[at-l] ATN article, 1936 Scout Hike

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

At 11:44 AM 06/12/2002 -0400, Bob C. wrote:
>"...The older boys charted the course (from maps provided by the
> > veterans) and led the way. The fact that he walked fifth or sixth in
> > line was a real blessing in Maine, Mr. Gordon recalls. "There was
> > snow most of the way through Maine, and the older boys had a harder
> > time because they were breaking trail. I just followed on their
> > snow-packed tracks."
>
>I've  yet  to hear of anyone averaging 20 miles a day through snow and 
>drifts in
>Maine.  I  won't say it's not possible -- for a 15-year-old no less. But 
>I'd bet
>1,000 to 1 that it never happened.

I haven't been able to find specific snowpack figures for that year in 
Maine but I did find some telling facts.  A number of sites refer to the 
"all New England Flood" of 1936.  It seems that with higher than normal 
snowfall in the winter of 1935-36, March began with a thaw in the first 
week followed by heavy rains the next two weeks that melted the snow and 
caused flooding from Virginia all the way up through Maine.  It resulted a 
significant number of deaths.

I wondered if there might have been further snowfall after March and 
changed my search criteria to average temperature in Maine.  On the 
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ site I ran a search for the Mar.-May mean 
temperature for the years 1932-1940.  The average daily temperature was 
41.1 and was the highest mean spring temperature for the years selected.  I 
then checked June which had an mean daily temperature of 62.1.  Remember 
these are mean temperatures not daily highs which would have been higher.

If the snow melted in a big March thaw that year and mean temperatures were 
above freezing from then through June, how could there have been snow most 
of the way through Maine?  I remain a skeptic on this claim.

sAunTerer