The New York herald., 1879-12-29

The Late ssCold Wave.',
The cold wave from the Rocky Noun
tains which has just swept over the coun-
try affords data for forming some approx
mate idea of the atmospheric conditions
north and west of the United States, and
indicates, perhaps. those which now mark
the North Pacific and Siberian regions.
Several stations in the Northwest reported
temperatures as low as 40 degrees below
zero, which is nearly 6 degrees lower than
any observed by Nordenskj0ld in Decem-
Der of last year, when his steamer lay ice-
bound in the Arctic Ocean. The thermom-
eter on Wednesday indicated 80 degrees
below zero at. Breckenridge, Mimi, so
below at Grand Forks, and SO degrees
below at st. Vincent, near the northwestern
limit of that State. These falls Of the
mercury exceed any reported during the
whole Of last winter in the Signal Service
reports, and the last two are greater than
any recorded by the Swedish explorers
during their entire winter stay north of
Siberia in the Polar Ocean, 1919 degrees
below zero being the lowest reported by
Nordenskj0ld. M
These contrasts have q peculiar interest,
as throwing new light over the obscure
field of Arctic winter climate and eluci-
dating the mysterious origin of our own
cold weather. The prevailing theory that
the polar basin is the centre of refrigera-
tion for our hemisphere in winter, and
that from within its icy contour emanate
the cold waves that descend on the North
west seems no longer tenable in the light
Of such data. During the winter Of 1S7S-79
the Swedish observers in the Arctic found
that their coolest winds came" not from
the direction of the Pole nor from any
northerly point of the compass, but "from
the southwest and west-that is, from the
Siberian plain"-a fact which revolutionizes
popular notions of polar physics. Indeed.
the records of polar exploration scarcely
afford an instance of the thermom eter fall
ing as low in the frozen ocean in December
as it did last week in Minnesota. The
wave, which had o temperature of So
degrees below zero on reaching the Red
River of the North valley, after rolling per-
haps thousands of miles from the region in
which 1t was formed, must originally have
been still colder and more frigorifc. For
these aerial masses are always observed to
grow less frigid as they advance eastward
the temperature in last weeks wave rose 10
degrees while it was crossing Minnesota.
It is problem of prime Importance for
meteorology to determine how and where
such intense cold can be generated. The
old explanation which refers the phenom-
enon to the chilling effect of the Rocky
Mountains cannot avail, since it is now we'll
known that current of air which passes
over mountain range has its temperature
raised decidedly, and becomes f5hn-like in
its descent. Equally unavailing apparently
is it to ascribe the cold waves to polar
agencies and call them "polar waves" for,
as far as polar research has shown, such
thermometric enormities are not peculiar
to the Arctic seas. and in the whole of the
exceptionally severe winter of 187S-79 were
unobserved by the Swedish expedition
when stationed beyond the Arctic circle, in
the very track which these meteors, if Of
polar birth, would necessarily take in
order to reach the United States. In
all probability, as the Nordenskj3ld ex-
pedition found, the great thermome-
trio wave of the 23d was propagated
from the northeastern Siberian coasts
toward British Americas distance less
than fifteen hundred miles. 1t is very far
from Incredible that wave which travelled
eastward from Manitoba to tho Atlantic in
sixty hours could have crossed the narrow
part of the North Pacific dividing the
Asiatic and American continents. The OBJ
servations Of the Jeannette at Wrangell
Land, when combined with those of the
Vega, will undoubtedly solve this great
problem of American meteorology, and en-
able us to trace the normal lines along
which the winter climate OF the United
States is developed, as also to discover the
indications of approaching cold waves for
purposes of weather prediction. A series
Of weather observations taken within the
polar area will be Of immense value to
science in solving this climatic mystery.