Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1858-07-03
The Great Rains of 1865.

The Great Rains of 1868,
I}i,;;ss;mg the last six or seven weeks there
has been succession of fdeluging rains along
this latitude from Kansas to the Atlantic,
for which no recorded observations afford
parallel For the whole area cast of and
including Kansas, and below the fortyfourth
parallel of latitude, the quantity ct water
falling has been excessive. The average
of observed places gives about ten inches
as the depth for May, and five inches for
the first twelve days of June; making at
least fifteen inches in forty-five consecutive
days. The whole valley of the Mississippi,
below st Paul, has been constantly deiu.
gcd BY these rains, and though those fall
ing early in May were thought to be unprc-
gave greater quantity than had fallen in
the same number ofhours before, and its
whole quantity, of at least five inches in
depth was at once thrown off by the soil
already saturated.
We cannot wonder at the floods of the
Mississippi and its tributary rivers, under
the extraordinary succession Of dcluges.-
One third of the average rain fall for the
year, is brought within period of forty
days, and these are continuously cloudy
days, also, so that little relief is given by
evaporation. At least ten inches of this
quantity is excess over the anuual averages
and for the four hundred and fifty thousand
square miles included in this area of cx-
ccssivc rains within the Mississippi valley,
this surplus quantity of water would make
Il sheet two hundred miles square and ten
feet deep, or twenty miles square and one
thousand feet deep. The dcnizens of the
great Mississippi plain have had this vast
quantity of water to dsposscss themselves
of and VIC cannot wonder that those living
on the river lowlands have been compelled
to give place to the floods for while.
Most Of the measurements we find record
cd are at points not touched by the tropical
tornadocs which have been thickly inter
spcrScd over the whole country, At Be-
lott, Wisconsin, 1913 inches were measur-
cd in May at Ottawa, Illinois, S5 inches
lp Southern Illinois the quantities were
much greater though VIC have seen no
measurements. Tornadocs and flooding
rains were almost constant in line from
Kansas to Cincinnati during much of MAY,
and this side of the Alcgl anies they were
repeated on a scale but little below the for
mer in violence. At Marlborough, in Ches-
ter County of this State, 96 inches of rain
fell in May and at several registers in this
city and vicinity about four and half in
chcs were measured in the great rain of
June Il ltll and 18th, which gave still
greater quantity over the whole country
west of the mountains to Kansas LOCAL.
ties visited by the tornadocs certainly re-
ccived two or three inches more in depth of
water than those not so visited, and in
such local storms not unfrequcntly six in
chcs of water will fall in two or three hours.
1t is apparent thnt this excessive guam
tity of rain is derived from Irregularities in
atmospheric circulation, originating beyond
the area of country visited, and even be-
yond the continent itself. The winds expc-
rienced at the time, or previously, had tho
least possible to dDwth the events, and the
hundred tornadocs that appeared i'll various
| places from Kansas to the Atlantic, were
but incidents of the general excess of mois-
ture in rain. 1t will probably be found
that the southern hemisphere, or the oppo-
site half OF the northern hemisphere, has
been suffering deficiency in rain cores
ponding to our excess, and possibly, the
excessive heat reported as prevailing in
Australia, remotely, if not directly, inRuen-
ccd the supply of this part of the earth
with an excess of moisture eyaporated from
southern seas.
These problems in physics are tho great
est yet remaining to be solved in the whole
domain of science, aud the opposite hen,is-
pheres must be consulted for tho necessary
observations The idlest absurdity of the
time is to undertake the prediction of such
events, great or small, and the discussion
of them, in any manner, is so often over
loaded with shallow attempts at positive
prediction, that those who would be glad
to lock into the reason of these great ply
steal phenomena, prefer to wait silently an
other century, if SO much timo shall be
necessary to finish this work of theorists
and empirics. philadelphia Mo,M 4n,cy-
icom.
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