Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-26
HOW STORMS ARE MADE.
AN ATMOSPHERIC FUNNEL WHICH FORMS THE TERRIBLE CYCLONE.

FORMS THE TERRIBLE CYCLONE. Scientific Explanation of the Origin of
 Sandsrouts. Waterspouts and Tornadoes.
 Disastrous Effects-Some Milder Forms.
 The Poetic Side.
 Our earth only receives a small fractional part of che suns heat; but, whatever that may be in the year, more or less than S average, the entire surface of our earth nss-st feel and be subject to the effects And one thing Is certain-namely, that a year or series of years of excessive sun heat will in evltably be years and seasons of excessive atmospheric disturbances, because increase of heat will produce excess of evaporation. excess of electric action. and, necessarily, ex- cessive precipitation; and, during a preva- lence of this excess of sun heat, there must be over limited areas violent storms both summer and winter.
 WATERSPOUTS AND ToRNADoES.
 When very large areas of the atmosphere have been, by excess of heat, brought into an unequal state, as large areas of lower stra- tum of highly heated air and vapor, which is also intensely electric, the conditions to pro duce sandspouts, waterSpouts and tornadoeS are fully ripe The upper and colder layer of the atmosphere cannot cool the lower highly heated and vapor laden stratum so evenly and quickly as to prevent vents in the form of tunnels forming from the lower stratum to the higher stratum, and causing a rupture which takes place upward in pipe form, just as water in a tank or basin, hay ing bottom means for discharge by a pipe. flows out with a whirling motion-in our northern hemisphere always in the direction of the hands of clock, and so the heated, highly electric and excessively vapor laden atmosphere breaks into the cold atmosphere above when at the level of the 'dew point.n invisible vapor becomes visible, parting with its latent heat, which so rarefes the air as to force some of the condensed atmosphere in visible cloud, mounting thousands of feet above the condensing dew point and into a region above the highest peaks of the highest mountains.
 To feed this pipe, or, as in some cases, pipes, the lower stratum flows in from all sides to rotate and ascend with the intense velocity of steam power, sufficient to pro- duce ell the disastrous effects of the widest tornado, there being almost vacuum at the ground, or water line as the phenomenon may be on the land or over the sea On the land trees are twisted and uprooted, houses are unrOofed, solids of various kinds are lifted from the earth and human beings have been blown away like dead leaves
 
 having been blown off the rails. In deserts entire caravans have been buried beneath mountain of blown sand-camels, horses and men; while in Egypt there are the ruins of cities, massive temples and monuments deep buried in the adjoining desert sand. At sea many good ship, caught by a tornado, has been overwhelmed and sent to the bottom whole
 SOME WILDER FORMS There are milder forms of the storm effect producing on warm summer day the cumu- Jus clouds. Here the lower stratum of warm l air is also flowing inward and rising upward | beneath each cloud, condensing at the dew | point, parting with latent heat, producing | modified steam power, and so causing these | summer clouds to enlarge upward, bulge and | mount ill sunshine like illuminated woolpack mountains, but when seen in an evening | western sky about sundown they take fantas- | tic forms, so aptly described by Shakespeare. Cloud scenery is the poets dreamland, and | is by some writers most truthfully and beau | tifully described. AS a rule painters do not | pay so much attention to clouds as the poets | do. At all events, they do not represent them as truthfully as the poets describe l them There are, of course, exceptions, but in the Royal Academy exhibition just opened | there are many square feet of canvas painted on which the portion intended to mean sky | and cloud bears no resemblance to anything ever seen in nature. Every painter should study meteorology as surgeon studies anat- omy. Clouds have forms as definite as 6 skeleton.
 Clouds are not masses of unmeaning vapor,
 but form and float obedient to law; and, if l the painter has not studied and learned this l law, he cannot depict clouds in their true forms. On warm summers day small cumulus clouds may be seen forming at the | dew point line of elevation; in each case the l base of the cloud is level at an ascertainable
 height above the site, having an upward cur rent of warm, vapor laden air rising be-
 heath, mounting and bulging.-Pal Mall | Budget.