Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-11-20
HOW TO F0KETELL WEATHER.
signs which Careful Observers MAY
Rely Upon.

signs which Careful Observers May
Rely Upon.
A communication TO the Southern
/ Planter deals with the subject of
weather prognostics. Few intelligent
people can have any sympathy with
the so called prophets who oracHlarly
announce phenomena, giving dates,
occasionally making lucky hits, but
/ as often firing their random shots al
together wide of mark. That there is,
however, something in weather phil
osophy. intelligent persons will be
quite ready to concede, and they will
be in accord with the views of the
writer when he recommends the habit
of observation of natural phenomena,
which has been long practiced, its re
suits being handed down to us in the
homely weather proverbs with which
all are familiar. There is good ground
for belief that observations of this
kind will prove useful, the more so as
modern science enables us to give the
reasons, unknown to our forefathers,
for many phenomena, and thereby to
determine the value of indications,
by the association of causes with eff
fects, instead of following blindly
the perhaps erroneous observations of
others. An apt illustration of this is
furnished in the article under notice.
Persons really intelligent and not un-
informed have maintained that the
direction of the milky way changes
and intimates the course of the wind,
when, as every child to-day knows,
this film of white crossing the sky is
receivable by the microscope into
myriads of stars, whose position is, of
course, independent of terrestrial cur
rents. How this deeply idea
originated is a mystery, since it could
rot have come from observation.
Careful and intelligent study in the
field of weather phenomena would
undoubtedly establish many facts,
while it would dispel great many
errors and false differences; the
! knowledge gained would be besides of
practical interest and benefit to the
observer and to the community, pro-
vidgd the observations were recorded.
On This ground the writer's views
well deserve commentator. He says;
If one could read the signs each
day foretells the next; to-day is the
progenitor of tomorrow. When the
atmosphere is telescope and distant
objects stand out unusually clear and
distant, a storm is near. We are on
the crest of the wave, and the depres-
sions follow quick. 1t sometimes
happens that clouds are not so indie
alive of storm as their total absence.
La this state of the atmosphere the
stars are unusually numerous and
bright at night, which is also bad
omen. 1t appears that the transpar-
ency of the air is prodigiously increas-
ed when a certain quantity of water
is uniformly diffused through it.
Mouataneers predict a change of
weather when, the air being calm, the
Alps covered with perpetual snow,
seem on a sudden to be nearer the OBJ
server, and their outlines are marked
with great distinctness ON the azure
sky. This same condition of the at
mosphere renders distant sounds more
audible.
There is one redness in the east in
the morning that means storm; an
other that indicates wind The first
is broad, deep and angry; the clouds
look like an immense bed of burning
Goals; the second is softer and more
vapory. At the point where the sun
is going to rise, and in few minutes
in dvance of his coming, there rises
straight upward a rosy column, like
shaft of dyed vapor, blending with
and yet separated from the CLOUDS,
and the base of which presently comes
to glow like the sun himself The
day that follows is pretty sure to be
windy.
1t is uncertain to what extent birds
and animals can foretell the weather.
When swallows are seen hawking
very high, it is a good indication, be-
cause the insects upon which they feed
venture up there only in the most
ausplcious weather.
People live in the country all their
lives without making one accurate
observation about nature. The good
observer of nature holds his eye long
and firmly to the point, and finally
gets the facts, not only because he has
patience, but because his eye is sharp
and his inference swift. There are
many assertions, the result of hasty
and incomplete observation, such as,
for instance, that the way the
milky way points at night indicates
tue direction of the wind the next
day also, that every new moon indi-
Gates either dry or wet month.
There are many other stories about
the moon, too numerous to mention.
Again, when farmer kills his hogs
in the fall, if the pork is very hard
and solid he predicts severe winter;
if soft and loose, the opposite, over
looking the fact that the kind of food
and the temperature of the fall make
the pork hard or soft. Numerous
other instances could be cited to prove
that the would be shrewd farmer does
not interpret nature in the right way,
and that his conclusions, being hssty
and incomplete, are wrong; and until
he studies nature Understandings,
using a little more common sense, so
long will he be more or less under