Old Crappy Coatesville Snowfall Records!

[ChescoWx]

Now before our LV friend says all of the data is invalid blah blah....I of course have never used or presented any other Chester County sites for my data analytics or weather website ever until we started this fun little thread. I have for the last 23 years focused entirely only on Coatesville PA weather data as it represents the ONLY complete data set from 1894 and updated through today for ALL weather parameters and has zero gaps in any observation data. I have never done any QC on the other sites in the County and simply reported them on this thread to corroborate analysis for Coatesville which I have done in this thread - even though LV doesn't like it.

[LVwxHistorian]

7 hours ago, ChescoWx said:

Now before our LV friend says all of the data is invalid blah blah....I of course have never used or presented any other Chester County sites for my data analytics or weather website ever until we started this fun little thread. I have for the last 23 years focused entirely only on Coatesville PA weather data as it represents the ONLY complete data set from 1894 and updated through today for ALL weather parameters and has zero gaps in any observation data. I have never done any QC on the other sites in the County and simply reported them on this thread to corroborate analysis for Coatesville which I have done in this thread - even though LV doesn't like it.

Well it at least warrants you checking all the other years.  Feb 1895 I already mentioned.

You mentioned Malvern 30 inches in Jan. 2016 -- that's not official enough for the list (not a COOP)?

[Hurricane Agnes]

After the meltdown in this thread, I ended up going on a journey back in February, into the history of Coatesville, a place so close but that I really had little background on (other than one of my lab benchmates when I had first started at that job almost 40 years ago, lived there).

I was really surprised that there was an actual steel mill there (that had specialized in rolled and cast parts, and is still there).  But the other thing I noticed was that there were several references, including schools, that were named "Gordon" and that started me down the rabbit hole.

So looking up this name (and knowing when his observer records were done), I stumbled on a 1940 Census entry, took a screen shot snip of the Census page's header and one of the entry with the name, and combined them as a single image (attached).  Based on the age listed in 1940 as being "94", that would make his birth year 1846.  The address on that entry "1219" corresponded to that page's "E. Lincoln Highway" list of homes.  And THAT corresponded with one of the addresses listed for W.T. Gordon for the "Substation History" as enumerated in 1956 (also attached).

But here is the kicker, and I had to eventually take a break obtaining a "smoking gun" connection, but I also found a 1921 reference to the Climatological Observers that year where his name appears, and it includes the title "Prof." (for "Professor" - the old designation for teachers), and that snapshot is attached. 

And that sent me back, back into time to find that he graduated from what was then West Chester State Normal School in 1875, which is of course now known as West Chester (State) University (attached) and he was listed in that 1895/1896 Directory of alumni as being "Prin. of Schools" ("Prin" for "Principal").  And this then lead me to one of many vaunted references to his "retirement" in 1918 as "Superintendent of Schools", "after a service there of forty-two years" (attached). 

So this "W.T. Gordon" ("William T. Gordon") was appointed "Superintendent of the Coatesville Schools in 1876.

So based on the Observer records, he actually started out as one of the earliest observers when the program first started under the Weather Bureau (under USDA) in the early 1890s.

I did some "modern day" screenshots of the observer locations of the 2 houses that were listed (1st was "547 E. Main St." later moving the obs to "567 E. Chestnut St" and 2nd 1218 E. Lincoln Highway") - both attached below.  It's probable that different houses were there on those properties back in the late 1800s and through to at least the 1940s when he was still alive, but it was interesting to see nonetheless.  Note the first "building" is obviously newish and wasn't there back in the late 1800s but is on the lot where the first obs were done.

Assuming this is all the same guy, it makes perfect since that an educational professional (and Superintendent) who perhaps had this as a hobby, would be so detailed with the records.  I wouldn't be surprised if some students may have done readings too...  There's quite a bit there about this family (and his sons including one who worked at the steel mill).

So like I said, I went down the rabbit hole and some of it was also due to a guy who has a Facebook page with literally thousands of archival pics of Coatesville from many eras including going back into the 1800s. His page is here - https://www.facebook.com/A-History-of-Coatesville-Pa-Mark-Ford-Webmaster-675536869267910/

(I don't do Facebook but if there are public-accessible parts of a Facebook page like this one, that are interesting, I'll go peruse them and I spent days going through some of the pics that this guy had)

 

 

[ChescoWx]

2 hours ago, Hurricane Agnes said:

After the meltdown in this thread, I ended up going on a journey back in February, into the history of Coatesville, a place so close but that I really had little background on (other than one of my lab benchmates when I had first started at that job almost 40 years ago, lived there).

I was really surprised that there was an actual steel mill there (that had specialized in rolled and cast parts, and is still there).  But the other thing I noticed was that there were several references, including schools, that were named "Gordon" and that started me down the rabbit hole.

So looking up this name (and knowing when his observer records were done), I stumbled on a 1940 Census entry, took a screen shot snip of the Census page's header and one of the entry with the name, and combined them as a single image (attached).  Based on the age listed in 1940 as being "94", that would make his birth year 1846.  The address on that entry "1219" corresponded to that page's "E. Lincoln Highway" list of homes.  And THAT corresponded with one of the addresses listed for W.T. Gordon for the "Substation History" as enumerated in 1956 (also attached).

But here is the kicker, and I had to eventually take a break obtaining a "smoking gun" connection, but I also found a 1921 reference to the Climatological Observers that year where his name appears, and it includes the title "Prof." (for "Professor" - the old designation for teachers), and that snapshot is attached. 

And that sent me back, back into time to find that he graduated from what was then West Chester State Normal School in 1875, which is of course now known as West Chester (State) University (attached) and he was listed in that 1895/1896 Directory of alumni as being "Prin. of Schools" ("Prin" for "Principal").  And this then lead me to one of many vaunted references to his "retirement" in 1918 as "Superintendent of Schools", "after a service there of forty-two years" (attached). 

So this "W.T. Gordon" ("William T. Gordon") was appointed "Superintendent of the Coatesville Schools in 1876.

So based on the Observer records, he actually started out as one of the earliest observers when the program first started under the Weather Bureau (under USDA) in the early 1890s.

I did some "modern day" screenshots of the observer locations of the 2 houses that were listed (1st was "547 E. Main St." later moving the obs to "567 E. Chestnut St" and 2nd 1218 E. Lincoln Highway") - both attached below.  It's probable that different houses were there on those properties back in the late 1800s and through to at least the 1940s when he was still alive, but it was interesting to see nonetheless.  Not the first "building" is obviously newish and wasn't there back in the late 1800s but is on the lot where the first obs were done.

Assuming this is all the same guy, it makes perfect since that an educational professional (and Superintendent) who perhaps had this as a hobby, would be so detailed with the records.  I wouldn't be surprised if some students may have done readings too...  There's quite a bit there about this family (and his sons including one who worked at the steel mill).

So like I said, I went down the rabbit hole and some of it was also due to a guy who has a Facebook page with literally thousands of archival pics of Coatesville from many eras including going back into the 1800s. His page is here - https://www.facebook.com/A-History-of-Coatesville-Pa-Mark-Ford-Webmaster-675536869267910/

(I don't do Facebook but if there are public-accessible parts of a Facebook page like this one, that are interesting, I'll go peruse them and I spent days going through some of the pics that this guy had)

 

 

Wow!! this is excellent information that I have never seen!! It appears he was submitting obs back to February 1888! The earliest obs I can find from him are those from January 1894. Will have to do some digging to see if anyway to unearth those additional years! To have tracked daily data for 42 years is mighty impressive. Maybe I can reach that number of years if I am still around!! Thanks for the most excellent research!!! Paul

[Hurricane Agnes]

3 minutes ago, ChescoWx said:

Wow!! this is excellent information that I have never seen!! It appears he was submitting obs back to February 1888! The earliest obs I can find from him are those from January 1894. Will have to do some digging to see if anyway to unearth those additional years! To have tracked daily data for 42 years is mighty impressive. Maybe I can reach that number of years if I am still around!! Thanks for the most excellent research!!! Paul

From what I understand, the Army "Signal Corps" was "officially" recording weather observations before the Weather Bureau was formed, so I expect he may have been submitting his observations to them. 

And LOL!!!  I just found this site  - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual

Guaranteed you'll go crazy there - I just randomly pulled up the 1888 "annual report" which is a PDF and there are summary observations in there by state (just scanned and saw one for Kansas), plus other odds and ends "military" stuff.

And yup - I can imagine what he had seen over that time and how the place changed over the years (there were mergers of adjacent villages to form what is now "Coatesville").

[Hurricane Agnes]

48 minutes ago, ChescoWx said:

Wow!! this is excellent information that I have never seen!! It appears he was submitting obs back to February 1888! The earliest obs I can find from him are those from January 1894. Will have to do some digging to see if anyway to unearth those additional years! To have tracked daily data for 42 years is mighty impressive. Maybe I can reach that number of years if I am still around!! Thanks for the most excellent research!!! Paul

Found the 1888 data.  It is in the 1889 Pt. 1 PDF (selectable via a drop-down menu) at NOAA's Signal Corps data at that link - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual

Have to scroll down but for example, starting from "pg 254" of Pt. 1, you start to see the individual observer station reports (earlier tables appeared to be the data for full stations that had all the instruments).  So the first "Coatesville" reference (just from a quick scan) appears on "pg. 285" (the page number printed on the document) and it appears that the first obs readings started in March of 1888 for monthly/annual mean temp.  Then on "pg. 328" are the "max/min/range" temps for Coatesville Mar. - Dec. 1888.  Then the piece de resistance - the precip for Mar - Dec. 1888 in Coatesville (doesn't distinguish frozen from liquid, it appears to just be total qpf).

(I blame you for this! )

[ChescoWx]

14 hours ago, Hurricane Agnes said:

Found the 1888 data.  It is in the 1889 Pt. 1 PDF (selectable via a drop-down menu) at NOAA's Signal Corps data at that link - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual

Have to scroll down but for example, starting from "pg 254" of Pt. 1, you start to see the individual observer station reports (earlier tables appeared to be the data for full stations that had all the instruments).  So the first "Coatesville" reference (just from a quick scan) appears on "pg. 285" (the page number printed on the document) and it appears that the first obs readings started in March of 1888 for monthly/annual mean temp.  Then on "pg. 328" are the "max/min/range" temps for Coatesville Mar. - Dec. 1888.  Then the piece de resistance - the precip for Mar - Dec. 1888 in Coatesville (doesn't distinguish frozen from liquid, it appears to just be total qpf).

(I blame you for this! )

You are the best!! I will be diving in to this data....the weenie that I am!!

Thanks again!!

Paul

[Hurricane Agnes]

8 minutes ago, ChescoWx said:

You are the best!! I will be diving in to this data....the weenie that I am!!

Thanks again!!

Paul

You're welcome.  Figured it would be your "summer reading"!

I'm already flopping around at the bottom of that rabbit hole myself going through that 1889  pt. 1 file.

[TheClimateChanger]

On 5/21/2022 at 6:18 PM, Hurricane Agnes said:

Found the 1888 data.  It is in the 1889 Pt. 1 PDF (selectable via a drop-down menu) at NOAA's Signal Corps data at that link - https://library.noaa.gov/Collections/Digital-Docs/Signa-Corps-WB-Annual

Have to scroll down but for example, starting from "pg 254" of Pt. 1, you start to see the individual observer station reports (earlier tables appeared to be the data for full stations that had all the instruments).  So the first "Coatesville" reference (just from a quick scan) appears on "pg. 285" (the page number printed on the document) and it appears that the first obs readings started in March of 1888 for monthly/annual mean temp.  Then on "pg. 328" are the "max/min/range" temps for Coatesville Mar. - Dec. 1888.  Then the piece de resistance - the precip for Mar - Dec. 1888 in Coatesville (doesn't distinguish frozen from liquid, it appears to just be total qpf).

(I blame you for this! )

He also appears in the Climatological Data reports for Pennsylvania beginning in March 1888, accessible from NCEI. Those reports also include monthly snowfall, which is not included in those Signal Corps reports. At least in the March 1888 report, they did not include daily temperatures and precipitation. But the reports do identify mean temperature, mean maximum temperature, mean minimum temperature, absolute maxima and minima, mean range, and maximum and minimum daily ranges, as well as precipitation, snowfall, sky conditions, and prevailing wind direction.

In March 1888, the mean temperature was reported as 32.3F, with a maximum of 68.5 on the 31st and a minimum of -3 on the 6th. Precipitation totaled 6.28 inches, including 18.5" of snow. Skies were clear on 10 days, fair (partly cloudy) on 12 days, and overcast on 9 days. Prevailing winds were from the west.

[Hurricane Agnes]

3 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

He also appears in the Climatological Data reports for Pennsylvania beginning in March 1888, accessible from NCEI. Those reports also include monthly snowfall, which is not included in those Signal Corps reports. At least in the March 1888 report, they did not include daily temperatures and precipitation. But the reports do identify mean temperature, mean maximum temperature, mean minimum temperature, absolute maxima and minima, mean range, and maximum and minimum daily ranges, as well as precipitation, snowfall, sky conditions, and prevailing wind direction.

In March 1888, the mean temperature was reported as 32.3F, with a maximum of 68.5 on the 31st and a minimum of -3 on the 6th. Precipitation totaled 6.28 inches, including 18.5" of snow. Skies were clear on 10 days, fair (partly cloudy) on 12 days, and overcast on 9 days. Prevailing winds were from the west.

When I was doing my deep dives, I discovered a possible reason why that year and month and I expected it was because of a HUGE blizzard dubbed the "Great Blizzard of 1888" that happened in March of that year!

https://www.wfmz.com/features/historys-headlines/october-blizzard-sparks-memories-of-the-great-blizzard-of-1888/article_ada2716a-8ff8-5c0c-afde-160ef30e506b.html

 

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/columnists/mike_newall/snow-storm-philadelphia-weather-mike-newall-20180322.html

 

(Clipping from a page one story in March 13, 1888 Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Inquirer)

So if anything as a major weather event,  that blizzard was probably the trigger for interest for people in this area. 

[ChescoWx]

16 hours ago, TheClimateChanger said:

He also appears in the Climatological Data reports for Pennsylvania beginning in March 1888, accessible from NCEI. Those reports also include monthly snowfall, which is not included in those Signal Corps reports. At least in the March 1888 report, they did not include daily temperatures and precipitation. But the reports do identify mean temperature, mean maximum temperature, mean minimum temperature, absolute maxima and minima, mean range, and maximum and minimum daily ranges, as well as precipitation, snowfall, sky conditions, and prevailing wind direction.

In March 1888, the mean temperature was reported as 32.3F, with a maximum of 68.5 on the 31st and a minimum of -3 on the 6th. Precipitation totaled 6.28 inches, including 18.5" of snow. Skies were clear on 10 days, fair (partly cloudy) on 12 days, and overcast on 9 days. Prevailing winds were from the west.

Fantastic!! I had just finished moving the previous data to a spreadsheet for all of the Chesco sites. This looks great!! Did you share a link? if not I will do some digging - thanks again!!

Paul

[TheClimateChanger]

12 minutes ago, ChescoWx said:

Fantastic!! I had just finished moving the previous data to a spreadsheet for all of the Chesco sites. This looks great!! Did you share a link? if not I will do some digging - thanks again!!

Paul

These were from NCDC's Image and Publication System: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/cd/cd.html

Just select Pennsylvania and choose the month. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania's publications are missing from March 1893 through March 1896 - not sure if that's because the State did not publish one for those months or if the hard copies were lost or destroyed. It looks like the publications begin in September 1887, but Coatesville was not included until March 1888. It was listed in the January and February 1888 publications, but no values published until March of that year. Records for West Chester go back to the inception of the publication.

[TheClimateChanger]

Oh and I found copies of all of the 1895 Monthly Weather Review publications, which weren't scanned in by NCDC. They were published by the Franklin Institute and appear as an appendix to their annual report, accessible from the link below. These also have daily precipitation records, but not temperature or snowfall. Only monthly. The missing 1893, 1894, and 1896 reports can also probably be found using a similar search term on Google Books, but I didn't try to do so.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Secretary_of_Intern/KENcBcN_-70C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=monthly+weather+review+july+1895+franklin+institute&pg=RA1-PA88&printsec=frontcover

[ChescoWx]

12 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

Oh and I found copies of all of the 1895 Monthly Weather Review publications, which weren't scanned in by NCDC. They were published by the Franklin Institute and appear as an appendix to their annual report, accessible from the link below. These also have daily precipitation records, but not temperature or snowfall. Only monthly. The missing 1893, 1894, and 1896 reports can also probably be found using a similar search term on Google Books, but I didn't try to do so.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Secretary_of_Intern/KENcBcN_-70C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=monthly+weather+review+july+1895+franklin+institute&pg=RA1-PA88&printsec=frontcover

 

26 minutes ago, TheClimateChanger said:

These were from NCDC's Image and Publication System: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/IPS/cd/cd.html

Just select Pennsylvania and choose the month. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania's publications are missing from March 1893 through March 1896 - not sure if that's because the State did not publish one for those months or if the hard copies were lost or destroyed. It looks like the publications begin in September 1887, but Coatesville was not included until March 1888. It was listed in the January and February 1888 publications, but no values published until March of that year. Records for West Chester go back to the inception of the publication.

Thanks CC!! I have used the IPS site for individual handwritten obs but did not know they had the summaries!! Thanks!

Paul

[ChescoWx]

I am starting to get through all of the older data for Chester County back to 1887 (Thanks again to Agnes and The Climate Changer for the help!

Below is some updated snowfall data for Western Chesco

[ChescoWx]

[LVwxHistorian]

On 6/24/2022 at 10:29 AM, ChescoWx said:

way too variable!!  because of that drunk guy early in the record!

[Hurricane Agnes]

On 7/15/2022 at 1:05 PM, LVwxHistorian said:

way too variable!!  because of that drunk guy early in the record!

That "drunk guy" was the Superintendent for the Coatesville schools for 42 years , from 1876 (the time of the U.S. centennial) to 1918.  I expect you missed that part because it was too much to read.

[WarrenCtyWx]

On 6/24/2022 at 1:29 PM, ChescoWx said:

I'm surprised the 1940s were that bad. I think it was a fairly average snowfall decade in most other places. Also surprised at how well (relatively speaking) they did in the 80s.

[LVwxHistorian]

On 7/30/2022 at 10:35 AM, WarrenCtyWx said:

I'm surprised the 1940s were that bad. I think it was a fairly average snowfall decade in most other places. Also surprised at how well (relatively speaking) they did in the 80s.

Just a HORRIBLE contamination of the record -- I'm getting back on NCEI to do something about it once and for all!!

[Eskimo Joe]

On 8/9/2022 at 12:48 PM, LVwxHistorian said:

Just a HORRIBLE contamination of the record -- I'm getting back on NCEI to do something about it once and for all!!