Hail, Snow, Thunder and a Shock Down the Telephone Wire

There were about as many kinds of weather yesterday in this city as have been known on one day, and the people not only had the rare experience of a thunder storm, but of such a storm combined with snow and at a time of the year when such storms rarely occur even in the cyclone-swept Eastern states. It was the first thunder storm for this time of the year in this city.

It is fortunate, however, that there were no high winds and the cold was not sufficiently severe to injure the budding trees and other vegetable growths.

The day opened cloudy and gusty, and the storm was evidently gathering in the view of the weather-wise. At 1:20 o'clock hail began to fall, many of the particles being as large as peas. By 2 o'clock the hail gave place to snow, which fell thickly in large, moist flakes with the wind blowing eighteen miles an hour. At 3:02 p. m. slight flashes of lightning and peals of thunder were observed, followed at 3:12 by very violent ones. By 3:20 the storm had again considerably subsided and at 3:23 only rumbling noises were heard.

The snow continued the greater part of the afternoon, but melted almost as fast as it fell and was then followed by rain, lasting far into the evening. The precipitation up to 3:30 was very heavy, namely 15-100 inch, equal to 1 1/2 inches of snow, and a man walking down Second from Pike to Columbia street accumulated a perfectly white coat on his umbrella.

The lightning, while it lasted, played some pranks with the electric wires, but did not do any damage to the telephone system, as did the storm of last summer.

E. R. Butterworth had a slight shock while telephoning from his office on Second street to his son at his residence on Olympic avenue, due to a flash of lightning striking the wire. He was holding the receiver about half an inch from his ear with a slight forward inclination when he felt a decided shock in his hand and dropped the receiver, at the same time a flash of white light passed his eyes and the whole telephone cabinet was filled with a similar flash. The force of the shock threw him against the door, but he suffered no injury. His son renewed the conversation a minute later, and told him he had felt a similar shock and that an electric car going up Olympic avenue at the same time had the machinery burnt out by the same flash. Other persons telephoning had similar experiences to Mr. Butterworth's.