The outrageously high cost of gas and diesel fuel seems to be the main topic of conversation these days but we can’t do anything about it. Another subject we like to talk about is the weather and we can’t do anything about it either. We surely have had a cool May so far but that has made a big improvement for this holiday weekend. We remember that on Wednesday, the 21st, of May 2008 the high temperature hovered around 60 degrees but at least we didn’t have snow. One hundred twenty-five years ago on May 21, 1883 they had snow and more snow in this locale.
Local and area newspapers reported that 15 to 16 inches of the white stuff fell during 12 hours that day. The Delphos Weekly Herald called it a really remarkable phenomenon that not even the oldest resident in town could recall anything like it happening before.
It rained considerably during the night preceding the 21st. The snow commenced falling about 6 to 8 in the morning and kept it up for 12 hours. The Lima Daily Republican reported “This beats all”. It described little onions in the garden peeping up through the snow as if it were really funny. The streets of Lima were deserted. Everyone was in shock. The “street cars were propelled with difficulty … the telegraph and telephone poles bent and swayed but none were broken.”
Although the total amount of snowfall amounted to 15 to 16 inches, during the forepart of the day the snow melted as fast as it fell but in the afternoon it fell so fast that it accumulated on the ground to six or seven inches. At that time the corn was up in the fields to about 6 inches but was buried under the blanket of snow.
The Putnam County Sentinel reported that since the shade trees were out in full foliage, they really caught the weight of the snow and appeared more like weeping willows. Many trees suffered broken limbs and a great deal of damage was done to the fruit trees.
At about 8 p.m. it ceased snowing and the sleet began to fall and kept falling for several hours, adding to the injury done to the trees.
Again on Tuesday morning the snow fell at intervals but melted as it fell. By that time the ground was covered to the depth of nine inches of this heavy and soggy snow. The snow remained on the ground until Wednesday noon. Farmers were concerned about what it might do to the wheat crop but their fears were dispelled when they realized the temperature didn’t drop too low.
The Sentinel reported: “In connection with this we will state that the last snow in this locality of the winter of 1882-3 fell on the 3rd day of November, 1882, and if the one of the 21st and 22nd, of this present month is the last one, it will snow a period of six months and twenty days between the first and last snow storms of the season, and possibly the greatest length of time that ever intervened between the first and last snow storm of a season in this latitude or locality.”
The Toledo  Bee reported that “Monday, May 21, 1883 will rank in meteorological history as a most memorable day.” The Toledo paper reported that the storm had its origins in Colorado and swept through Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan with disastrous consequences. It headed in a northeasterly direction and suddenly veered and swept down upon the Lake Region. The entire Lake region was visited with a violent hurricane with winds 25 to 40 miles per hour. Snow covered the ground in Toledo as well.
Heavy snow was known to have hit also in Indiana and as far south in Ohio as Sidney and Hamilton. The cities of Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland did not experience as much snow.
The Lima paper reported that one old-timer said that nine years prior to this snowfall there was a slight fall of snow the second of May, but it did not amount to much.
Schmidlin and Schmidlin in “Thunder in the Heartland” reported that the summer of 1883 was cool in Ohio but not of record breaking proportions.