The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-03-17
How Cold Waves Travel.

COD waves, so called4a name for
winch we areindebted toreccnt meteoro-
logical science--do not appear to move,
IN some instances, much faster than a
railroad express train. They vary, how
ever, in their rate of motion. Where do
tney come fromp 1t is not easy to SAY.
IL might be found, if one could travel
AZ express train speed from the mount
ans OF Montana and the frozen regions
farther north, that the cold continued
all the way to eastern Alaska, and on to
behring Strait, with even greater de.
gree OF intensity. In fact, the coolest
region is probably the wide expanse west,
ana especially northwest of Hudson's
bay, In the neighborhood of the mag
netic pole. A .'cold wave' is a wave of
heavy air, following the rare6ed track of
''low barometer" and changing the
raretled track and milder atmosphere
(Which is usually also stormy to one of
clear, cold skies; heavy air, full of tonic
power, and exhilarating and hunger
producing to sound and healthy animal
lie. The establishment of the modern
Government weather observation sta
tons, with their appliances, including
the electric telegraph and the daily
press, has enabled the country to see and
comprehend something of the move
ments of these frequent cold waves. The
, movement is as marked as the advance
tOf veritable sea wave. 1t is one of the
Oppressive facts of meteorological phe-
Ihomena. The telegraph heralds its
.s.SrtA from the Rocky Mountains
M always sonns to begin there,
though in fact it rarely does-hav-
ing its origin much farther north
and its advance can be timed like
that OF a railroad train. Its speed
varies from forty to sixty. or sometimes
even seventy miles an hour; usually it
would eem about fifty. 1t rolls over
the country, real wave, an aerial coun-
terpart, on the shore, of its congener,
the tidal wave of the ocean; and its di-
rection is Usually from the northwest to
the southeast. 1t sweeps slowly down
from the fozen wastes of the Asiatie
shore, and the equally rigid wilds of the
American mainland in the Arctic circle,
to our Atlantic coast-in breadth reach
ing all the way from Nova Scotia to Cape
Hatteras, and frequently making its
chill presence ielt as far south as Florida.
The Bermudas which lie just south of
the Gulf Stream, little over six hun
dred miles almost due east of Charles
ton-fel the Influences of our "cOld
waves very peceptibly. That solitary
little group of small, low-lying coral
islands, which can be reached by steamer
from New York in the same time it
would take't to 60 to Savannah, happen
to lie on the leeward side of the Gulf
Stream; and that great thermal current
of the ocean forever saves them from
frost and keeps them in spring foliage
all winter; but, while it finely tempers
and modifies the north wind, it cannot
quite rob it of all its intrinsic character
and the result isa wind that may be at
times cool and frequently boisterous,
but never really cold; and those lonely
islands, surrounded by wide-reaching
coral reefs, have all winter a pleasant
climate of spring. That is almost all
that they, or the more southern islands
of the Bermudas, ever know of our win
ter ''cold waves" These come in an
almost rhythmical succession, and have
their causes, doubtless, as potent as those
of the oceans tides, which they strik-
ipgly resemble. Boston Transcript.