September
24, 1950
Black Sunday
Much of the Midwestern
United States and Ontario were darkened in the afternoon, from noon until about
three o'clock, by thick smoke that had originated from forest fires in
northwestern Canada.
The “Great Smoke Pall” of September
1950 began after a dry summer in northern British Columbia and Alberta. There
was an outbreak of fires in mid-September. The biggest of these, the Chinchaga,
burned 5,400 square miles, making it possibly the biggest fire in North
America’s recorded history.
The fire took a major run on
September 22nd, first sending its smoke north-ward. The plume was first observed
over Ennadai Lake, at 11:00 am CST on Sept. 24.
Rather than continue along its north-eastward
path, the plume got caught between a low over Quebec and a ridge extending out
from the American Midwest, and was redirected southeastward. Now on a southeastern course, the smoke aloft
was subsequently observed in the Northern Ontario at 11:30am cst , and later in
the after-noon, widely across southern Ontario. The pall created a 3-hour blackout. During mid-afternoon indoor lights, street
lights and automobile headlights were turned on to navigate through the darkness.
In Cleveland, the early-afternoon baseball game between the Indians and the
Detroit Tigers was played with the lights on
Born in 1950?
Then
congratulations for turning 65 and entering the world of Medicare. If you
would like to know more about the maze we call Medicare …
