Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-03-14

TIE GULF STREAM.
three days Of January cotton blooms ap-
peared in Plaquemine parish. For three
and quarter months the total rainfall
has been but fraction over three inches,
or foot less than common; the city cis-
terms are generally dry, and the people
are using river water. By way of con-
ISOLATION, it is added that the ice factories
of the city are producing ice at the rate of
5000 tons q month, and can, if needed,
produce 500 tons a day, at cost of So a
ton.
In Charleston the mean temperature
for December was 60 deg. and the rain
tall less than a third Of an inch. If the
people were not afraid of late frosts,
they would agree to supply torthern
markets will early vegetables ten weeks
ahead of the usual time; and if the pres
ent weather continues cotton could be
picked in May instead of October At
Syracuse, n. y, garden roses have devel-
oped aud several sorts OF shrubs have
formed leaf, while the air has been
warmer generally than in any winter
since 1929. In all New England, save a
''thin skin" on a few of the most north
ern lakes, there is no ice, while on the
eastern end Of Long Island, which gets
the warm wave at its strongest, dande-
lions are in full bloom where the earth is
ordinarily hidden by snow.
Explanations abound. But they do
nos explain. 1t is, of course, known that
the winter storms from west 10 east,
or east-norheasr, are moving across the
continent in a track from 800 to 500
miles north Of the usual line and that,
as the storm center creates suction
drawing side winds .owards it, this OPP
crates to bring up warm winds from the
south: but why do the storms $50 much
further nortl2
The first explanation offered was the
now familiar oneJ the maximum Tor min
fmum) of sun spots. But that is COM
pletely demolished by the tecords for
many years showing no connection be-
tween sun spots and warm or cold
winters. An explanation just fan
cb'ul enodgi to make it popular was
that of the Gulf Stream; many cap
tains contend that it is gradually draw
ing nearer the Atlantic coast, and there
fore giving lis warm and foggy weather,
"quite English, you knaw." There are
three conclusive answers to that. First,
the matter is not so; the Gulf Stream
sways as moved upon by winds and
other currents, but its central line is
. lust where it was when first lo-
Gated in the charts. Second, England
and western Europe generally have
their usual winters And thirdly,
and most conclusive of all, the win
ter is even more abnormal west of the
Allegbanies, away up in the northwest
and at the west end of the Gulf of Mex
leo, than on the Atlantic coast. The
Gulf Stream is a big thing, but it could
not make green fields m Missouri in
January
i few supfv-scienufc people ne in
clined to fall back on the late Professor
James Walson'A fayorite theory: that the
earth, sun and solar system, in their
grand sweep through space. pass through
great belts Of heat and coId-great
zones which 6ll uucounted millions
of miles Of the interstellar void 1t is
now generally conceded that the iliimit-
able space through which the stars are
scattered about as thickly in proportion,
perhaps, as if hundred pin heads were
distributed over the state of Texas is
filed with some substance-eXtremely
tenuous. Of course, but still a substance,
or gas if YOU please. And it may well
be that it has great waves of heat through
which the whirling systems plunge.
Only, we cannot prove it jGst now.
Sergt. Dunn, the local weather official
of New York city, propounds a most
startling theory, and very plausible too;
but those who hear it for the tirsG time
win have to think while before they
can decide to be glad or sorry. His the
ory in brief is this, as outlined recently
in The New York Sun: The change is
permanent, the United States generally is
10 have milder winters, and the cause Ii