The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-03-12
Storms in the United States.


Prof. LOOMS has recently published
some results of an elaborate critical
study and comparison of Signal-service
observations and weather-maps, carried
on for long periods to discover the
movements and progressive velocities of
United States storms. Some of his de-
auctions are of great interest. He finds
that United States storm-centers after
crossing the Rocky Mountains move to-
wards the southeast until reaching the
Mississippi basin, when they incline to-
wards the lake region with accelerated
speed. The average velocity of Ameri-
can storms, after crossing the Mississip-
pi, about twenty-five miles per hour, is
60 per cent. greater than that of Euro
pean storms. This appears paradoxical
when we remember that. in Europe the
westerly winds, unobstructed by any
coast range like the Rocky Mountains
running north and south, attain more
rapid movement over the Continent
than the same winds can acquire in the
United States. But it appears from
Prof. Loomis's examination that our
storms when nearing the lakes, and sub
sequently, are subjected to q powerful
propulsion from the waves of high press
ure which close in behind them while
in transit, and the rapid torrential pre-
cipitation of rain in their front quadrants
by which the air is greatly rarefed and
q barometric channel cleared for the free
onward movement
In Europe it is very rarely that q
storm advances over a thousand miles
In day. But in this country such an
occurrence is much more frequent. The
storm-center of Jan. Z, 1877, travelled
1872 miles in twenty-four hours, and
that of the following week (Jan. HID
travelled 1870 miles in twenty-four
hours. The storms which have been
found to make their way at these ter
rife speeds across the United States oc-
cur on an average about once in forty
days.
But one of the most remarkable
features of these great hurricanes is
their shallowness. The tremendous
cyclone of the last-named date passed
Mount Washington without disturbing
its summit, where the Signal-Service
observers wind-vane recorded steady
wind from one quarter during the prog
ress of the depression at its base. Dur
ing one of the fiercest "cold waves of
high barometric pressure, the Their
mometer on the summit $1,000 feet high)
showed a higher temperature than that
prevailing at the base, clearly indicat-
ing that the Arctic wave was not deep
enough to cover the mountain. These
and similar illustrations of the verticaI
proportions of both polar waves and
barometric depressions 60 to prove that
the chief agitation of the aerial ocean is
limited to its bottom strata, leaving the
loftier regions of the atmosphere in un-
disturbed repose, save when the great
upper current from the equatorial belt
is in the ascendency.
As many of the great storms which
sweep over the United States are under
the control of barometric pressures ly-
ing outside of our national territory,
Prof. LOOMS points out the necessity of
extending the SignalService observa-
tons to extra-territorial stations, not
only with view to their complete eluci-
dation, but also for the practical pur-
poses of weather-telegraphy.
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