Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1889-12-13
The Wind Makes the Weather.

When weather prophets can predict
the force and direction of the wind,
and the angle at which the upper and
lower currents will cross each other
at any fixed date in the future, they
will then be in position to indicate the
character of the weather or enable any
other close observer of meteorological
phenomena to do the same; until
then weather prophets can be classed
with fortune-tellers and astrologists.
The following general signs and
indications will enable those interested
IN the weather to approximately de-
termine what it will be q day or two
! in advance with as much accuracy as
the Government Signal Service can
foretell it for any specified locality.
Weather prophets may predict months
In advance, but there is no scientific
warrants for so doing, and all pretcn-
ses to that effect are mere humbug.
The rules given below are based on
scientific principles, and have been
confirmed by close observations
through a series of years, by Milton
George, publisher of the Western Rural.
The first preparation for storm of
any kind is inevitably a southerly
wind, which means anywhere from a
southeast to southwest wind. The
elimination of the storm will usually
be in proportion to the force and dur
alton of the wind. This wind being
warm the air is thereby expanded and
is thus made capable of holding in re-
tention the moisture evaporated by
the suns rays and the warmth of the
winds. The atmosphere being made
lighter by expansion, ascends and car
ries the moisture with it until it meets
a colder current, or one which crosses
the heated current at some angle, in
which case the moisture is precipitat.
cd in rain-storm by the cold condens-
ing the rarefied vapor-laden air.
A clear sky always precedes a severe
storm within fOrty-eight hours. A
reasonable duration of the clear sky
lntenslfies the abundance of the rain
fall. In the summer time all succu.
lent plants become barometers by
dropping their leaves, with or without
lock of moisture in the soil, for the
reason that rapidly-expanding atmos.
phere takes from the vegetation the
nourishment which the air partially
supplies. A large quantity of elec.
tricity is taken up with the moisture
from the earth; when the rain begins
to fall the electricity is set free, which
accounts for thunderstorms-and
doubtless materially aids in the devel-
opment and force of the tornado.
There is a perpetual upper current
moving from westerly direction,
varying from the N. w. to S. W.;
when the lower current moves exactly
parallel with it there will be no rain
until there is change, so that occa-
sionally, during periods of drouth, a
southwcsterly wind will not bring rain,
even if it blows for days from that di-
rection, because the upper current is
moving exactly in the same direction.
A northwest wind never brings rain.
We frequently have protracted rain
storms with the wind in the northeast,
but the conditions which prepare the
way for the storm were developed by q
southerly wind, and the rain would
cease the instant the general tempera-
ture was cooled to that of the north
west wind. A northeast wind is per-
haps the driest wind we have, for the
reason that it is continually meeting
a warmer air capable of holding in re-
tentiOn the evapOrated moisture by
its rarefac ton until carried into the
Southern Ocean. The only method
of detracting the direction of the up
per currents is by observing the thin
strata of clouds that are moving in
lofty attitudes.
The air at thirty-twO degrees Fahren-
heit or freezing point can hold 16Oth
of its weight in moisture; for every
rise of twenty-seven degrees in tenn
perature its capacity for absorbing
moisture is doubled. Therefore storm
manifestations of an intense character
must be accompanied by considerable
heat. TOrnadoes and cyclones are
sometimes perpendicular to the plane
of the earth's surface; at others they
are horizontal to it, in which case their
terrific powers are expended harmlessly
in the upper air. with this one prob
able exception, which is when this rO-
tary movement of the atmosphere car
ries the rain again and again high up
into the cold strata of air, until at last
it is frozen into hail, in which condi-
ton it falls to the earth. Hailstones
cannot he reasonably accounted except
on the hypothesis Of rain storm be-
ing caught up by horizontal whirl-
wind.
THE Puyallup Valley Railroad right
Of-way issue again came up for consid-
Grafton Monday, and was systemati-
cally administered a black eye. 1t
mot the same fate "a at the nraviOus