Never know about April snow
Almost 100 years ago on April 28, 1928 the Uniontown area and much of Western Pennsylvania was paralyzed when an innocent looking storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico and quickly moved to North Carolina.
The storm intensified and affected much of the eastern United States and the Appalachian Mountains, including our area, with heavy wet snow, high winds and icy conditions.
W.W. Marstellar, the Uniontown Weather observer, recorded 8 inches in our city and the Evening-Standard reported 38.5 inches in Somerset.
Over 40 inches accumulated in parts of West Virginia.
Phone lines and telegraphs were down throughout the area, along with collapsed roofs and widespread damage to trees and forests.
Traffic was “demoralized’ according to the paper.
The Bell Company was hard hit with 400 poles in the county snapped or pulled out of the ground, blocking highways and streets. “Poles were going down like ten pins in all directions.”
Emergency repair crews were rushed to the Uniontown area from Pittsburgh to help restore service. Trees also blocked train routes and passengers were stranded until the trees could be cleared from the tracks.
Snowplows used by the state highway department had been dismantled for the season and crews had to spend hours getting the plows put back on and this further resulted in virtually all traffic being halted.
Crews worked 36 hours straight to get roads opened and many mountain roads were still closed.
The April 30th edition of the paper reported that melting snows and rain were causing streams to rise. In Uniontown both Coal Lick and Redstone had left their banks.
In spite of the mild weather we have experienced in March and April so far, snow can still occur.
Imagine the surprise on the morning of April 28, 1928 when folks wakened to the cracking of trees and collapsing roofs.
An interesting side note also happened in April when 75.8 inches of snow fell in a 24-hour period on the 14th in 1921 at Silver Lake, Colorado, setting the world’s one-day snow record.
Lastly, both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington noted in their diaries the snow that fell on May 4, 1774 in New York and Philadelphia.
Keep your shovel handy.