SNOW IN SEPTEMBER

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1926, Page 8

SNOW IN SEPTEMBER

UNIQUE WELLINGTON EXPERIENCE

A VERY GENERAL FALL.

The bitter cold, the change to a southerly wind, and lowering skies yesterday morning prepared Wellington citizens for almost anything, but when sleet turned to snow most people we j genuinely surprised, as the balmy days of the past fortnight had turned many peoplo's thoughts to summer and pleasurable anticipations of its pastimes. It is many years since snow fell in Wellington,- and then not in September. SPRING BLOOMS AND SNOW. Fortunately, while spring fashions were displayed, and the spring flower show was in progress, ladie. had not generally anticipated the season in their costumes, or there would have been many shivering ones. A sharp shower of hail turned to a powdery snow towards midday, and snow fell almost continuously until later in the afternoon. The flakes increased in size, and fell in tho lazy, swirling manner suggestive of a prolonged fall. There were clear skies again at night, when it was bitterly cold, and a very hard frost was experienced. The temperature rose rapidly as soon as the snow fell, and very little of it lay lon^ ir. Wellington, but here and there enough could bo scrapr .1 together to make snowballs. A BEAUTIFUL SPECTACLE. In the western suburbs the snow lay longer than elsewhere, and along the route to Karori the everyday aspect was completely changed. The Botanical Gardens,' with spring flowers peeping through the transforming mantle of white, the leafless trees outlined in silver tracery, and pines capped with snow, presented a beautiful appearance. Snowballing was a reality in the western suburbs, as tram passengers discovered. Children who had never before handled snow simply revelled in pelting all and sundry. The tops of the hills to the west, before the snow had time to melt, presented a beautiful sight. IN THE HUTT VALLEY. A correspondent writes from Upper Hutt: "So far'it has been impossible to discover an 'oldest inhabitant' who can remember a heavier snowfall. They can remember when the river ran in far different channels from to-day '_s, and when you had to go to tho hotel in a boat (a terrible experience, especially on the return voyage), but none of them yet has claimed to have seen such abundant snow at such low levels. The unkindest - cut of all is that it comes in September, with many of tho fruit trees in bloom; and, as a weather abnormality, it quite displaces tho February frost that astonished tho natives a few years ago. Snow on the paddocks, snow frosted hard and thick on gates and fences, and ice on the road puddles greeted the pedestrian this morning. The tree-ferns outshone themselves in their white mantle, and even the mauukavand the gorse looked like some "strange exotic growth. The Upper Valley, of course, had no monopoly of this frigidity, for both yesterday afternoon'and this morniug the snow was lying lo.w right down to Petone." FORMER STORMS. "This is the most general snowstorm that I remember,'' said Mr. Bates, but, thengh widely spread, it has not been •• Ibtense as snowstorms which were mn local. This storm came from westerly disturbances, whereas the heavy falls, usually experienced in the South Island, come from cyclonic disturbances passing through Cook Strait. These cause strong south-easterly winds Mid"heavy rainfall, particularly on the eeisteni aspect of the South Island. "On Sunday, 21st July, 1918, there was a moderate south-westerly gale, and snow and hail fell ror the greater part of the afternoon. More snow also fell between 3.30 and 0 a.m. the next morning, 22nd July, when there was a fresh southerly blowing. On 2nd September, 1919, there was a slight fall on the hilltops. around Wellington. HEAVIER THAN IN 1904. "The last snowstorm in the city itself was in 1918, but the greatest extent of lying snow that I remember was in 1904, the heaviest fall of which was about Courtenay place, though the Tinakori Hills .wore white to the foot. It is my opinion that yesterday's fall was heavier than the 1904 fall, but it did not lie so long, owing to the greater warmth of the ground. The warmth of the earth, at 9 a.m. to-day, at the depth of one foot, was 45.9 degrees, and at threo feet 52 degrees. The lowest temperature in the shade was 32.9, slightly over freezing point, so that none of the enow lasted very long, even on the heights around the city, where the temperature decreases in proportion to the elevation. "The southerly wind had died down this morning in Wellington'to a southwest breeze. Southerly gales were reported in various parts of the country, and south-west gales with very heavy seas at Cape Palliser. South-west gales were reported at Rawene (Manukau Heads), and at Oamaru and Nuggets."