MASTERTON SNOWSTORMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1939, Page 6

MASTERTON SNOWSTORMS

1918 HEAVIEST RECORDED. FOOT TO EIGHTEEN INCHES DEEP IN TOWN. Was the 1918 snowstorm in Masterlon heavier than this week's visitation? This question is being asked by many people and opinion appears to be divided. According to the newspaper files, however, there is no doubt that the 1918 fall was considerably heavier; as much as a foot to eighteen inches of snow being recorded in Masterton on that occasion.

It is somewhat of a coincidence that the 1918 and 1939 storms were experienced on almost the corresponding days of the year. In 1918 it snowed on July 21 and again on July 22. whereas this year the fall occurred on the night of July 25 and the early morning of the following day. As many as a thousand people assembled on the Park Oval during the 1918 storm to engage in snowballing. In 1918 the fall was even more than eighteen inches on the outskirts of Masterton and trade was paralysed. There were serious interruptions to the telephone and telegraph services and rural services were suspended for at least one day. Considerable damage was done to plantations, many valuable trees being uprooted and limbs torn off other trees. The weight, of the snow caused a skylight on Messrs Hugo and Shearer's building to collapse. but not much other damage resulted.

Probably the most disastrous snowstorm experienced in Masterton was that which occurred on August 28, 1932. when, although only two or three inches of snow fell, owing to the entire absence of wind, it accumulated on telephone telegraph and power lines to such an extent that wires were broken in innumerable places and many poles were broken or pulled over to a precarious angle. Earlier the same month, on August 6. two to three inches of snow fell in Masterton, with a heavier fall in country areas but nd damage resulted on that occasion.