It happened seventy-two years ago today, Sept. 24, 1950. It began slowly, like dusk settling in. But the sky grew darker and darker, until by 2:30 p.m. on a bright sunny afternoon, the sun vanished, and Bradford was plunged into darkness.
Some people thought it was the end of the world — and one man called The Bradford Era to confirm it. Some thought that it was a spectacular eclipse. Others suspected that huge guns exploding in Korea (the Korean conflict was in full swing) had caused atmospheric changes. And some feared that another atomic explosion had taken place (atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan just five years earlier). But whatever the cause, the day the sun in the sky over Bradford was blacked out was a day that many still remember.
Government reports blamed the smoke from forest fires in Canada. It had been a hot September and forest fires in Canada had been burning for weeks out of control. The worst fire was in Wanham, 340 miles northwest of Edmonton, where more than 300 square miles of land were blackened. In northern Alberta, more than 700 firefighters had been on the line for a week, battling nearly 30 individual forest fires that threatened small towns, farms and valuable timber tracts.
The darkness began in Cleveland, Ohio, about 1 p.m. and spread southward. The National Weather Bureau reported that the smoke blanket was at an altitude of 16,000 to 20,000 feet over Ohio, about 600 miles long, carried by clockwise air currents around a high-pressure area.
By mid-afternoon, it extended from Chicago to Williamsport, Pa. Western Pa., Ohio and Michigan had the thickest smoke. In Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Red had to play under the lights at Forbes Field.
In Bradford, The Bradford Era called it a “freak darkness.” The blackout started around 2:30 p.m. and continued for two hours. Birds went to roost, and the street lights came on. Everyone stood outside and looked up at the sky.
Phone calls to the police department, the radio station and The Bradford Era rang almost constantly. The Bell Telephone office was flooded with calls relating to the blackout. Company officials later estimated that 400 to 500 calls an hour were received at the local office during the two-hour blackout.
Everyone had a theory as to its cause. The most common theory was that the Army was testing smoke screens by laying them over a huge area. Some theorized that the Russians had something to do with it. When told that the phenomenon was caused by forest fires, many were openly skeptical. They pointed out, with good justification, that it was a long way — 2,000 miles — for smoke to travel.
In Philadelphia, the sky turned lavender and Philadelphia scientists were the first to discredit the reports that Canadian forest fires could have caused the change in the sun’s color. All agreed it was “unique,” but they admitted that the coloration was probably due to peculiar formations of ice crystals in the smoke and noted that the temperature had dropped rapidly, and the weather was cooler than normal.
The Chicago Weather Bureau received reports of other varied sun colors: purple, pink, yellow and brown. At Grand Rapids, the sun turned blue and displayed a yellow aura.
Skies began clearing in the rest of the western Pennsylvania around 6 p.m. The Weather Bureaus estimated that the smoke cloud was moving at about 35 miles an hour, and that it would eventually move out to sea and dissipate.
In Bradford the next day the sun came up as usual and no effects were seen. Still after all these years questions as to what “really” happened are still in the minds of many Bradfordians who lived through “Bradford’s darkest day.”
