The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-08 00:00:00

NAIIMIN

THE ORIGIN AND LAW OF STORM&
In London, on Monday evening, Mr. Scott, of the Meteoro-
logical Office, lectured at the London Institution on
lf fiFetwrn•

---
Our knowledge of the origin of storms, the lecturer
said, win' still very unsatisfactory, and after stating
the four theories which have met with support, he
pointed out that as each of them had facts in its
favour it was probable that storms originated in more
than one way. The direction and force of the wind
were regulated by the difference of barometrical pres-
sure over a given distance, and .not in any way by
the actual height of the barometer at the station
at which the storm was felt, or by the distance of
that station from the point where the barometrical
reading for the time being was the lowest. Our know-
ledge of the rate of the movement of storms was still
but small. Some have been known to- travel at the
rate of 60 miles an hour; and, this, too, was known—
that the rate of movement had no necessary connexion
with violence. For example, the violent West
Indian hurricanes move at from 10, 15, or 20 miles an
hour at the greatest. As regards the distance storms
travelled, the longest recorded was in August, 1873 ; it
was traced for nearly a fortnight.
Speaking of the practical value of the science of
meteorology to sailors, Mr. Scott mentioned that the
old idea of hurricanes and typhocns was that the air
blew round and round the central calm in circles, so
that any sailor caught in one of these storms could at
once know that the centre bare eight points from the
direction of the wind on the port side in the
northern and ' on the starboard side in the southern
hemisphere. Modern meteorologists, however, declared
with almost one voice for a spirally incurving move-
ment as the most probable behaviour of the wind.
This must, of course, modify the simple mode of look-
ing eight points for the storm-centre, and indicated
that the true position would be at least two or three
points ahead of the bearing given by that rule.
Speaking of the value of the predictions of storms
sent for the last two years from America, Mr. Scott
gave the following results (the numbers were percent-
age numbers) :—ln 1877 the absolute success was 175;
partial success, 25. Partial failure, 15; absolute
failure, 425. That is 425 successes against 57'5
failures. In 1878, absolute successes, 27; partial
successes, 18. Partial failures, 10; absolute failures,
45. That is successes, 43, against 55 failures.
Mr, Scott pointed out that some of the
predictions included England, France, and Nor
way—an area which was unheard of for one storm.
Mr. Loomis had calculated that the chance of a storm-
centre reaching England from America was only one
in nine. The lecturer alluded to the fact that a pre-
diction unfulfilled might do some hundreds of pound
of damage by keeping in a fishing fleet. Our own
Local warnings might do this to some extent, but
warnings from America included so wide a range that
It would be difficult for any meteorologist to say that
a gale, which began two days before or two days after
a predicted storm, was really the very disturbance
which left the American coasts.