The Weatherman’s Snowy Mishap
A local meteorologist gets lost in his own storm on a Tacoma street corner.
The story, cleaned up
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 Weatherman got lost in the snow last night. As he went snowshoeing around the corner of Ninth and C streets about 7 o'clock, a sudden gust of wind and snow, bunting out of the window of his own laboratory in the Chamber of Commerce building, swirled down upon him and in a trice he was buried out of sight. A pedestrian who saw him disappear telephoned police headquarters, and within five minutes Chief Faehler and a detective appeared upon the scene and began investigating the mysterious case. While thus engaged, the Weatherman, extremely hot under the collar, pulled himself out of the snow some distance away and hurried back to his office. There the cause of the furious storm was revealed. In leaving his place of business several hours before, he had neglected to close the window securely, and the elements—always on the watch for a chance to do mischief—had escaped from their bottles, skipped out through the opening and played hob with the town. That is how it happened that snow and wind blew things around in Tacoma. The Weatherman promises that it shall not happen again while he is in office.
“The elements, always on the watch for a chance to do mischief, had escaped from their bottles, skipped out through the opening and played hob with the town.”
Local weather reporting has come a long way since the days of 'bottled elements,' but the unpredictable nature of Tacoma's winds remains a constant. The Chamber of Commerce building mentioned was a hub of civic life, and the Ninth and C intersection remains a busy core of the city's downtown today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.