Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-25
HOT WINDS AND WHERE THEY
COME FROM.

! To the Editor of the Eagle
In the last few days have seen article
in the Kansas City Times and also in the
Globe Democrat, by Chas. Francis Ad-
ans on the Cause of Hot Winds" l
also noticed in a recent issue of the
EAGLE a comment on this article. It's
wonderful how mans name gives I'M
/ portance to contribution, which other
| wise would pass unnoticed. The learned
Mr.. Adams is writing about something
he evidently knows little about, and to
prove this last statement, write this.
/ The cause of hot winds as given by
said Adams is the vast uncultivated
lands in the Indian Territory and Texas
The EAGLE seems to think Mr. Adams
mistaken about the Indian Territory,
and that the cause of hot winds lies
| south and southwest and beyond the
territory. I think both theories are in
| correct.
| This year most all the weather damag-
| ing to crops in Kansas was dry. hot
weather but not windy; on the contrary,
unusually calm weather for Kansas. Hot
air is generated within the immediate
Vi WI 1t IGil. TWO
are necessary to have hot air, viz, a
clear sky and dry earth. The united
effect of these two conditions makes hot
alr-hot enough to absorb from the
growing corn all the moisture in it and
cause it to wither and die Now if the
theory advanced by Mr.. Adams was cor
rect-the farther west and south we go
in this state the hotter and dryer would
f,a Il no no h L.
would vegetation be burnt UP. But this
is not the case. In the extreme western
part of the state, particularly in Wich-
tia and Greeley counties, corn is green
and fresh today and is good crop. In
Harper county, lying southwest of here,
corn is a fairly good crop, being much
less injured by the heat. Was it not so
hot in Harper county? Did the ''hot
winds" coming from the territory and
Texas not strike Wichita and Greeley
counties? 1t rained in July in both
those places. Again, after the three or
four weeks of dry weather ending about
August 10 a very heavy rain fell in
Wichita, coming from the northwest by
way of Andale, Colwich, etc. On the
next two days, Saturday and Sunday.
there was hot air in Wichita. but was
counted very pleasant weather. No
body felt ''hot winds on either of those
days IN Wichita and any of us would
have been amazed to have felt hot air
with the streets muddy and the bitches
full of water. And yet on that same
Sunday there was the hottest and most
damaging wind of the season not to ex-
coed six miles south of Wichita and all
over the southern half of Sedgwick |
county. as evidenced by the statements
Of more than twenty persons made to me |
on the following Monday. According to
Mr.. Adams theory we must have hot |
Winds in Wichita when they had them |
in Oatville, ten miles away, and if we
did not have. his theory is exploded. |
Again. If you had sit at the |
north end of shaded open |
ing two hundred feet long /
the hottest day felt III Kansas in the last |
ten years, you would have felt no wind. |
Passing through the building or over the |
shaded ground this distance free from
the effect of either the sun or the hot,
dry earth, the air comes out cool. All |
these and many more facts prove to the
of most Kansas people that
it's dry earth and clear sky that makes
the air hot, and that either clouded sky
or damp earth will prevent hot air;
and that the dry, hot air that we some
times get comes not from some distant
land, but is made right where it is found
and where it does the damage. Conse-
quently when we have rain enough, and
frequently enough to keep the ground
where the crop is planted moist, there
will be no hot air to injure that crop.
True, if much wind is passing, it will alb
sorb the moisture from the ground soon
Pr; but with this modification, if Wichita
township had gotten rain in July once
week. sufficient to thoroughly wet the
ground, Wichita would have experienced
no hot air this summer, even though the
townships both north and south of her
might be burnt up. "Hot winds" is
nisnomer. This language leads people
% think that some unnatural wind. pc
;uliar to Kansas, sweeps over this state, ,
cooking vegetation, irrespective of local
conditions. This is far from true. Give
Is plenty of moisture in Sedgwick ,
county and the air will be as cool and
as Thousand miles farther
,ast. We simply get heated air as the
'esult of hot sumo clouds and a dry
,arth J. 2. CAMPBELL
If the author of the above will read {
he EAGLES editorial more carefully he !
will see that we asserted that the So
,alled hot winds are of local origin, or .
ocal radiation EAGLE. I