The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1894-06-21
CONTINUOUS LIGHTNING.
ffhe Phenomenon Of Blazing Skies Seen
Yearly in San Domingo. =.

N"S vi ASIoAhS 1A ~
Yearly in San Domingo.
The phenomenon known as light
ming, followed by a rolling, reverber-
ating report, recognized as thunder,
is common to a wide ZOne of the
earth, but il Is not generally known
that there are localities where the
vivid flashes and the ~deafening peals
are incessant The most notable of
these continuous lightning districts
is on the eastern coast Of the island
of San Domingo, a leading member
of the group of the West Indies, 1t
is not meant that the lightning is
here continuous the year round, but
that, with the commencement Of the
rainy season, comes this zig-zag feat
ure of electric illumination, which is
then continuous day and night for
weeks. The storm center, says the
Pittsburgh Dispatch, is not cOntinu-
Ously local, but shifts Over a cOnsid-
cradle area, and, as thunder is sell
dom heard over a greater distance
than eight miles, and the lightning
in the night will illuminate so as to
DE seen thirty miles, there may be
days in some lUcalitie, where the
twinkle on the sky is a continuous
succession while the rolling reports
are absent. Then, again, comes days
and nights when the electric artillery
is piercing in its detonat Ons; and
especially is this the case when two
separate local cloud centers join, as it
were, in an electric duel, and, as
sometimes occurs, a third participant
appears TO add to the elemental war
fare. Then there is a blazing sky
with binding %vividneSs and stun
ming peals that seem to pin the lis
tener to the earth. Long before the
echoes can die away come others, I'M
til the auricular mechanism seems
hammered into chaos.
Just how and why it is that there
is here generated so immense an
amount Of electricity as to keep up
such an incesSant ignition is one OF
those problems that can only be
solved when sufficient data are at
hand to work upon. 1t is probable
that, with the commencement of the
rainy season, this region is the border
of opposing air and ocean currents,
whose friction has something to do
in the case. This would tend to
bring into contact opposing clouds
variCuSly charged. and as lightning
is the passing of electric ty from one
cloud to another, seeking equilibrium,
or the passing Of the fluids from one
cloud to the earth, it is probable that,
in this continued friction OF currents,
may be found a starting poinJ to I'M
ravel the mystery. 1t is in swirling
and opposing cloud strata, especially
where these yet into gyratOry
motion, that electrical phenomena
are most abundant, JUST as. in an
even, uniform TOW Of clouds, such
disturbance is rarer and often en-
tirely absent. it, would not seem
from the meager information bearing
on this matter, that the electrical in
%terchange is between the clouds and
the earth. as there is no reference
made to what are termed lightning
strokeS-when the descending cur
rent strikes a tree, building or other
object, or strikes the ground directly.
BuU it would certainly he a trying
ordeal on any fairly balanced nervous
organization to behold a blazing sky
for days and n gifts together and lis
ten t. the inceSsant rolling Of the
thunder until the very senSes seemed
stupetied to further recognition.
Happily such localities have been
rarely bestowed by nature, and this
one is summed by the dusky ma
tives, and the more advanced
fauna, when the wet season ap-
breaches, leave it by instinct.