The Red Cloud chief., 1881-05-05
READING SIGNS IN THE SKY.

READING SIGNS In THE SKY.
That PromI Fair Weafher-BattI That
Are Fought by Misty Squadron In the
sky.
It's easy enough to be a weather
prophet. All you've got TO do is to
keep your eye OF the sky, and it will be
very sly storm indeed that steals q
march on YOU"
The speaker was n gentleman living
on Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, who
has done a great deal of sky gazing, bur
who says he has no desire for a public
reputation as a weather-wise man.
''Look out of the south window. dc
you notice those long. narrow, misty
looking clouds in parallel rows that
seem TO be advancing upward from be,
hind Staten Island with the precision
and steadiness of a line of battle? They
are the advance guard of an approach.
ing storm. The barometer has moi
given the slightest sign, audit probably
will not unit! that skirmish line has
reached the zenith, which may take
hours, and yet j I'm as certain that a
storm is coming as though l saw the
rain falling"
ado you mean that you can forctell q
storm 10y the clouds sooner than by q
barometer"
''Anybody an. These winter storms.
especially, announce their approach
sometimes two or three DAYS in adj
vance. Whenever you see those par
allcl stripes of clouds rising in the
southwest and moving in ranks slowly
,.rn.. H.. CIR TO, n,o,- 10 .,., IL
wet or snowy weather is at hand. Why
should not the cloud forctell the wealth
er? There cannot be a storm or any
considerable change OF weather without
clouds, and there is almost as much
difference ~rerceptible in clouds as in
faces, if people would but notice them
closely"
'.I)o clouds always foretell stormS:?''
mo some clouds give assurance OF
fair weather. A very little practice
will enable body to read this
language of the clouds. Ii is more like
studying g. language than You would
suppose. You know in Latin a change
in the termination of Il word changes its
meaning. Just so a change in the form
of clouds changes their meaning. 1t is
tlo ibOlC III "olh. p.I al SCGtstlI
change always means the same thing.
If 'cirrT turn int 'cirro-strati,' every
m~etorologist knows what that means
Just rs well as the boy at the head of
the Latin class knows the difference be-
tween HE and 'Huius'
"Then clouds are not all otone kind?'
.'By no means. About eighty years
ago Luke Howard, an English Quaker.
whose bus ness required him to take
long walks in the open Air. completed
a classification of clouds that has ever
since been in general use. One of the
most wonderful phenomena ever wit
messed in the sky led Howard to study
the clouds. This was in the great dr.,
fog of l1Sa, that overSpread the whole
ot Europe and part Of Asia and America,
rea hing 10 the SUBMITS of the Alps.
and lasting from one to three months.
according to the locality. The greatest
terror prevailed and the end of the
wcrld was thought to be at hand.
Howard noticed that there are
three principal kinds of clouds, which
he called cirrus, cumulus and stratus.
Anybody can see the difference be-
tween these clouds at n glance. The
cirrus is the highest of all the clouds.
You must have often seen it i'm the
form of white filamcnts, sometimes
called mares tales and eats tails
Stretched across the blue sky like deli
cate lace work, it is very beautiful.
Travellers say that on the summit of
lofty mountain peaks. from which they
could look down upon the heavier
clouds, they have seen these wispy
cirri floating overhead. apparently as
far away As when seen from the earth.
In calm summer evenings, long after
shutdown. these clouds may be seen re-
fiecting the most delicate tints of color
from the last rays of sunlight that il
Illuminate the higher regions of the at
mosphere.
1.-The cirri are composed of little
crystals of ice. These clouds and their
derivatives cause the halos that are
sometimes seen about the sun and
moon. 1t was probably cirro-strati
that caused the great display of moon
dogs and circles the other day at Dem
yer. Cirrus clouds indicate both storms
M clear weather, according to their
appearance. If they appear in their
most delicate forms after stormy
weather, they are a sign that n period
OF settled weather is at hand. When
they show themselves in parallel
streaks after fair weather has lasted
for some time, they are the first indi-
cation of approaching change. Cirri,
when greatly tangled and knottod,
show stormy weather close at hand. II
thel borders grow faint and indistinct.
there is rain coming.
"Cumulus clouds are characteristic
OF summer. The farmers call them
thunder heads when they poke their
smooth, white, rounded SUBMITS, gilt
tering in the sun like silver, above the
horizon. In that form they are the
f~orerunners of local thunder storms.
These Notwithstanding clouds
sometimes actually exceed the greatest
peaks of the Andes or HimlayaS in size.
When cumulus clouds appear in a warm.
pleasant day, not very large. distinct
though soft in outline, and resembling
: cotton balls. they indicate continued
fair, dry weather. On the other hand.
when they grow larger. darker and
more formidable-looking they ~foretelI
storms. just before a rain they some.
times seem to throw off little iieecy
clouds around their edges. Goethe, the
great German poet, who was fond OF
studying the clouds, said that as LONG
as cpmuli have sharply defined border,
and a white color q continuance of good
weather may be expected. Cumulus
clouds often form soon after sunrise and
temper the heat of a midsummer day.
If they gradually disappear toward
evening the weather will remain serene
but if as the sun goes down they grow
darker and more numerous. then lool
out Ton rain. The cumhli are the capi
tails, or condensed SUBMITS, of invisible
columns of vapor rising from the earth.