Meteor Rain of 1856 Options

[t_oner]

According to turkish newspaper Hurriyet (October 15th, 2007) an investigator working in the Ottoman archives found a letter sent by Kirkuk Post Office Manager Seyit Hasan to Sultan Abdulmecid dated June 27th, 1856. Here is a quick translation of the letter:

"God save the Ottoman land from natural disasters. Amen. Since the 15th day of may in the 74th year (islamic calendar?) temperatures in the region increased day by day up to more than 40 degrees. Due to intense heat 250 people living in houses and tents have died. Inhabitants of 4 cities started living in cellars and wells. Summer crops started to burn due to intense heat. 6th of June, on friday night, around midnight [here is a description of an astronomical event that I could not translate because it is in ottoman]. After this, more terrible than lightning some noises were heard as if "kudret topu" (kind of an Ottoman gun) was fired three times. For 15 minutes noises were heard as if there was a gun training. Then fireballs bright as full moon were seen and disapperaed after 5-6 minutes. After 1-2 hours later another star was seen as a meteor?

Until now no one has ever seen such a rainbow ("sky belt" in turkish) around here. Because of this people were afraid as in apocalypse and both jews and muslims and also other people from other religions went to their mosques, synagogues and churches and prayed in tears. Because of this situation lots of men and women were in panic, many pregnant women lost their babies, many children became epileptic. Cries had reached sky. After this meteor event the temperatures started to decrease, and weather started to get to normal. After a few days a meteorite weighing about 1.5 kg was found from the places that were hit by the falling objects and it was brought to the local government. This is presented to your high court for your information. June 27th, 1856, Kirkuk Post Office Manager.

[Mongo]

Nope, our family car was parked in the driveway. Naturally, it needed new window glass and bodywork, as did almost every car and truck parked outside a garage, as I recall.

For some reason, where I grew up (northwestern Ontario) there would be an occasional (once every year or two) VERY intense thunderstorm, far more damaging than your ordinary storm. This hailstorm was one of them, but not the most damaging by a long shot. Given how hailstones are formed, there must have been very powerful updrafts inside it, but the winds were more typical of other storms at ground level. A storm a year later was much more windy, blowing down most of the trees in town and taking a few roofs off, and also produced hailstones, but they were 'only' marble-sized.

Now that I think about it, I would guess that the reason we would occasionally get those extra-powerful thunderstorms was that we were just past the eastern edge of the Prairies, which of course are known for their powerful storms, and the storm fronts would pass over several hundred km of the Canadian Shield (which is 30% - 50% covered by lakes), picking up water vapour (and intensifying) along the way.

I have emailed the editor of the local paper, and with luck they still have archive copies of the issue containing the photo of the record-setting hailstone.

Bill