Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-02-15
THAT PREDICTED STORM.
Professor Virgins Explains Why the
Storm Elements Went Astray.

Storm Elements Went Astray.
A special dispatch from Ottawa, Ont,
SAYS: ''The 9th of February has come and
gone without apparently leaving a trace
behind it to immOrtaliZe the name of Wig
gins. Reports from all parts of the cOun-
try state that with the exception of
strong winds in some localities the
weather has been generally fine. At
this morning Father Point was the only
place that reported a gale of wind. All
the other stations in Canada reported
fresh to strong nOrthwesterly winds. AT
D. m. fresh to strong winds from the
same direction prevailed throughout the
country. The wind at Father Point fell
to ten miles per hour. No storm was re-
ported anywhere.
s'Your correspondent called on Professor
Virgins tonight to get his explanation
as to the failure of his prophecy of the
great storm he predicted for to-day. The
Professor, although he had not heard the
general results of the weather over the
whole continent, seemed a little surprised
when told that the weather had been eX-
ceptiOnally fine everywhere.
GLOW do you account for the mistake in
your calculationsY was asked of the Pro-
lessor.
Il Will tell you in a few words. The
astronomical day begins at noon on tn e
meridian of London, and our day begins
at twelve at night. / overlooked this fact,
so that the side of the earth presented to
the planetary force was the opposite to
that which | gave. | did not notice my
mistake until this evening, so the storm
fell on the Pacific instead of the Atlantic.
made a similar mistake before with the
storm of last October, which was
so heavy upon the Philippine Is
lands, but corrected it, having dis
covered my mistake in time. This
is the first storm prediction | ever made
that did not take place. We will get the
tail end of the storm yet. 1t viii strike
heavily on the east coast of Africa, but
will be pretty well expended by the time
it crosses the Atlantic"
'sYOur predictions have certainly at
tracted a great deal of attention, but do
YOU not think that you will be the subject
of considerable censure from those who
have been influenced by your warnings 2"
81 may expect it. Yet l am the only
meteorological whom the world has pro-
duced that the public hold to single day
for the fulfilment of predictions. They
expect my storm to be over the whole
hemisphere at the same moment, and
seem ready to condemn one single failure,
treating me not 9s human but as divine"
s'You evidently did not cOnspire with
the elements, Professor, to insure the ful-
fllment of your predictiOnsW
"No; based my predictions on astrO-
nomical effects, and through the error L
referred to have miscalculated the result.
However, what is my loss is the worlds
gain. The failure of this storm removes a
world of responsibilities from my mind,
for the storm l predicted for March has
hung over me like a nightmare on account
of the terror that it has struck in the pub-
lie mind throughout the world, as in
stanced by that pile of letters l have re-
ceived, and if this storm had happened
hundreds anticipating the March storm
would have become insane through fear
of its results
"Will you now retire from the field as
IA weather prophet, PrOfessOrT'
eyes, as far as publishing letters in the
newspapers goes"