The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1893-02-24
THE DESERT RAIN STORMS
a LAND OF MIGHTY oLoUDBURsTa
AND TORNADoES.
When the Dry Lakes Arc Filled
Floods That Sweep Away Miles
OF Railway Tracks.

OF Railway Tracks.
~ F oil the tales told by the white
Arabs Of the Mojave Desert
few will stir the mind of a
hardy tourists as DO those OF
= tho rain storms that now and then delupe
this arid region. For practical purposes
for the purpose of agriculture or the
amelioratiou of the ard atmos phere-it
Is rainless region. At intervals. of
years general, or what the weather
sharps would call blanket rain storms,
do prevail, aud then the desert becomes
thoroughly moistened and the brown,
hnrd.bakcd sand disappears under the
most luxuriant, fragrant charming
flowers imaginable. But in ordinary
years nothing of the kind is seen there.
And yet the tales Of the downfall of i'm.
mense masses of water arc to be heard
from every old Arab, and tho physical
evidence Of such downfalls are to be,
seen on every haud In journey across
tho region. Ono does not have to leave
tho railroads to see these evidences.
just east OF Mejave Station, in California,
the road runs Tor miles over mass of
what looks like yellow clay that has
baked and cracked in all directions
IN sight. It is cracked -shaes
Of earth, that looks so much like the
bottom Of the dried -out ponds to be
seen in the East that any tenderfoot
would recognize 1t us the bottom Of
desert dry lake. The wayfarer who
drives across the desert finds these dry
lakes wherever there is bow-shaped
valley between mountain ridges, and
sometimes on what seems to be level
mesas. That these dry lakes arc occa-
sionally flooded need not be doubted,
for the water marks are visible.
But more impressive than the dry
lakes are the water marks wherever there
is canon or even depression leading
down from a mountain. In those canons
the tourist drives or rides along tho dry
bed of torrent invariably aud it is iu
such places rs these that the guide tells
his stories Of desert rain storms. The
usual season for these rains is, curiously
enough, the dry season, il one may be,
lieve them. While the sky is clear and
flaming hot black cloud appears uuex-
pectedly over some mountain crest, where
it sways about and Increases in volume
until its bottom strikes the mountain top,
and then, rs if pler:ed by lancet, II
releases such volume Of water as would
pass belief did not ono sec the work
done by the floods in every canon.
In the valley Of the Amargosa live, old
Cub Lee, man who for nearly thirty
years has made the desert his home. Hi
10 Of fhn al, l.
used by the workmen who gathered
bornx there. 1t stands under cliffs OF
clay that arc cut aud slashed ut frequent
intervals by deep assures running from
the river bed up toward the mouutaini
that rise on each side of the valley. Oue
day last winter he pointed to a mark
about three feet up on tho pcrpondicu.
lar walls OF the assures on the Funeral
Mountain side, and said:
fTfhe wa:sr came acwn sc deep cftGr
cloudburst up yonder one day last
summer"
The crest OF the Funeral Mountain
divide was thirty miles away. The near
est peak was not less than ten, while @
gradually rising mesa swept back from
tho immediate valley of the river for FIVE
or six miles to the foot of the nearest
peak. This storm had released its food
on the crests of mountains from ten to
twenty miles away, the water had flowed
down the canons between those noun
ta,ns, had poured ous over the mesa, had
filed the gulches and assures in its route,
and had at last rolled out through the
wide splits in tho river bank a solid wave
three feet high.
elbow long did the flood last9" was
asked.
"Perhaps twenty minute,-not a half
hour, anyhow"
"Did it rain in the valley7"
"Not drop"
AS described by Lee, this cloud was
not very much like the tornado common
to the prairie region east of the Rockies.
1t was not whirling storm, nor did il
travel away from the place where 1t was
formed, as tornado does. 1t was SIM
plya great mass of black vapor constantly
afame with zigzag lightning. 1t seemed
to gather tren endous bulk of water
from stratum of mir above the noun
tain tops, to swell in volume as it gath.
cred the water, and finally, when a
change Of conditions was created BY
touching the mountain tops, to release
its garnered floods instantly. The cloud
was streakcd with lightning until after
the mountains were embraced, and then
the flashes disappeared aud in short
time the cloud itself was dissipated.
Lee did not notice ony unusual wind
while the storm lasted.
The effects of these cloudbursis oan,
best be realized by a consideration of
some Of the authentic reports Of such
storms. For instance, a cloudburst In
the Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, on
June 10, 1884, flooded the valleys about
Rye Patch and badly damaged the Gen.
trail Pacific tracks for thirty miles. On
the 10th OF March the same year stretch
OF the Atlantic and Pacific track six
miles long was washed away just west of
Daggett, CAL, and on the same day
another cloudburst near Yuma, Arizona,
washed away about as much more Of the
track there. Three days earlier, March
7th, 1884, the streets OF Florence, Ari.
iona, were flooded four feet deep by q
cloudburst at the nearby mountains. The
effect of such food among the houses
OF mining camp may be imagined by