Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1871-02-09
Climate Of the New Northwest.


Harper's Weekly, in recent inter
Iestipg article descriptive of the coun-
try traverSed by the route of the North
ern Pacific Pailroad, gives the following
reasonable explanation of the remarka-
BILE mildness of climate and fertility of
soil which characterizes the vast region
Wnlcn mas come to be known as the
New Northwest That journal says =
The fact of the mildness of the eli
mate which prevails along the belt of
country tributary to the line of the
Northern Pacific Railroad, is abund-
antly established. Nowhere between
Lake Superior and Puget Sound is the
climate colder than in Minnesota; and
this great State is not surpassed as a
wheat producing region, or in health
fulness OF atmosphere. Dakota is very
similar to Minnesota; and from Dakota
westward the climate steadily modifies,
until, in Oregon and Washington Ter
ritOry, there is almost no winter at all
aside from a rainy season, as in CalifOr-
mia. Throughout Dakota, Montana and
Northern Idaho cattle and horses range
out all winter, and in the spring are fat
and strong. Records kept by govern
ment officers at the various military
stations on the upper waters of the Mis-
souri, show that the average annual
temperature for series of years has
been warmer in Central Montana than
at Chicago or Albany. This remarka-
BILE modification of climate, the exist
ence of which no weIl-infOrmed person
now questions, is due to several natural
causes, chief among which are these:
First, the country lying between the
44th and 50th parallels is lDwer by
some 3,000 feet than the belt living inn.
mediately SOUTH. The highest point
on the Northern Pacific Road is $500
feet lower than the corresponding sum-
init of the Union and Central line. Both
the Rocky and the Cascade ranges,
where they are crossed by the Northern
Pacific route, are broken down TO low
elevations compared with their height
400 miles southwark. This dif. erence
in altitude would account for much of
the difference in climate, as four de-
grees of temperature are usually allow
ed for each l 900 feet of elevation. But,
second, the warm winds from the
South Pacific, which prevail in winter,
and aided By the warm ocean currents
correspondent to our Atlantic Gulf
Stream, } produce the genial climate of
our Pacific coast, pass over the low
mountain ridges to the north of latitude
AZ, and cafry their softening effect far
inland, giving to Eastern Washington
the climate of Virginia, and to Montana
the climate of Ohio, without its damp
ness and chill. ~ Al ii lstEE
The same cause.-The depression of
the mountain ranges toward the north
accounts for the abundant rainfall in
nearly all parts of this vast area. The
southwest winds, saturated by the
evaporation of the tropics, carry the
rain-clOuds eastward over the continen-
tai divide, and distribute their moisture
over the 'fertile belt" stretching from
the mountains to the lakes. Further
south the mountains, with their greater
altitude, act as wall against the warm,
moist, west winds; hence the colder
winters and the aridity of portions of
the regions south of Montana and east
of the mountains. That the climate of
that new Northwest which is now to be
opened to settlement, travel, and trade
is such as to make it a congenial home
for the migrating millions of Central
an Northern Europe, and the crowded
portions of our own land, there is no
doubt.