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A heavy overcast covered Pennsylvania yesterday, plunging much of the state into an early darkness, coloring the skies yellow and purple and indirectly causing one death.
Noah L. Richardson, 65, was killed by an auto as he tried to cross a street in Tyrone in the darkness of mid-afternoon.
Meteorologists looked for clearing skies today although they said considerable smoke was drifting at high level from vast forest fires in Canada.
The director of the Fela planetarium in Philadelphia called the phenomenon "unique." Dr. I.M. Levitt explained that "any kind of particles in the sky - dust, smoke or ice - can cause a change in the coloration of the sun, as well as the sky itself." But, he added, he "had never heard of nor seen" such a sun as was evident in the state yesterday.
Observers reported the color of the sky ranged from pale yellow to brilliant aqua marine to bright lavender. In Lock Haven, some folk thought an expected eclipse of the sun had come a day early. Pittsburgh, which lost its title of the "smokey city" some years ago, was blacker than night from 3 until shortly before 6 P.M. Fans attending the Pittsburgh Cincinnati doubleheader at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field saw part of the first game all of the second under lights. The same situation was true at Erie where the Erie veterans opened their All American Football League season by playing the last three quarters under the lights. An airlines pilot flying over Erie at 25,000 feet reported he had to use instruments because of the smoke.
All through western Pennsylvania it was the same. Newspaper offices and radio stations were flooded with inquiries. Most children remained indoors. Towns looked deserted although here and there adults gathered in neighborhood groups to look at the skies and to wonder what was happening. Police in most communities ordered street lights put on early. Motorists moved at a snail's pace. At Harmarville, Pa. a soccer game was called off minutes after play started in the second half. The field was not equipped with lights. Two race drivers at New Kensington were injured in crashes. The stock car race was called off after only four races.
In some areas, even the chickens were tooled by the phenomenon. The chickens went to roost early. Across the nation, a chill blast hit a large area of the nation again today under a heavy layer of smoke from Canadian forest fires. But the smoke about 3,000 feet thick was moving out into the Atlantic ocean and the weather bureau expected temperatures to return to their autumn normals as the sun again comes into view.