San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-17
ANTONIO TEXAS, FRIDAY. OCTOBER II. 1890.
The Gulf Stream and the Weather

Inc peculiar meteorological cOnOl-
tions of last summer had the effect of
bringing out numerous theories in re-
gard to the share of the gulf stream
in the vagaries of the weather. In q
recent article on this subject Mr..
Jacques w. Roadway points out how
this physical feature of the ocean
has been persistently misrepre-
scented in literature. That the bed
and banks of this current are the
cooler littoral waters of the western.
Atlantic shore is q statement which
has been proven to be untrue. The
theory that the entire force of the
current enters the Gulf of Mexico
and makes a complete circuit of it has
been discredited by geographers, who
have shown by careful survey that
little II any of the stream enters that
gulf; but that on the contrary the
whole force of the current enters the
Florida strait. So, also, it has been
shown that instead OF the Gulf Stream
eXerting an ameliorating effect on the
temperature of the shores of Europe,
no part of 1t ever reaches them.
The Gulf Stream as a current really
begins at Florida strait and ends
somewhere near the Grand Banks,
but the DRIFT from the stream is
pushed by the prevailing westerly
winds and spreads over the western
part of the North Atlantic. Lieut..
Pilsbury has shown that high winds
do not interfere with either the veloc-
ity, position or direction of the
stream. The finding in the last few
years of patches of stream drift
closely packed against the east
ern shores of the Middle and
North Atlantic states had led to
. fear that the gulf stream has shifted
to position nearer the shore, and
that in consequence our climate was
q gradual change. But
Mr.. Roadway points out that there has
been a systematic and periodic
change in certain of the elements of
the stream ever since it had an exist
ence; and he argues that the assump-
ton that in a very long period of time
the procession of the equinoxes may
effect the position and direction of the
line of maximum flow, Is q question of
theory and not of fact.
AS to the influence of the Gulf
Stream on American weather, Mr.
while admitting that there
Is a remarkable correspondence be-
tween the track of this current and
the cyclones of the North Atlantic,
as serts that positive proof of any con
nection between the two phenomena
is lacking. The records of the
Weather Bureau show that during
the summer months when the current
of the Gulf Stream is putting forth
it's greatest strength, the cyclones
come most frequently; and it is posi-
BILE that the excess of moisture which
hovers along the track of the stream
man be the fuel to which the cyclones
owe their energy. The accumulation
Of the drift of the current along the
coast may also effect our sea.
board weather. During the hot and
moist July of 1887, Gulf
Stream drift was almost heaped
along our eastern shores. The es-
of stations at the Bermu-
das and the West Indies would
greatly aid in the task of securing
data of Importance in regard TO the
subject, and the laying of a cable be-
tween Bermuda and Halifax is q step
in advance. If the connection of &C
cumulated stream drift with coast
weather be granted, there is no rea-
son why forecasts of certain condi-
lions of weather may not in time be
made with as much certainty as
those of the storms which travel
across the continent.