Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-14
ARE SNOW STORMS OVER?
The Apparent Change Of Climate and
the Causes.

To the Editor of THE EVENING STAR:
/ would like to say few words in relation
to the theory of the notifications OF our eli
matte conditions during the last two or three
years. Sergeant Dunn has certainly won an
honorable record in the signal service. But
when he attributes our climatic changes TO
irrigation in the far west. he builds up theory
that will not stand investigation. And rs TO
the writer in the Philadelphia Press | doubt
the correctness of his views regarding the ac-
ceptation of such a theory by those whom he
terms The students of Washington"
That there is nothing better than irrigation
for arid lands everybody will admit but il is
| sheer nonsense to make il stand godmother for
our climatic changes. What would people
think of seeing a farmer taking a two-quart
watering pot in this weather to sprinkle l60-
acre farm. And yet the result of his labor
while perhaps it would not come up TO the irri-
CATION theory, would not be so very far be-
hind il.
lis true the storms have gone farther north
ward and the warm air has gone up from the
tropics-and it has gone. too, with dynamic
force-during last winter often at times when
there were no storms to the north OF us-and
its action has been a loosening of those COM
pact fields of ice in those regions where the
arctic store house is piled up with bergs. In
this same work the storm itself has played an
important part
WHY HAVE THEY GONE NORTH
But to the point. Why have those great
! winter storms gone farther north? Let us look
at the facts squarely and just as we find them
Heretofore at the 30th parable! of north lati-
tude the normal standard of barometric pres
sure generally prevailed. except when changed
by the eddylng wave of southern cyclone or
northern storm, which no sooner passed away
than ,nere was return TO the normal standard.
But this was all change last winter and in
very marked degree. On the signal Office map of
the United States We find tue barometer at San
ri Paso and ST. Augustine, Fla. marking
10 3O.2 1913. &C., which in meteorology
constitutes high" These highs have pre-
dominated last winter along the thirtieth par
allel and the warm air has run from them
steadily northward, on the Atlantic as well as
the Pacihc coast In other winters this air
would come laden with clouds. and the northern
storm coming in by way of Montana would dip
down TO Leavenworth. to Springfield. and to
CAIRO, 70 meet and gather up this storm mat
ter in order that its wasting energy might be
renewed as 1t coursed its way to the Atlantic
ocean. For the past two or three winters il
has been gradually changing from this. and
the storm course has been going farther north.
ana II 1t only keeps on there will be no need
OF dynamite to break up the northern ice
neids There is no doubt but that
THE METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF THE
UNITED STATES ARE CHANGING.
and that the change may be permanent is a
possibility, and the real cause of it is in the
fact OF the earth receiving more heat from the
sun than heretofore. OF this fact there can
be scarcely doubt, for we read last January
mat IN Australia, In the south temperate zone.
tne heat there III the sun was as high as
l4o fair. while here in the north temperate
zone at the same time it was ranging far away
above the normal winter standard. proving
concuslye!y that the earth was receiving an
abnormal quantity of solar heat. which caused
those large areas of southern high and
rolled back the storms northward to break in
all their furious intensity on the path of the
devoted vessels that run across the North At
lantlc. To attribute this change to western
irrigation would be mistake. Nature is not
cast IN that mold. And while recognizing the
great benefits to be derived from such wor it
Is preposterous to assume that it is already
making permanent change in our meteorol-
ogy. No, no. thousandfold greater are the
forces at work Ill natures universal laboratory
for the production of those changes in the
seasonlcal laws that have heretofore blessed
TINS terra hrma of ours.
The question arises,
WILL THE CHANGE BE FOR THE BETTER?
Will we be benefited by the change? We are
told that our winters will be semi-tropical and
that the days of cold waves and snow storms
are over. Therefore we may bid goodbye to
selghlng and skating, as the store house of cold
at the north pole will be abolished
Steamers plying on the new route from north
ern Greenland to Siberia via the north pole
Will pick up occasionally stray chunks of ice as
curios from the former land of the glacier.
The central states of America will no longer
have q monopoly in bananas. The tarantula
and his comrades will feel at home with US
and even Yellow Jack may be induced to come
nttie farther north and gracefully doff his
hat. THos. McC.Rr
1130 B street northeast