St. Landry democrat., 1889-01-26
Temperature North and South.

Temperature North and South.
The American.
An old proverb says: at is an i'll
wind that blows nobody good. The wri-
ter proposes, briefly, and, of course, i'm
perfectly, to apply the doctrine of compen-
sation implied in the above to one phase
only of the subject of temperature north
and south.
1t is popularity, if not generally, believed
that it is hotter in the South than in the
North, because. in the former region, the
days are longer than in the latter and the
sun has longer time, therefore, to heat
up the earth.
But this is only a half truth, which,
taken with the other half, is no truth at
all and so far as the summer season is
concerned, is the reverse of the truth.
The writer has computed for this article
the extreme length of days and nights for
the ATTITUDES of 30, 354, 4Ot, As and 49,
The parallel of 30, it will be noticed, pass
es very near New Orleans, New Iberia and
Abbeville, and but few miles south of
Lake Charles. The parallel of 40! passes
through middle Illinois, northern Missou-
ri, etc. With sufficient accuracy, the
longest day in latitude 30 is IA hours of
course the shortest night is 10 hours,
making "a hours of both day and night.
In latitude 354 the longest day is AZ
hours in latitude 404 it is Is hours in
latitude 45 iDrs 15t hours, while in lati-
tude 49, it is no less than Is hours long.
1t is proper to observe that the relative
diff 'snce in the length of the days and
rfanet is more than twice as great as the
dilute difference. For example, the 10
ickdrs of night at New Orleans is accom-
=; o.nied by IA hours of day If in the same
.atio, then 8 hours of night in northern
Minnesota would have but little over II
hours of day, while, as matter of fact,
the hours of night go with Is hours of
day.
1t is not surprising then that in the
north the mercury shows liz or hotter,
while here it shows scarcely more than
So or OF.
In the winter, though, all this is re-
versed. Then the sun describes a short
arc far to the southwark, and remains for
IS hours or so, out of sight. But for be-
lief in the constancy of nature, it would
be as difficult for denizen of the North
to believe, when the sun is far out of sight
in cold dreary winter night. that he will
ever rise, as for one on board ship in the
hollow of the deep waves to believe that
the ship will ever reach the succeeding
crest. But finally the succeeding day dawns.
Not, however, till the long, cold night
has far overmatched the suns upbuilding
power of the preceding day. So each to-
is more dreary than the day be-
fore the winds are colder and the ice
is thicker.
In this way the apparent struggle goes
on until the long nights are sufficiently
shortened and the short days sufficiently
to enable the sun to match the
powers of darkness, as it were. When
the sun has gained sufficient advantage
the billiards again disappear for
season ~; the SHOWS melt, and the icC.pal
by the hopeful to cheer
The hopeless. and to give notice to the out
side world that the winter was made for
ice palaces-crumble, and all is serene
again.
Of course there are many causes effect |
ng the temperature, such as the eleva- |
ion above the sea, the direction of the
wind, the position of the country with ref
srence to large bodies of water, ocean cur
'ents, etc. But the purpose of this article |
IS simply to indicate in general way the
effect of the length of days on tempera-
ure, and at the same time correct a popu-
ar error, P. H. p.