Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-08-08
The Great August Rain.

THE IMMENSE QUANTITY OF WATER WHICH
FELL OVEE WIDE AREA.
From the Hartford Comm Times. Aug. s.
1t is not easy for anybody to realize, or even
to correctly imagine, the vast amount of water
which is poured out of the sky in great Au-
gust rain, like this one which during the first
three or four days of the present month has
deluged so many and so widely separated parts
of our country. 1t is not easy to understand
comprehend the fact intellectually. how 50
much solid water can be suspended in the form
of invisible vapor in the air. True, it is no
longer invisible, when it has been condensed in
the form OF heavy rain clouds, but 1t was all
there, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in the wide realm
OF air-before. it became thus condensed
TAKE the ending part OF that great storm, for
an example-what must have been the actual
amount OF water that was poured down. from
Chicago to Maine, from Maryland and the Ohio
as never before, in all those regions. Through
out the greater part of the middle states 1t made
Chicago 1t amounted to precipitation OF about
512 inches. In Maryland 1T was not much less,
ana neT 9cfk state received Its share OF the
exceeded-if indeed it was ever equaled
one continuous rain, from Monday after
noon to three o'clock Tuesday morn
n ing, amounted aIm9s. to inches: The great
which made such ruinous work throughout
Connecticut, Chiefly by the immense precipita-
tIon Oh tue second Uay,1 OlQ not exhibit such u
steady and tremendous dOwnpOur as that OF
Tuesday, August 4, 1885. between the hours OF
/ and o clock in the morning. The volume of
this August raj II is shown in the flooded streams,
which everywhere continue to be flooded long
after the usual time for rain floods to disappear
The Connecticut river itself has kept rising for
day and half after the Storm the rain having
added about q feet to its height. 1t was heavy
rain in the White mountains, the gauge at the
Signal service station on the summit showing
Al, inches.
This great rain came inland from the Gulf of
Mexico. Following the Mississippi valley north
ward, the storm was central on Monday at De-
trOit. 1t extended eastward all the way from
the Mississippi river to the Atlantic seaboard-
pouring as huge u flood upon New England as
upon most of the great intermediate breadth of
country.
1t is impossible to estimate any such quantity
OF water Even of the amount that was poured
out upon Our own little state ii is impossible To
get any adequate idea. Ii we were 10 imagine
the area of Connecticut to be perfectly fiat
level surface, and the average amount OF rain
for that one storm, to bc not five, but not quite
three inches-what then, would be the aygre.
gate quantity Of water that was emptied from
the clouds uppn our area of not quite 5000
ception OF it? Emptied in the same time into
the worlds greatest river, it would affect the
volume OF the Amazon. And this for only one
little spot in the area of the actual dOwnpOur!
Connecticut, compared with that area, covers
less relative space than dinner plate ON /, big
dinner table. 1t was almost as II the great
lakes had burst their bounds and simutane.
ously emptied themselves upon the country on
this side.