On the night of the 9th and the morning of the 10th of February, 1898, a heavy sleet storm passed over Adair County, Iowa. The storm began not very long after midnight with a brisk rain which froze as it fell and adhered tenaciously to trees and other objects with which it came in contact. The wind at the time was slightly west of north and was not blowing at all briskly. The day preceding the storm had been unusually warm, for the time of year, with a cloudy sky, a slight breeze from the north and a very humid atmosphere. About 3 o\u27clock on the morning of the 10th the trees, which had become heavily laden with ice, began to break. Had there been a heavy wind at the time, the damage to the trees would have been immense; as it was, the damage was very great and in the town of Greenfield the people were very generally awakened by the crashing of the breaking trees, which lasted almost continuously from 3 o\u27clock until daylight
