The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-05-08
PHENOMENA OF rnE EQUINOX.

1
There Is popular belief that tho
weather at the time the sun crosses
the line is an indication of the weather
that may be expected for the next
! three months. According to this, for
the next ninety days Chicagoans may
| expect a warm temperature, with over
cast skies and frequent mists Being
asked if there was any foundation for
this popular belief Prof Elias Colbert
| said:
THE notion is centuries old, that
the state of the weather At the time
| the sun crosses the line is an indica-
| ton Of the weather that may be ex-
| bected in that neighborhood for the
next sixty or ninety days Some peo-
| pie think that the influence extends to
D. next solstitial passage; others that
the influence cannot be depended on
| for more than one-half or two-thirds
Of that time. A smaller number of
people think that an equal amount of
Importance should be attached to the
state of the weather at the autumnal
equinox in September. and it may be
confidently stated as fact that more
than one coal merchant of this city
regularly takes the weather at this
time into account in making up his
mind as to the quantity of coal he
shall order to meet the wants of his
customers during the coming months
Scientific men who have made me
teorology study do not think the idea
of such connection is warranted.
- 81 -
being evidently absurd when we re-
member that weather phenomen ma are
continually flowing IN waves around
the earth; hence, that when the wind
is in the north at one place it will be
in the south in another place few
score miles distant on the other side of
the area of low barometer, and SINH
larly that variations of temperature
with change from clearing to cloud
ing atmosphere, and the reverse, are
merely shifting phenomena Hence
the conditions noted for any particu-
lar place ought not to be regarded as
an index of future conditions here; in
fact it would be more philosophical to
expect contrasted conditions as, for in
stance. clearing up of skies following
cloudiness or a lower temperature, due
to northerly winds, following the re-
verse condition, owing to the passage
of storm area over the place under
consideration
little foundation in the fact that the
trade wind system, the middle of which
averages near the middle of the
tropics, is continuously shifting back
and forth with the changing declina-
ton of the sun; that is, as the sun
advances northward from December
to June, the middle of the trade
wind system shifts northward and
moves back in a southerly direction
during the other six months of the
year. OF course it is easy to reason
that the shifting back and forth of
that compare lively steady flow of wind
in the tropical regions alternately
pushes ard draws northward or south
ward the more variable atmospheric
currents of the temperate zones, and
thus shifts or causes to vary the areas
over which the storm centers move in
temperate ATTITUDES, but there is lack
of philosophy in the idea of any special
shift occurring at the moment that tho
sun is in the equinoxes-that is, pass
ing across the plane of the earth's
equator. In fact, It has been pointed
ovt that owing to the irregular dis
tribntion OF land and water on the
earth's surface the average position OF
the medal line Of the trade wind sys-
tenn is two or three degrees north Of
the equator, position the sun does
not reach until SIX or seven days after |
the equinox in spring, while IL reaches !
It six or seven days before the time OF |
the autumnal equinox, SO that II any
indications could be drawn from Che i
southwark and northward movements /
o. the sun IL would be more rational to |
take them for the latter dates than the |
former ones. This theoretical reason /
ing is favored by the observed fact thai /
our spring equinoctial storms average !
the last week in March, while those Of
autumn average about the middle Of
Septem her