- Weather - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Three photographs; caption reads: The ravages of weather
have raised havoc with city residents and businesses over the
years. In the photo at left, heavy rains flooded parts of Janesville
in 1942, including Five Points intersection. The view is looking
west, with West Court Street veering off the top right of the
picture. In the above photo, shopping carts were tossed upside
down and light poles were downed in the Creston Park parking
lot by a violent wind in the early 1970s. In the photo at right,
a car rumbles through the snow after a heavy storm dropped several
inches on the city in the late 1920s.]
-
- Mother Nature has shown her fury
- Like many Midwestern communities, Janesville has been buried
in snow, battered by wind, pelted
- with hail, inundated with rain, broiled in heat, shaken by
tremors, stiffened with cold, and basked in sunny pleasant weather.
- Variety has been the mainstay of weather for Janesville residents
over the past 150 years. It's led to
- a common belief that if you don't like the weather in Janesville
just wait a day or two and it will change.
- One major exception occurred in 1936 when a record low of
minus 29 degrees was established on
- Jan. 23 - and then held on through one of the longest cold
spells ever to settle upon the area. Temperatures dropped below
zero on 11 of the last 12 days of January and on 19 of the 28
days in February.
- Periods of steamy days also have been recorded. In July of
1955, it climbed above 90 degrees for
- 21 days in succession. But, when you talk about local heat
waves you have to go back to the summer of 1936 when Janesville's
all-time high temperature of 110.5 degrees was set on July 14.
- The historical heat wave started innocently enough on June
26 when the mercury only hit 89
- degrees. The following day it zoomed to 99 degrees and the
next it was 94. A cool spell dropped temperatures into the 70s
and 80s until July 7 when the temperature soared to 103.
- High temperatures the next nine days were: 107, 106, 104,
108, 104, 106, 110.5, 110, 100. After
- a cool 97 degree day, the temperature jumped over the 100
mark again three times by the end of July. The hot spell finally
broke in August, when it only topped the 100-degree mark twice,
including 105 degrees on Aug. 19.
- While everyday weather is probably the most talked-about
subject in day-to-day conversations, it
- is the extreme storms that highlight weather history.
- Janesville has had its share of old-fashioned thunder and
lightning storms, but it has escaped some
- real natural disasters that have skirted the city's perimeter
on more than one occasion.
- Folklore indicates that Janesville has been spared the fury
of tornadoes and cyclones because the
- city is located on the bend of Rock River. That theory has
been discounted as mere superstition by state climatologists.
- Records in a book, "Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy
of Science, Arts and Letters," dated
- 1965, indicate Janesville was hit once by a tornado in the
period between 1883 to 1960. That one instance occurred May 28,
1955.
- Since then a second tornado inched into the city limits when
it destroyed part of the Janesville
- Country Club on Jan. 24, 1967. It was initially described
as a big wind storm, but later confirmed as a rare January tornado.
- Destructive tornadoes have skirted the city several times.
The most famous is the "11-11-11,"
- which occurred on Nov. 11, 1911.
- On that day, Janesville reported a high temperature of 72
degrees at 2 p.m. and by midnight it was
- down to zero. A man in Monroe froze to death that night.
- That tornado touched down near Brodhead and moved eastward
toward Rock County. Nine
- persons lost their lives, barns were ground into kindling,
the Willowdale School was destroyed and Hanover was heavily damaged.
Storm damage was a quarter-mile wide as it approached Janesville
and then veered northward where it slipped between the villages
of Milton and Milton Junction without damaging either.
- April 11, 1965, Palm Sunday, is still imprinted in the minds
of many local residents as well as the
- balance of the country. On that fateful day a total of 37
twisters were reported across the nation killing a total of 214
people.
- [Photograph; caption reads: Car splashes through flood near
Five Points in 1940s.]
- The nearest one blasted the city of Monroe and caused considerable
damage to northern Rock
- County. The city escaped damage.
- Monroe was struck again by another tornado on June 9, 1979,
and again it moved in the direction
- of Janesville only to turn northward causing damage to the
Evansville and Edgerton areas.
- A storm described as a cyclone struck on Sept. 21, 1931.
It touched down west of Orfordville
- near Highway 92 and roared toward Janesville and swung just
north of the city. Near Milton Junction, the storm split into
two paths, one going toward Indianford and the second moved along
Highway 59 east to Lima Center and on into Jefferson County.
The storm caused thousands of dollars in damage.
- Two of the worst wind storms occurred June 20, 1934, when
an estimated $100,000 in damage
- was reported in this area, and on June 16, 1973, when strong
wind and heavy rain caused extensive damage. The city estimated
its cleanup cost for that storm at $16,000 and the county paid
out more than $30,000.
- Hail in other parts of the country is often described as
pea- or golf ball-sized. In Janesville on Sept.
- 20, 1934, "hail as big as hen's eggs" fell on the
city."
- Janesville averages 31 inches of snow each winter. The snowiest
winter of record came in 1978-
- 79 when a whopping 69 inches was recorded breaking the previous
record of 57 inches set in 1951. Since snowfall statistics for
around the turn of the century are not available this stands
as the modern-day standard.
- March of 1976 is recalled as the "ice age" in Southern
Wisconsin. Freezing rain and damaging high
- winds caused $7.7 million in damages and it was deemed the
worst disaster in the state since the 1973 flooding that caused
$24 million in damage.
- Ice-coated power lines and trees resulted in the loss of
electricity for half a million people, some
- of whom were without power for up to 10 days. Area farmers
were forced to rely on portable generators to complete milking
chores.
- Earthquakes are rare in Wisconsin, but Janesville residents
have been shaken by at least four. The
- first occurred Oct. 31, 1895. On the morning of Jan. 2, 1912,
Janesville was shaken by another, but no damage was reported
except for some broken windows and dishes.
- An earth tremor shook the city again on Nov. 9, 1968. No
damage was reported but people
- reported downtown buildings swayed and one woman reported
her husband nearly drowned from the waves in his bathtub.
- The last one came Sept. 15, 1972, at 12:23 a.m. Residents
reported beds rocked and dishes
- rattled for about 30 seconds. The quake, centered near Peoria,
registered between 4.5 and 4.7 on the Richter Scale.
- The first climatological station in Janesville was supervised
by the Smithsonian Institution.
- Temperature observations were taken from January 1853 to
July 1862, and precipitation observations from January 1854 to
Dec. 1858. A second series of observations was taken from January
1891 to November 1895.
- A rain gauge was installed at the Wisconsin Power & Light
Co. substation on March 22, 1941.
- Temperature readings were added at that location on Aug.
19, 1944. The weather readings are still recorded there.
-
- [Two photographs on page 10J; caption reads: Water, water
everywhere. That's the feeling some people have in the spring
when the thaw comes. Above is a photo of high water on the Rock
River at the turn of the century. Left, a makeshift catwalk is
used by a Court Street resident on March 31, 1979.]
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