Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-11
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Some Facts About tile Extraordlnary Con-
ditIon of the Storms Of May 81.

Some Facts About tile extraordinary Con.
ditIon of the Storms Of May 81.
ONE of the features of the Johnstown dis
aster which is sure to come into greater prom
inence as the inquiry into the causes of the
bursting of the South Fork dam becomes more
searching. is the extraordinary weather for the
week ending June l. The weather for several
days prior to May 81 was especially remarkable
upon the ridges of the Alleghenies and through
the valleys starting from the eastern slope of
those mountains.
Some of the figures Of the barometric re-
ports have been given, and it has been the
custom of everybody who desired to demon
strate the adequacy of the dam under ordinary
circumstances to lay stress upon the immense
proportions of the rainfall in the water she'd
of the South Fork lake and the streams that
fed it before the disaster, but yesterday con-
siderably more than mere figures or broad as
sertions based upon them happened to be
brought to my notice by the Rev. Mathew B.
Riddle, of the Western Theological Seminary.
81
DR.. RIDDLE was passenger upon the linn
tied Eestbound from New York on that awful
Friday. The limited as will be remembered,
did not get further west than Lillys, less than
20 miles east of Johnstown. 1t was then sent
back to Altoona. But of the train and its pas
sengers there is nothing new that need be told
here.
Dr. Riddle tells me that the Susquehanna
and the Junlata were amazingly high at the
time he passed them. But he was particularly
struck with the immense banks of black
clouds which lay along the Blue Ridge and
every other succeeding range of mountains
that he encountered till the crest of the Allie
ghenies had been left behind.
The clouds that were SO massed seemed to be
motionless. Most of the time it was raining
Il.
of the signal service show to have been the con-
dition of the atmosphere for more than 4S
hours previous.
FROM what DR.. Riddle suggested, but which
he wished to be understood is not his posi-
tive assertion upon a full knowledge of the
facts, added to the memoranda of the signal
service officers in this city, it appears to me
that the following should serve to prove conclu-
sively that there were rains and storms of unpre-
cedented violence and under almost unparal-
leled conditions, on the Alleghenies to the east
ward. and over field oblong in shape, stretching
from the Potomac near Falling Waters, W. Va,
to Buffalo in the North and Albany in the East.
On the 9th of May an area of barometric de-
preston made its appearance in the South
west. and steadily moved upward and eastward
until it seems to have concentrated upon the
Alleghenies on May 80. 1t would have trav-
eled eastward then, but it was opposed by the
high barometrie condition of the atmosphere
on the Atlantic coast. The winds were blow
ing from the west, where high barometer ex-
listed also. Thus, as 1t were, there was no out
let for the storms in the area of low barometer.
They hung suspended over the Alleghenies
and its eastern valleys principally, but tapping
over sufficiently to contribute to the western
watersheds of Pennsylvania great mountain
range. And while the storm clouds were piled
along the mountain sides and crests by the law
of nature, the moisture was sucked in from the
sea coast where the barometer was high. Thus
were caused the loDg-continued rains and
cloudbursts which resulted in the floods on the
Susquehanna and Juniata.
1t should be remembered that if the South
Fork dam had not broken there would have
been no high water Of o startling character in
the Allegheny or the Conemaugh. The heaviest
part of the storms fell on the eastern side of
the Alleghenies, although so close to the divid-
ing line that the sources of such streams as the
South Fork in some instances were affected by
the deluge.
80
THERE does not appear to be full authority
yet for the statement that the rainfall in the
neighborhood of South Fork was 6H inches on
May 81. The last telegram received from the
lady who furnished the Signal Service river
report from Johnstown was that at IL o'clock
midday ~ inches of rain had fallen. But it is
established beyond a peradventure that the
rainfall on the mountains was extraordinary
DR.. Riddle says that the conditions which kept
the area of the depression so long at stand
still almost above the Alleghenies and Central
Pennsylvania were such as are not likely to oc-
cur more than once in so years.
"a
In some places the storms were of different
character. At Falling Waters, W. Va, for in
stance, cyclone wind storm scooped the water
of the river. In the regions in which we are
now so vitality interested it was the steady
downpour of rain upon the ground, already
soaked beyond its capacity to absorb, that
caused the trouble. HEPBURN JOHNS.