LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - DECEMBER 11, 2022 by Lynne Belluscio One of the first things that I do in the morning is to check the weather on my phone - - temperature, precipitation, radar and forecast. Before the cell phone, I’d turn on the radio. Obviously, you can tell if it’s raining or snowing by looking out the window, but what we really want to know, is how much rain we are going to get, or whether the schools are going to close because there is a lot of snow on the way. And most of us have dealt with weather delays at the airport. With the recent high wind warning over the weekend, I happened to think of an article that I wrote quite a while ago. It was about the story that appeared in the September 12, 1888 LeRoy Gazette about the flag pole on the top of the Ross Block, on the south side of Main Street. LeRoy had been designated as a “signal station.” The weather report was received by Mr. Milliner, the telegraph operator at the Erie Railroad Station. He then wrote the weather report down on a piece of paper and had it taken to the staff at the LeRoy Gazette at the Ross Block. Their job was to hoist flags on the flagpole that would indicate the weather for the next 24 hours. The weather reports covered a 24 hour period from 7 in the morning to 7 the next morning. There were different colored flags and different designs: A white flag was a predication of clear or fair weather. A blue flag was a prediction of rain or snow. A black triangle indicated temperature – if it was placed above the other flag it indicated warmer weather. If it was below the other flag, it indicated cooler weather. There had to be a difference in temperature of 5 degrees for the triangle flag to be flown. If the weather was to be the same, the black triangle flag was not flown. A white flag with a black center indicated a sudden drop in temperature and had to be flown 24 hours before the cold wave and only if the drop in temperature was more than 45 degrees. (The black triangle and the white square flag were never flown together.) If the black triangle flag was flown above both the white flag and the blue flag, it indicated warm fair weather followed by rain or snow. The newspaper article does not mention where the weather reports were coming from, but it would seem that the message to LeRoy would have to come from Cleveland. The flags on the Ross Block only helped folks in town. Folks in the country had to rely on their knowledge of the weather. Obviously, in 1888, most people had thermometers, but many did not have barometers which would have helped indicate high or low barometric pressure; a high tells of clear weather, a low usually of a storm. My grandmother did not have a barometer, but she did have a weather glass. It didn’t give a barometric reading, but it did tell of an incoming high or low. The water in the neck of the weather glass would sometimes gush out, indicating a barometric low. If the water was far in the neck, it was high pressure, and a clear day. Interestingly, a friend of mine, has a weather glass to tell her whether she’ll have a headache. I also have a weather stick outside my door. These are pieces of either balsam fir or birch that bend upward if the humidity is low and downward if there is high humidity. There are many ways to predict the weather without using weather instruments. Just recently, a friend mentioned to me that the Juncos had returned. These little grey and white birds return to this area when winter weather returns. People also talk about seeing their first robin, or the first hummingbird. Other people will remark “red in the morning, sailors take warning – red at night, sailors delight.” If you are camping, and you notice that the smoke rises in a straight column, good weather can be expected. If the smoke stays close to the ground, a low pressure system has arrived and rain may be expected. My knees can tell if it is going to rain or snow. Cows tend to herd together if bad weather is moving in, and horses will tend to gather together with their rumps pointing to an oncoming storm with their heads down. If the wind is coming out of the north east, the storm will last three days and the wind will change from the north east, to the east, to the south east to the south and finally to the west. Then there are people who depend on the bands on wooly bear caterpillars to forecast the severity of the winter. If their rusty band is wide, it will be a mild winter. If there is a lot of black, it will be a cold winter. A Stafford farmer’s diary that is in the Historical Society collection is very interesting. The diary begins in 1816 – the “Year of No Summer.” There was a killing frost every month of the year. Unbeknown to him, Mt. Tambora in Indonesia had erupted on April 5, 1815, sending massive amounts of dust into the atmosphere. Through out the world, the sun was blocked and frost and snow prevailed. One last note. Today, as I drive out West Main Street, I’ll take a look at the digital time and weather on the Five Star Bank sign. LeRoy Weather Report Ross Block
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