The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-11
The Movement OF the storm.


In the weather paragraph published in
the HERALD OF Friday, the 9th, the following
reference was made to the approach Of the
storm that passed over our coast States dur
ing yesterday There are indications OF
the movement of disturbance in the South
west which will manifest itself decidedly
before Sunday" At that time the weather
over the Southern, central valley and West
ern States was fine, with high barometer.
Over the lakes, Upper Ohio Valley and New
England States the rear isobars Of depart
ing depression marked an extensive area of
cloudiness, rain and snow. The conditions
in the Southwest were not threatening in
the ordinary sense, but Ger. ain wind move
ments, which bear marked Significance to
those in the habit of observing small signs
OF change, showed that the territory
of Mexico and the adjacent portion Of the
Pacific Ocean were being traversed by q
barometrical disturbance of considerable
energy. close watch was kept on the
region of the Northwest, whence storms so
frequently emerge, and on the morning Of
the Sth we announced that another centre
Of the advancing disturbance was issuing
from that quarter Our anticipations of
marked development for Sunday were veri-
fed fully by the facts, for the Southwestern
weather had rapidly changed from fair to
cloudy, with very heavy rains, and snow
commenced to fall in the Northwest, with
heavy winds. On Monday the outline Of the
great depression extending from Manitoba
to the Gulfof Mexico became clearly defined,
the centre Of lowest pressure formed by the
merging Of the two minima moving across
the Central Mississippi Valley to Kentucky
and West Virginia. Rains now extended
from the New England coast, where the
pressure was relatively high, toward Loui-
siana, and snow fell over the northern Sec
tions Of New England and the upper lakes.
1t became very evident on Sunday that
the storm centre would reach our coasts in
the vicinity of New York. Yesterdays ex-
periences show that this movement actually
took place. Sleet and rain began to fall in
New York on Monday morning, and the
latter form Of precipitation has continued
ever since, attended yesterday by sudden
rise of temperature. The winds that circu-
lated around the storm centre did not be-
come very high until it approached the
coast line and the Gulf Stream. Then the
gradients grew sleeper every hour rs the
barometer fell, the air became more humid
and the gale more violent During yes.
terday morning the storm ragged with pc
culiar force and seemed to be develop
ing energies that may prove disastrous to
shipping on the open ocean. We hope.
however, that the daily notices which we
published since Friday last Of the storms
advance will have warned seagoing vessels
of the danger. Cautionary signals were
hoisted on the coast stations southwark Of
Sandy Hook during Sunday and in this
city on Monday at midnight, or a few hours
before the storm struck the city-certainly
too late to be Of any service. The damage
caused by the storm, described elsewhere,
is very considerable. The New Jersey, Long
Island. Middle Atlantic and New England
coasts generally have suffered severe wash
ing. Virginia rivers are rising rapidly, and
freshets are feared at Port Jervis. Locally
telegraph communications have been in
terrupted, cellars flooded and a new wall
blown down in the upper part of the city.
Our own observations show that the
barometer fell during the afternoon to
1885 inches, with gale that varied in
velocity between thirty and fifty miles per
hour. AS we announced, the skies cleared
gradually toward night.