RECORD FROSTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22326, 28 July 1934, Page 10

RECORD FROSTS

to the ennui Sir, —The letters of Mr Trip, ot Kurow, and Mr Mathias, of Waipiata, have been of interest. As an employee on Gladbrook Station, Strath-Taieri, during the winter of 1903 I am sure that Mr Mathias is correct in his suggestion that the frosts were harder at that time than during this present winter. Snow lay on Strath-Taieri plain for most of July and until about the. second week iu August. The depth of the snow was about a foot the whole time until it was suddenly thawed by a warm north wind, the thaw causing a big flood in the Taieri. During the whole period of five or six weeks in which the snow lay there were more or less severe frosts, and the writer remembers the thermometer registering 13 degrees below zero one afternoon. Whether it was the lowest point of register is not remembered. The seventy of the frost killed gorso hedges as well as the outside rows of trees on the southwestern side of the big Gladbrook plantations. Creeks were practically frozen solid, and it was possible at Garthmyl to cross tbe Taieri River on ice. The fogs which hung heavily on the plain day and night, sometimes for over a week, without the sun piercing through, made the cold more intense. Difficulty was experienced in keeping water from freezing in the exposed pipes and in the tenders ot the railway engines which stayed at the terminus of the Central railway overnight, fire cans having to be placed round the engine to keep the temperature as normal as possible. _ A great many bluegum trees were killed in Otago that winter, but it is remarkable that those in Bob’s Cove, Queenstown, were unharmed by frost. The fact that the sun does not; get into Bob’s Cove in the winter months saved the trees.—l am, etc.. Interested. July 25.