The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-06
THE GREATAUGUsTR RAIN.
The Immense Quantity of Water Which
Fell Over Wide Area.

/ The Immense Quantity of Water Which
Fell Over Wide Area.
From the Hartford (Ct.) Times.
It is not easy for anybody to real
ize, or even to correctly imagine, the
vast amount of water which is pour
ed out of the sky in q great August
rain, like this one which during the
first three Or four days of the present
month has de1uged so many and so
widely-separated parts of our country.
It is not easy to understand in the
realizing" sense, however fully we
may comprehend the fact intellect
ually, how so mulch solid water can be
supended In the form OF invisible, va
por in the air. True it is no longer
invisible, when it has been condensed
in the form of heavy rain clouds, but
it was all there, invisibly--somewhere
in the wide realm of air-before IL be-
came thus condensed Take the
ending part of that great storm
for am example-what must have
been the actual amount of water
that was poured down.. from Chicago
to Maine; from Maryland and the
Ohio to- the White. Mountains? It
rained seemingly as never before. IN
all those regions. Throughout the
greater part of the Middle States it
made destructive river floods. In the
region about Chicago it amounted to
precipitation Of about five and one
half inches, In Maryland it was not
much less, and New York State re-
ceived it's share of the general drench-
ing. Here in Southern New England the
downpour was such as was never ex-
ceeded- -ifindeed it was ever equaled. In
this immediate region the rainfall in one
continuous rain, from Monday after
noon to 3 O'Clock Tuesday morning,
amounted almost to 6 inches. The
great October rain, of the LIST and I'd
Of October, 1869, which such ruinous
work throughout Connecticut (chiefy
by the immense precipitation on. the
second day., did not exhibit such q
steady and tremendous downpour as
that of Tuesday, August 4, 1885, be-
tween the hours of 1 and 3 O'Clock
in the morning. The volume. Of this
August rain is shown in the flooded
streams, which everywhere continue
to be flooded long after the usual time
for rain floods to. disappear: The
Connecticut rives itself has kept rising
for q day and half after the storm,
the rain having added about six feet
to It's height. 1t was heavy rain in
the White mountains, the gauge at the
Signal Service station on the summit
showing four and one-half inches.
This great rain came inland from
the Gulf of Mexico. Following the Mis-
sissippi valley northward, the storm
was central at Detroit. It extended
eastward all the way from the Missis-
sippi river to the Atlantic seaboard-
pouring as huge a flood upon New
England as upon most of the great in
termediate breadth of country.
1t is impossibleto estimate anysuch
quantity ofwater. Even of the amount
that was poured out upon our own
little State, it is impossible to- get any
adequate idea. If we We're to imagine
the area of Connecticut to be aperfect-
ly fiat, level surface; and the. average
amount of rain for that one storm to
be'not five, but not quite three inches
what, then, would be the aggregate
quantity of water that was emptied
from the clouds upon our area of not
quite 5000 square miles? Who can
get any adequate conception 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 the area, coverssle re-
lative space than % dinner-plate on @
big dinner-table. It was almost as if
the great lakes had burst their bounds
and simultaneously emptied them
selves upon the. country on this side.