The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-03-08
- A rainbow in the morning.
Sailors, take warning;
A rainbow at night
Is the SAILORS delight
CLOUD PORTENTs


Clouus are OF the utmost utility in fore
telling weather, especially the cirrus, cirro-
stratus, and cumulo-stratus.
The cirrus, called by sailors "Cat's tail -
and sometimes by others the "Curl cloud :"
is made up Of wavy parallel or divergins
tibres, or slender tilaments, like white lines
penciled on the blue sky. 1t is probably COM
posed of minute snow-fakeS or ice-clystals,
Its movement is fine index of the great
atmospheric currents, and it is thus yalr1-
able prognostc Of stormy weather, 1t
doubtless often reaches height often miles
above the earth. When the fine threads
OF the cirrus appear blown or brushed
backward at one end, rs if by wind pre-
vaiing i'll these lofty regions, the wind on
the surface will sooner or later veer around
to that point.
The cirro-stratus, partaking of the form
Of both the cirrus alla stratus, Buchan
says. - Is markedly precursor of storms !;
and from its greater or less abundance and
permanence, it gives some indication of the
time when the storm may be expected"
The cumulo-stratus is distinctly formed
jdsI pefore r. r,t,I ii begins. Ii Is tive 1urerun-
ner of the lurid display of the thunder
storm, as Tennyson has painted it:
| The wild unrest that lives in woe
| Would dCte and pore on youder cloud,
That rises upward always higher;
And onward drags u laboring breast
| Aldtopples round the drcary West
| looming bastian, fring. d with tre.r
The "pocky cloud" is an almost uner-
ring storm warning. If clouds be red and
lowering III the morning, the red color
arises from large amount of yapor in the
veSlcular state, when, rs Forbes has shown,
the blue rays of light are absorbed, and the
yellow and red rays pass. This gives rise
to the weather proverb:
''The evening gray and the morniug e red
| Put on your hat, or you'll wet your h ,ad ~
and may sometimes prove ominous of a
| storm.
| OTHER MoNITIoNs.
Professor Maury adds, that among other
presages are tue following: The sun settin Q
red, IL remarkably red color Of the clouds !:
the sign almost intallible, at Mauritius.
Of brick-dust haze in the horizon; tre-
quent shittingS Of breeZes from all points.
thick fog flying fast to the south, a bright
halo round the moon, stars very brilliant
and unusually twinkIlng at low attitudes.
noises in caverns and wells like o storm,
moisture on walls and payements, sea-birds
coming to land, waterfowl flying about
| the swell of the ocean rolling in, though
| the hurricane may be six hundred miles
| distant turtles floating in the calm, appa-
rently in 4 state Of stupor the sea pecu-
liarly clear at great depths, tides irregular
| branches of trees not bent forward as by a
stream, but constantly whirled about wa
ter rising in wells and ponds, and disturb
ances of currents on the telegraphic wires
barometers, hygeaneters, and other mete-
! geological Instruments, are not always at
| hand, but these natural phenomena are us
unerring rs the mercury. -
The system of daily weather reports Is
useful in various ways, and Professor
Nlaury thus sums up some of the results
Meteorologically, the United States are
most advantageously situated for maintain,
ing system Of weather telegraphy, and
no storm can strike any part OF the i'm
mense expanse of this continent before
every other part may be notified Of the
danger. More and better than all this, the
records OF the English and other foreign
boards of trade and commercial societies
show that, in England, the high figure OF
73 per cent. OF storm warnings have proved
correct, and in France, out of some 100
storms sienalled, the number Of those
rightly signalled has, in different years,
ranged from Il to rs, SO, and even "a TO
this we may add the fact, stated in the re-
mort Of the North German SeeWarte, that
out of 30 kilograms or stOrm-warning sig
nails for the benefit OF the Hamburg ship
ping, % were verified.
: < TO take the lowest view Of the
present movement of the United States for
Storm signals, it will serve to quicken and
fecundate ali the sciences. The observa-
tions of the atmosphere at the thirty differ
ent stations scattered over the continent,
under the charge of the Chief Signal OFF,
Ger, will be the most important addition to
the physical geography and our knowledge
of the physical resources OF the country.