The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-09-16
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The Cause OF PrOfuse Rains.

~ Everyone KNOWS That the neat OF the
sun raises water from the earth in the
form of vapor, which becomes clouds that
float around and at last discharge the
water of which they consist; this simply
is the cause of rain. But we ask the reader
If he has ever considered thatthe amount of
water evaporated by the sun depends on
more water would evaporate and more
would come down; and if it were dimin.
ished less would evaporate and less would
come down, and the amount of rain would
diminish, as it is certain that the water
which comes down as rain must have been
previously raised by the heat Of the sun;
as the sun is sometimes obscured by spots,
it must be supposed to give less heat, and
therefore cannot raise so much water as
vapor; and under these circumstances the
sun cannot properly be the cause of ex-
traordinarily heavy rains and foundations.
This is the theory advocated in some
quarters, but it cannot stand the scrutiny
of reason.
Measurements show that the heat emit
ted by the sun is not regulated by the
spots; while at the same time that spots
appear, the facule, giving more heat, also
make their appearance, and 20 far to
compensate for the dimunition of heat
caused by the spots, so that the total heat
emitted by the orb is, for all practical
purposes, tolerably constant quantity !;
and it must be remembered that the evap-
Grafton chiefly takes place from the sur
face of the ocean, which covers three
fourths of the earth's surface. Three
fourths Of this evaporated water falls
back into the ocean, and one-fourth on
the land, or perhaps a little more, as
clouds appear to be attracted by mount
aims, and by preference discharge their
contents on land; but in any case the
ocean receives back, in the form of rain,
more than half the water evaporated from
the surface. The circumstances attending
the condensation of the cloud-vapors into
rain are very complex; and this operation
is subject to so many various conflicting
influences that regular distribution Of
rain would be matter of surprise, if not
total impossibility, and therefore We see
the greatest irregularity in the rainfall
prevail. In some limited regions of the
earth, however, there exists a regularity
in this regard; but this is simply caused
by the more uniform circumstances in
which such exceptional localities are
placed; and the causes of this regularity
may be, and have been, clearly traced by
OAOSV W AO AldhC tuC uSCStlHUllOu q tulS
subject special pursuit.
If the total amount of evaporation, over
the whole surface of the earth, he nearly
constant quantity, the total amount of rain
falling over its whole surface must also be
regular, because what goes up must come
down and five had rain gauges distributed
over the whole earth and ocean surface
this proposition would, no doubt, be
verified. But, by the irregular distribu
ton of rainfall, some localities may be
literally supplied at the expense of others !;
or, at some periods of time, the rainfall
may become concentrated into shorter
periods. If, then, such larger rainfalls
take place within the limits of the valleys
which supply our rivers, an inundatioD is
the consequence: 1t may be that the
amount Of rainfall in some inundated dis
than is usually the case, or, if it is, the
rainfall of other localities, or on the ocean,
may have been so much less; so that, in
order to account for an inundation or
great rainfall, it is not necessary to sup
pose the total amount of water falling has
been greater than usual.
These considerations show how unneces-
sary it is to look for cosmic causes in ex-
PAoA"tAoA VI SOCH COnA paA oGANCly IAlluS
meteorological phenomena as an extra
rainfall in some districts. Some philoso-
pliers have even gone so far as to attribute
It to the jets of incandescent hydrogen,
elected in the form of protuberances dur
ing solar storms) from the suns surface TO
height of a hundred thousand miles to-
ward the earth, which, cooling while ap-
preaching our atmosphere, form water.
If we consider that, at distance of 3,OOO,-
900 miles from the sun, the gravity to-
ward that body is nearly as great as is the
gravity on the surface of the earth toward
the earth, it is clear that this solar hydrogen
has little chance to reach us. II it did,
and if it combined with our atmosphere's
oxygen to form water, aterrible fate would
he in store for the earth; because, if all the
oxygen in our atmosphere were exhausted
to combine with hydrogen to form water,
it would only form water enough to raise
the surface of the ocean six feet, as is
easily proved by Observation-Disclosures
american.