The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-08-09
ODDITIES OF STORMS.
Peculiar Facts In Regard to That Which
We Call "The Weather"

we Chh 'lho "ehthef'
The horizontal limits of the mad air
currents called storms are equally cir
cumscribed. Travellers on a sunny
plateau on the Alps may often see
thunder shower sweep through the
forests of the foothills, and aeronauts
have now and then contrived to rise
above gale and reach the cloudless
calm of the upper air strata. That
venture, however, requires meteoro-
logical experience and the selection OF
the right moment, the chances being
that the balloon will be caught In a
descending air current and hurled
earthward with force which no sacri'
fee of ballast can counteract.
"We passed through the muck into a
region of drifting mist" says the
meteorologist Walker, 'and looking
down, as it were, into the caldron OF
the weather witch, where gray clouds,
blue clouds and black clouds were
whirling about without mingling, each
mass Of vapor apparently with pur.
pose of its own and all in strange
silence There being no solid obstacle
10 p,yduce a sound). Then suddenly,
rs II IL obedience TO given signal,
the gloomy phantoms fell into the
wake of leader that indicated the di-
recti5n of a master current and
streamed away together, swiftly
smooth first, then heller skelter, in a
mad rush for precedence. Their initial
velocity OF forty miles an hour, quickly
doubled, and could bless my stars for
the impulse that had prompted me Ia
rise in the nick of time. With five
minutes delay would have blundered
into the drift of that aerial maelstrom
and been at the mercy Of its ftful
rage"
Prof Donaldson committed that mis-
take on the trip that cost his life, to
gether with that of the Detroit re
porter who had volunteered TO record
the adventures of the cloudland expe
dition. AS viewed from terra firma the
storm squall overhead lasted only q
few minutes, but the fleeing clouds
maintained their rate Of speed lonf
enough TO exhaust the life saving re
sources OF the aeronauts.
"The most exasperating thing abou
shipwreck," says an old sailor, III
not the storm itself, but the spell o
excellent weather that is almost sur'
TO set in as soon as the irreparabl'
mischief Is done"
Such weather followed the squal
that accomplished the destruction o
the steamer Gelderland, and after |
brief dance of triumph the fatal water
spouts subsidized and the sun shone ou
on an almost unruffied sea.
The "water riders" rs the Hol
landers call them, had boiled mp iron
light ripple and seemed to pursue tn
doomed vessel through all its zigzaj
attempts at escape, and with simila
persistence the sandwhirls Of the Sa
hara often appear to chase fleeing cara
vans. The origin Of these phenomen
is as obsctte as their law Of motion.
On the plateaus Of our southwestern
border states the most furious whirl
winds often fail to raise the sand NOR
than few feet above the level Of tn
plain till suddenly, perhaps an hou
after the crisis OF the storm, great Co
umns rise TO height Of hundre
yards, and swaying from side to sid
waltz about like tipsy giants, butt an
and elbow one another, try to sit dow
in mid-air, and at the approach Of
mischievous playmate straighten u
, again, then Of sudden, ss II tired {
their uncouth sport, fall all Of hea
and refuse TO rise, even II the stori
should revive with ten-fold fury.-r
Y. Advertiser.