Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-08-11
THE CAUSE OF STORMS.
Unusual Atmospheric disturbances
the Result of Excessive sun Heat

| Unusual Atmospheric Disturbances
the Result OF Excessive sun Heat.
Our earth receives q small fractional part
of the SUMS heat; but whatever that may be
In the year. more or less than the average, tho
entire surface of our earth must feel aud be
subject to the effects, says Ths Pail Hal
Budget. And one thing is certsin-namely,
that year or series of years, Of excessive sun
heat will inevitably be years and seasons OF
excessive atmospheric disturbances, because
increase of heat will produce excess of eyap-
GRAFTON, excess Of electric action, and neces-
sarilY, excessive precipitation; and during q
prevalence of this excess of sun heat there
must be over limited areas violent storms
both summer and winter.
When very large areas Of the atmosphere have
been, by excess of heat brought into an une-
quail state, as large areas of lower stratum OF
highly heated air and vapor, which is also in
tensely electric, the conditions to produce
sandspouts, waterspouts, and tornadoes are
fully ripe. The upper and colder layer OF
the atmosphere can not 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 pine form, just
as the water In a tank or basin, having bot
tom means for discharge by pipe flows out
with whirling motion-in our northern hem
ispheres always i'll the direction of the hands
of clock, and SO the heated electric and ex-
cessirelT Yapor-laden atmosphere breaks into
the cold atmosphere above the level of the
s'dew point,n invisible yapor becomes visi bic,
parting with its latent heat which so rarifies
: 49, g, Il
mosphere In visible cloud, mounting thous.
ands of feet above the condensing dew point
and into region above the highest peaks Of
the highest mountains
To feed this pipe. or, as In some cases.
pipes, the lower stratum howes in from all
sides to rotate and ascend with intense veloc-
ity Of steam power, sufficient to produce all
the DISASTROUS effects of the widest tornado,
there being almost a vacuum ae 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. There are, also, records
of railway wagons having been blown off the
rails. In deserts entire caravans have been
buried beneath mountain of blown sand--
cameIs, horses aud men; while In Egypt there
are the ruins Of cities, massive temples and
monuments deep buried in the adjoining
desert sand. At sea many a good ship caught
BY tornado has been overwhelmed and sent
to the bottom whole.
There are milder forms Of the storm effect.
producing on warm summer day the eumu-
lus clouds. Here the lower stratum of warm
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 in sunshine like Illuminated oolpack
mountains, but when seen in an evening wes-
tern sky about shutdown the fantastic forms
so aptlY described by Shakespeare
Cloud scenery is the poets drcamland and
Is by some writers most truthfully and beauti.
July described. As a rule, painters do not pay
as much attention to clouds as the poets do
At all events, they do not represent them so
tFuthfuliy as the poets describe 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 any thing ever seen in ma.
| ture. Every painter should study meteor
| ology as a surgeon studies anatomy. Clouds
| have forms as definite as q skeleton.
Clouds are not masses Of unmeaning yapor
| but form and float obedient to law; and, II the
| painter has not studied and learned this law,
he cannot depict clouds In their true forms.
On a warm summers day small cumulus
clouds may be seen forming at the dew point
line of elevation; In each case the base of the
cloud is level at an ascertainable height above
the site, having an upward current of warm
vapor-laden air rising beneath, mounting and
bullying.