Cold and snow took possession of the ranges on one occasion while I
was making a stay in the winter quarters of a Montana cattle company.
There was a quiet, heavy snow, a blizzard, and at last a sleet storm.
At first the cattle collected with drooping heads and waited for the
storm to end, but long before the sky cleared, they milled and
trampled confusedly about. With the clearing sky came still and
extreme cold. Stock water changed to ice, and the short, crisp grass
of the plains was hopelessly cemented over with ice and snow. The
suffering of the cattle was beyond description. For a time they
wandered about, apparently without an aim. There were thousands of
other herds in this appalling condition. At last, widely scattered,
they stood humped up, awaiting death. But one morning the foreman
burst in excitedly with the news, "The Chinook is coming!" Out in the
snow the herds were aroused, and each "critter" was looking westward
as though good news had been scented afar. Across the mountain-tops
toward which the stock were looking, great wind-blown clouds were
flying toward the plains. In less than an hour the rescuing Chinook
rushed upon the scene. The temperature rose forty degrees in less than
half as many minutes; then it steadied and rose more slowly. The warm,
dry wind quickly increased to a gale. By noon both the sleet and the
snow were gone, and thousands of cattle were eagerly feeding in the
brown and curly grass of the wide, bleached plain.
This experience enabled me to understand the "Waiting for a Chinook"
picture of the "Cowboy Artist." This picture was originally intended
to be the spring report, after a stormy Montana winter, to the eastern
stockholders of a big cattle company. It showed a spotted solitary cow
standing humped in a snowy plain. One horn is broken and her tail is
frozen off. Near are three hungry coyotes in different waiting
attitudes. The picture bore the legend "The Last of Five Thousand,
Waiting for a Chinook."
It is "Presto! Change!" when the warm Chinook wind appears. Wintry
landscapes vanish in the balmy, spring-like breath of this strange,
hospitable, though inconstant Gulf Stream of the air. This wind is
extra dry and warm; occasionally it is almost hot. Many times in
Montana I have experienced the forcing, transforming effectiveness of
this hale, eccentric wind.
The completion of the big copper refinery at Great Falls was
celebrated with a banquet. One of the larger rooms in the new building
was used for the banquet-hall. Out to this, a mile or so from the
city, the banqueters were taken in a sleigh. That evening the roads
were snow-and-ice-covered, and the temperature was several degrees
below zero. A Chinook wind arrived while the banquet was in session,
and although the feast was drawn out no longer than usual, the
banqueters, on adjourning, found the snow and ice entirely gone, the
earth dry, and the air as balmy as though just off an Arizona desert
in June.
The Chinook blows occasionally over the Northwest during the five
colder months of the year. Though of brief duration, these winds are
very efficacious in softening the asperities of winter with their
moderating warmth, and they are of great assistance to the stock and
other interests. Apparently the Chinook starts from the Pacific, in
the extreme Northwest, warm and heavily moisture-laden. Sweeping
eastward, it is chilled in crossing the mountains, on which it
speedily releases its moisture in heavy snowfalls. Warmed through
releasing moisture, it is still further warmed through compression
while descending the Cascades, and it goes forward extremely feverish
and thirsty. It now feels like a hot desert wind, and, like air off
the desert's dusty face, it is insatiably dry and absorbs moisture
with astounding rapidity.
It may come from the west, the southwest, or the northwest. Its
eastward sweep sometimes carries it into Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas,
but it most frequently floods and favors the Canadian plains, Oregon,
Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. It may come gently
and remain as a moderate breeze or it may appear violently and blow a
gale. Its duration is from a few hours to several days.
There are numerous instances on record of a Chinook greatly raising
the temperature, removing several inches of snow, and drying the earth
in an unbelievably short time. An extreme case of this kind took place
in northern Montana in December, 1896. Thirty inches of snow lay over
everything; and the quicksilver-tip in thermometers was many lines
below zero. In this polar scene the Chinook appeared. Twelve hours
later the snow had entirely vanished! The Blackfoot Indians have a
graphic term for this wind,--"the snow-eater."
In most respects this wind is climatically beneficial. A thorough
warming and drying a few times each winter renders many localities
comfortably habitable that otherwise scarcely would be usable. The
occasional removal of snow-excesses has its advantages to all users of
roads, both wagon and rail, as well as being helpful to stock
interests. There are times when this wind leaves the plains too dry,
but far more frequently it prevents terrible floods by reducing the
heavy snow covering over the sources of the Columbia and the Missouri
before the swift spring thaw appears. The Chinook is not likely to
create floods through the rapidity of its action, for it changes snow
and water to vapor and carries this away through the air.
The Chinook is nothing if not eccentric. Sometimes it warms the
mountain-tops and ignores the cold lowlands. Often in snowy time it
assists the railroad men to clear the tracks on the summit before it
goes down the slope a few miles to warm the muffled and discouraged
snow-shovelers in the valley. Now and then a wind tempers the clime
for a sheepman, while in an adjoining valley only a few miles away the
stockman and his herd wait in vain for the Chinook.
The Chinook may appear at any hour of the day or night. Occasionally
with a rush it chases winter. Frequently and fortunately it follows a
blizzard. Often it dramatically saves the suffering herds, both wild
and tame, and at the eleventh hour it brings the balm of the southland
to the waiting, starving birds.
The Chinook wind is a Westerner. Similar though less far-reaching
winds blow in the mountains of Europe and Asia. In the West, and
especially the Northwest, it has a happy and important place, and the
climate of this region cannot be comprehended without understanding
the influence of the Chinook wind.