New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-09

IN ABUNDANCE OF CYCLONES.

Tidinrs are Just received Of typhoon when
swept the coast of Japan on September ii, level
ling hundreds OF buildings in Yokohama alone,
unrooting numberless trees, and working damage
estimated at millions Of dollars. At about the
same time the Province of Xii, where $4,000 LIES
were lost by floods in August, was visited by
fresb disasters Of the same kind no doubt super
induced by the storm which visited Yokohama
and while this catastrophe did not match that
~ the previous month in extent, at least l,23e
nersons were killed and 5,557 houses utterly
DESTROYED, besides the flooding of 32,44l more
dwellings, which made a large population nome
less Volcanic action was noted in the vicinity
and one mountain is said to have split, an ava
lanche therefrom damming O river and conducting
to the awful inundation
To those who any significance In weather
condolences IL will be interesting to observe that
on September IL the coasts OF NewJcrsey and
Long Island were suffering from like visitation
The American storm, however, has been traced
hack by the photographic Office to Santa Cruz, In
the West Indies, where it was seen September 8,
although on the 18th or sth, while off Hatteras, 1t
oppears TO have acquired new intensity. The his
tory of the disturbance in Japan is not, at this
time, known. But it probably started In the
Western Pacific in low ATTITUDES, moved westward
and then recurved to the northeastward, pre-
ciselv as our West India hurricanes do. 1t might
easily have been several days old when the lati-
tude Of Japan was reached.
Some of the sunspot theorists have been dis
nosed 70 think that the minimum stage in the
cleven-vear spot-cyce was marked by fewer OF
these tropical storms than the maximum period
Inst now we are very near the minimum once
more the last one having been passed in Novem-
Der. 1873, and the maximum, much elongated,
had its crest in February, 1884. But to
casual observer it looks as If hurricanes had
bred quite as freely this season as for any OF
the last five or six Since the middle Of August
six or seven of these storms have come from tho
West Indies: while at least three on the Asiatic
coast have been formidable enough to be reported
by cable and doubt Others have occurred
which either were less severe, kept far enough
ont at sea in their parabolic journey to have
no serious effect on either the continent adjacent
islands.
This storm activity is to some extent, of course,
n measure OF the suns heat this past summer.
IL is we'll known that ocean temperatures are
highest a month or more after the maximum on
land, or late in August. The trade winds sweep
the surface water westward on both the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans; so that the hottest places
in these two caldrons are in the Caribbean Sea
and the Gulf of Mexico in this hemisphere, and
just of the Philippines and New-Guinea in the
other In these places, in August, the tempera-
ture often reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit. There,
as in n similar area in the North Indian Ocean,
between July and November, are developed the
worst storms known to meteorology. The highest
authorities in that science regard heat and
humidity as the prime agents in originating
storms Hence the number and severity Of
cyclones and typhoons depends very largely upon
solar energy
With the suns movement south of the equator
every autumn the special conditions that pro-
mote the formation of these storms on this side
of the line abate somewhat and the tropical
storms are apt to grow scarce from that time
on 1t is reasonable, therefore, within few
weeks to a close of the in both Asiatic
and American waters, although the storm which
was in the Gulf of Mexico late last week shows
that the end is not yet