local statistician, “a little upward of nine feet” of snow had fallen at Glens Falls, so far that winter, as of Feb. 25.

Washington County also felt the intensity of Mother Nature’s foul mood.

“The thaw has caught a sudden cold, and February opened boisterously. We are fearful the worst of our weather has not passed,” the South Hartford correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Feb. 4.

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