The Red Cloud chief., 1881-09-15
HAIL STORMS.
What Causes Them. Together with Some
Curious Phepomena.

HALL hA1hte
What Causes Them, Together with Some
Curious Phenomena.
The cause OF hail storms has never
been explained in a satisfactory man.
ner. The most common theory, how.
ever, in regard TO them is Volta's.
which is that the hail stones are sue
cessiyely attracted by the clouds
charged with opposite electricities. and
thus grow until they fall. But, if the
hail stones were thus attracted, it seems
much more probable that the two clouds
would be mutually attracted, and
would unite. The sudden irruption Of
cold air streams into a hot atmosphere
charged with a watery vapOr, and the
rareiaction and consequent refrigera-
ton of the air produced by rotary
winds, have been called in to explain
the phenomena of hail. Perhaps the
French meteorologist gives the best ex-
PLANTATION of hail. II is certainly novel.
We translate it from Ld~tmosphere:
Hail occurs during a thunderstorm,
when the temperature is very high upon
the surface of the ground. but de-
creascs rapidly with elevation. This
rapid decrease is the principal element
in the formation of hail, and it has been
known to be as much as one degree in
n little more than one hundred feet.
What, then, takes place in the region OF
the cloudsp Those above from ten 10
twenty or twenty-five thousand feet
contain, the highesto of them, ice at about
thirty degrees Fahrenheit. The lower
clouds contain vascular water above
thirty-two degrees. As a rule these
clouds travel in different directions, and
hail is formed when there is a collision
and admixture of winds, currents and
clouds, the temperatures of which are
different. The vapor which then re-
solves itself into rain freezes ~instanta-
neously in SO low a temperature"
This theory attributes no part of the
formation Of hail to electricity. This
theory is generally preferred to that
which attributes the cause of hail
to the unequal distribution OF
electricity in the air. Hail storms are
peculiar TO no country, though hail
forms only in the summer season. They
are more frequent in some years than
others, and generally the warmest and
finest summers they are more severe
Sometimes the same locality is visited
for a series of years; then, again, that
locality is spared for n long time. They
are, however, more common in the aft.
crnOon than in the forenoon, and rarely
take place at night. Sometimes
they are of extreme violence, and
hail stones of n large size are
precipitatcd, doing serious damage.
Prof. Muncke notices one that occurred
in Hanover, in 1901, in which a number
of hares, partridges.. crows and spar
rows were killed, and persons who had
been surprised by the hail in the open
air were covered with bruises and con.
tusions. DIR. Malcolmson witnessed one
in India, in 1881, in which large bird:
were killed and cattle injured. These
hail stones were fiat; n was ten inch,
es in circumference, and another
weighed two ounces. They plowed up
n gravel walk like n musket ball, passed
through glass windows, making a round
hole in them, but not cracking the
glass. Some of the earlier writers re-
cord numerous instances OF incredibly
large stones, which some scientists &C.
cept with considerable hesitation. 1t is
recorded that at Namarine, l.719. hail
stones. weighing six to eight pounds,
fell. In a Hungarian village, Putze-
mischief, May &. 1902, a stupendous
block of ice, which eight men could
moi move, and which weighed LOO
pounds. is said to have fallen. but the
tale NAV be set down as improbable as
well as that other one that during
the reign of Tippoo Sabib an ice-block
as big as an elephant dropped from
the clouds at S~eringapotam. Nor is
the story told in the Chronicle of
Rheims that on June "a, S23, a man of
ice fell from the skies fifteen feet across
and six feet thick to be received with
implicit faith. Yet Missionary Father
Hue claims to have witnessed a terrible
storm, which occurred somewhere in
Tartary in 1S43, during which an ice
block of the size of a milestone dropped
near his dwelling. and though the
weather vas warm, it took three days
for il to melt.
Floods are sometimes preceded by
tremendous hail-storms. Nillaret re-
lated that i'm 1860 an inundation caused
by a hail-storm killed horses in the
English camp at Bretigny. Their
number may be thought exaggerated.
but it is perfectly authentic that during
a terrific hail-storm which befell the
small town of Benerungen, in Hanover,
the floods, consisting of hail and water.
which rushed down a slOping eminence,
overturned a heavy cart drawn by four
horses. and swept it along with them
into the Weser. The torrent rushed
with such impetuosity into the small
town that it blocked the gates at the OPP
posite end by raising an ice dam before
them and inundated the streets at diff
ferent elevations.
There are many curious and uneX-
planned facts. 1t halls Oftener at Mont
'pelier. Philadelphia and Rome during
the tropical heat of the summer months,
and not at all in the lowlands of Brazil
or Guiana. In the higher mountainous
regions of the equatorial zone hail is not
unusual. In Cumonia hail is unknown,
but in Caracas, which is 200 feet high
er. a hail-storm takes place every five
years. Humboldt speaks of a hail-storm
on the Chimborazo at a height of 7,40O
feet, and hail has been observed in the
Abyssinian mountains and highlands of
last Indies. In the temperate regions,
on the contrary, hail is more frequent
in the lowlands than in mountainous
countries. In Cressier, neal the Lake
of Neufchatel. the damage 10 the vine
yards is often serious, while at Signi-
enes, which is 1900 feet higher ON the
slope of Chaument, hsilstorms are rare.
In the high valley of Travers it rains at
the time when hail-storms burst over
the mountain slopes situated lower
down. Sometimes insignificant cir
cumstances determine the appearance
of hail. Near the village of Casaiboro.
in Naples. there was formerly a high
hill to the northwest covered with
woods, and hail storms were unknown.
But since the hill has been removed to
make way for the pillow and the forests
cleared away, hail storms occur each
year. There are some curious phe-
nomena connected with hail storms.
The N of yesterday illustrated some
OF these. There were pauses between
the hail stones in which the rainfall
was severe. Kaenitz observed this
phenomena He says that at the be-
ginning of the severest storm he ever
witnessed there fell some large drops
OF rain; these o o ceased, and after a
short interval there fell hail stones
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