The St. Johns herald., 1890-04-24
Storms and Storm Science.


 continent, dealing death and de } struction to man and the work o his hands in so many places owe so vast region, is naturally { | theme of the greatest interestto al classes, from the fabricator of tn,
 most learned and elaborate scienti
 fic theories to the comm0nest anC
 most unlcttered observer. In all
 the theorizing about it, there is
 much that is useful and interesting
 but also much that is absurd and senseless. These tornadoes, turn. ing and twisting winds, are formed on the great plains east of the Rocky Mountains by the collision of opposing winds from the north and from the south. The relative forces of the two winds striving to- gether will determine whether the storm will originate at a point far ther north~0r farther south. When two such opposing air currents meet, the composition and resolu- tion of their forces produce whirl- ing or vorticose motion which in the northern hemisphere is always with the rotation of the earth from west to east and contrary to the movements of the hands of a watch. In the 70 lthern hemisphere it is from east to west, or with the hands of watch. A revolving storm form ed upon the plains might move to the westward but for the barrier of cold, dense air upon the Rocky Mountains, which constitutes a wall it cannot cross. Its only way of escape is then toward the east, following the line of lowest pressure. These storms never get as far south as New Orleans or as far north St, Paul, but they are often heard of near St. Louis, and are most com mon in the middle region. With out doubt there are storm periods just as tbere are fool and earth quake periods, because there are evidently seasons when there is an unusal prevalence of conditions which predispose to atmospheric and telluric disturbances, just as there are also times when these arc peculiarly absent. Weappear now to be in a period when these condi- tions are markedly present and the forces that produce them are dis
 tinctly active. Is there anything which man has had to do in chang ing the face of the country that can influence the course of a tornado? This is a question often asked but difficult to answer satisfactorily. It has been claimed that the cutting down of forests, the blowing of ex- tensive areas of land, the laying of railway tracks and telegraph wires. the erecting of cities and towns and the charging of the atmosphere with their smoke and vapors, all tend to influence meteorological conditions 10 the extent even of changing the climate, altering the rainfall, and the like. Just what effect these works of man can have on the forces that operate in the atmosphere, in the earth itself, or in the waters of our globe, does not appear. One thing is certain, how ever, and that is that many of the phenomena of a storm are electric. It is easy enough to believe that violent wind rushing over the coun- try would by it's friction generate vast body of electricity, which goes with the storm and to a large eX- tent assists in producing it's most potent effects. If storm charged with a particular sort of electricity should come in touch or in reach of objects, houses, cities, tracts of country, bodies of water also in spired or loaded with the same electricity, the storm would avoid them and sheer off to objects and places to which it would be electric ally attracted. This Is an assump-