A Chinook Wind Melted Seattle's Snow—and Nearly Swamped the Sound
A furious overnight blow downed telegraph wires, sent a 1,600-ton ship back out to sea, and left Seattle wondering what the storm had done in the Straits of Fuca.
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A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The storm culminated last night in a furious fifty-mile-an-hour breeze which came from the southeast. It reached its height at midnight. It shook houses and made people who reside on the hills so nervous that they found it difficult to go to sleep. The wind was of the Chinook variety, and under its warm, rapid breath the snow on the streets melted rapidly, so that by morning there was only a little left to tell that there had been a snow storm. The proverbial calm followed the storm.
The signal service report shows the storm center to be in the vicinity of the Straits of Fuca. Rain has been general along the coast, being heaviest in California. It turned much colder in Oregon and Southern California with the passage of the storm northward, and as the storm leaves Washington a similar change will likely take place.
The storm was simply terrific at the mouth of the Straits of Fuca. The tugs Wanderer and Tacoma got hold of the Jabez Howes, a 1,600-ton ship, at an early hour yesterday morning, but both had to let go in order to prevent swamping, and the Jabez Howes put out to sea to save herself. The Tacoma then picked up the Levi Burgess, a smaller vessel, and towed her into port.
All of the wires of the Western Union were up, except between Seattle and Portland. Messages were received from Portland via Helena, Ogden and San Francisco. The Western Union expects to restore communication between Seattle and Portland some time this morning.
“It shook houses and made people who reside on the hills so nervous that they found it difficult to go to sleep.”
Seattle's winter weather still shuts down ferries, snaps power lines, and turns hillside streets treacherous; in 1895 it was telegraph wires and sailing ships at the mercy of a Chinook. The storm's path through the Straits of Juan de Fuca is a reminder that the city's connection to the coast has always been weather-dependent.
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