Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-01-25
Ice Storms-The Phenomena of Heat
and Cold,
From the Cincinnati Gazette.


Temperature may be considered, tax
ing the average of one year with anott
Ell, as uniform that is, each year vii
present the same average of tempera-
ture. People will be heard every yeal
saying, " We have very hot summer; ,
:" We have very cold WINTER &c
but each year will present, with yery
little variation, the same average tenn
perature in the same place. The aver.
age temperature in Cincinnati for 27
years was 53.S deg. The average tenn,
perature for 1867 was 3d. deg. If we
assume the average temperature of Gin
c1nnatl to be 53a degrees, there will be
very little difference from it in any one
year. The idea, therefore, that the
seasons have changed, is mistake.
There are, however, "cycles, y in which
the winters become in some successive
years much colder, or the summers hot
ter it is true In 1856 began aseries OF
cold winters, but no colder than they
had been half a century before. In
January, 1907, the weather was colder
than it has ever been known but once
since, which was about 1867.
There is connected with the cold
winters a phenomenon which has not
been fully explained, but which we
would call an ice-storm. This seems a
sudden descent Of cold, which lasts sew
eral days. Is this descent of a cold
stratum of air, or is it wave which
passes gradually over the whole conti-
nent, and which may have it's origin in
the North Pacific? The Gazette has
given tables of the weather for the past
ten days, extending from Cheyenne to
Boston. If those tables be examined,
it will be seen that the cold extended
over that whole region, from the Rocky
Mountains to Passamaquoddy Bay,
precisely like wave of the sea. Be
ginning to rise on the eastern slope OF
the mountains, in the Northwest, it
continued to rise till it's crest, or axis,
was on the Upper Mississippi The
cause of this will probably be found in
the great currents of air which, passing
over the Pacific, are condensed as they
pass inland over the mountains.
The isothermal line (that of similar
vegetatlon) which passes through the
longitude of Cincinnati, passes several
degrees north of this on the Pacific
coast. When we get to the bottom OF
t, the great currents of air cause the
requent and sudden changes of weather
which we have in our region In COM
ing to us they act both as wave and q
descent, for while the wave is passing
on, it descends, and that often with
great rapidity, 5000 feet. In the ice
storm we have just had, the change was
not rapid, because there was no strong
current. Butsome ten years since there
occurred achange so sudden and violent
as to be quite wonderful At 5 O'Clock
in the afternoon of the 31st day of De
cember, there was a warm, soft rain,
the thermometer above forty degrees,
In one hour the wind shifted to the
northwest, and it was freezing. Al
midnight the thermometer was at zero
and LII the morning several degrees be
low zero. For one week there was nc
day in which it was not down to zero
This was the most sudden and severe
ice-storm which occurred In half q cen
/ tury.
In the autumn of this year, old farm
ers and almost everybody said We
would have an open winter. There
was no reason for this. The temper
ature had been, in the previous part o.
the year, rather above the average
The air was dry, and therefore if there
was falling " weather, it would proba
bly, be snow. So it has been. Grea
reliance is put upon signs " in regar6
to the weather and crops. We never
knew one worth q straw.