Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-01-26
Ice Storms Phenomena Of Heat
and Cold.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.

From the Cincinnati Gazette.
Temperature may be considered, tax
ing the average of one year with anoth
Ell, MS uniform that is, each year viii
present the same average of tempera-
ture. People will be heard every year
saving, 1--WE have very Midsummer; :"
I've have very cold winter,' &c. :;
but each year will present, with very
little variation, the same average tenn
perature in the same place. The aver
age temperature in Cincinnati for ~
wears was 50. s deg. The average tenn
perature for 1867 was 3D. deg. If We
assume the average temperature of Gin
cinnati to be So! degrees, there will be
very little difference from it In any one
wear. The idea, therefore, that the
seasons have changed, is mistake.
There are. however, "cycles, in which
the winters become i'll some successive
wears much colder, or the summers hot
ter it is true In 1866 began series 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
T
There is connected with the cold
winters 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 cold
stratum of air, or is it wave which
passes gradually over the whole CONT
nent, and which may have its 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 rs they
pass inland over the mountains.
The isothermal line Chat of similar
vegetation) which passes through the
1 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
reduent and sudden changes OF weather
which we have in our region. In com
/ INC TO us they act both as wave and n
| 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 a change SO sudden and violent
as to be quite wonderful. AT 5 O'Clock
in the afternoon of the 3lst day of De
cember, there was 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 in the morning several degrees be
low zero. For one week there was nC
day in which it was Rot down to zero
This was the most sudden and severe
ice-storm which occurred III half cen
tury.
In the autumn of this year, old farm
ers and almost everybody said VT
would have an open winter. There
was no reason for this. The temper
allure 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 regard
to the weather and crops. We never
knew one worth straw.