The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-13
Storms in the United States.

Professor LOOMS has recently pub
llshed some results of an elaborate criti-
cal study and comparison of Signal Serv-
ice observations and weather maps,
carried on for long periods to discover
the movements and progressive veloci-
Ties OF United States storms. Some of
his deductions are of great interest. He
hnds that United States storm-centers
after crossing the Rocky Mountains
move towards the southeast until reach
ing the Mississippi basin, when they
incline towards the Lake region with
accelerated speed. The average yeloci-
ty of American storms after crossing
the Mississippi, about twenty-five miles
per hour, is sixty per cent greater than
that of European storms. This ap-
pears paradoxical when we remember
that in Europe the westerly winds, I'M
INSTRUCTED by any coast range like the
Rocky Mountains raining north and
south, attain more rapid movement
over the Continent than the same winds
can acquire in the United States. But
it appears from Professor LOOMS ex-
animation that our storms when nearing
the lakes, and subsequently, are SUBJ
jected to a powerful propulsion from
the waves of high pressure which close
in behind them while in transit, and the
rapid torrential precipitation of rain in
their front quadrants by which the air
is greatly rareied and barometric
channel cleared for the free onward
movement.
In Europe it is very rarely that q
storm advances over thousand miles
in day. But in this country such an
occurrence is much more frequent.
The storm-center of January Z, 1877,
Travelled 1872 miles in twenty-four
hours, and that of the following week
(January 14-1O travelled 1920 miles in
twenty-four hours. The storms which
have been found to make their way at
these terrific speeds across the United
States occur on an average about once
in forty days.
But one of the most remarkable feat
ures of these great hurricanes is their
shallowness, The tremendous cyclone
of the last-named date passed Mount
Washington without disturbing it's
summit, where the Signal Service OBJ
servers wind-vane recorded steady
wind from one quarter during the prog
ress of the depression at its base.
During one of the fiercest "cold
waves' of high barometric pressure,
the thermometer on the summit $1,000
feet high) showed higher temperature
than that prevailing at the base, clear
ly indicating that the Arctic wave was
not deep enough to cover the mount
ain. These and similar illustrations
of the vertical proportions of both po-
waves and barometric depressions go
to prove that the chief agitation of the
@rial ocean is limited to its bottom
strata, leaving the loftier region of the
atmosphere in undisturbed 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,
Professor LOOMS points out the neces-
sity of extending the Signal Service OBJ
servations to extra-territorial stations,
not only with q view to their complete
elucidation,. but also to the practical
purposes of weather teiegraphy.