18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, April 28, 1913: I hardly knew what to do today. I guess I’ll have to blame it on the rain.
For the complete data sheet for Williamsport click on April 1913.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
April showers bring May flowers, but Grandma makes the weather sound dreadful. This was the second day in the row that she mentioned rain.
The previous day, she wrote,
Today is a very rainy day.
I decided to check the April, 1913 weather station report for the nearby town of Williamsport. Williamsport is about 20 miles from McEwensville and on the other side of a mountain—so I’m sure that the weather was somewhat different—but it still provides a sense of what it was like.
On both the 27th and 28th there were thunderstorms—with 0.24 inch of rain on the 27th and 0.47 inch of rain on the 28th. It looks like the rainy weather continued into the following day (and got worse)—with 0.66 inches of rain.
The temperature also fell like a rock across the three days—with a high of 80° on the 27th, a high of 67° on the 28th, and 54° on the 29th.
For details about how to find original weather station data on the National Climatic Data Center website, see a previous post:
No television or DVDs or computers to keep her amused 🙂 I love the weather records; such beautiful handwriting.
People did have lovely handwriting back then. I wish my handwriting looked like that 🙂
I was reading yesterday that handwriting samples are still an important part of the job application process in France. I wonder if they teach handwriting in school there. Is it still part of the curriculum in your state schools?
Thanks for that link: that will come in handy! Perhaps Grandma was a little “down” about her school years being over…and the rainy cool weather didn’t help!
I find that I always feel a little perkier on sunny days. 🙂
I hope she has something to look forward to after graduation.
I think that women’s hopes and dreams were often somewhat different a hundred years ago than what they are now–and I look forward to exploring what she looked forward to in the coming weeks and months. 🙂
Wonder what projects she worked on to stay busy.
I wish that she would have provided more details about her day-to-day activities and projects–but I guess that she often didn’t think that they were important enough to mention in the diary.
About this time of year I know some people get moody in dark weather. Maybe Grandma was like that – light sensitive. A little sunshine will undoubtedly cheer her up.
There’s nothing like a little sunshine to improve one’s mood. 🙂
Interesting link to the weather records. Thanks.
I was really excited then I discovered that detailed historic weather data is available for locations throughout the US. It really can provide useful contextual information.
I think it’s fabulour that here you are, 100 years later, and able to access the weather records for the area your grandmother lived in!
It’s amazing how information like this is now readily available via the internet.
Thanks for posting this link. I think it’s a great way to check up on what it was like during a day when the Census Enumerator visited our ancestors.
Sometimes I’m amazed how much old data is available when you know where to look for it.