The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-05-10
CONTINUOUS LIGHTNING.
Places on the Globe Where Thunder and
Lightning Are Incessaut.

,
| Lightning Are Incessant
| The phenomenon known as lightning
| followed by a rolling, reverberating re-
I port. recognized as thunder, is common
/ to a wide zone of the earth, but il is not
generally known that there are locali-
ties where the vivid flashes and the
deafening peels are incessant The
most nota BILE Of these continuous light
ming districts is on the eastern coast of
the island of San Domingo, leading
member of the group of the West In
dies. 1t is not meant that the light
ming is here continuous the year round.
but that. with the commencement of
the rainy season comes this Zig-Zag
feature of electric illumination, which
is then continuous day and night for
weeks
The storm center is not continuously
local, but shifts over a considera bic
area. and, as thunder is seldom heard
over greater distance than eight
miles, and the lightning in the night
will illuminate so as to be seen thirty
miles, there may be days ip some To-
calities where the twinkle on the sky
is in a continuous succession while the
rolling reports are absent Then again
some days and nights when the electric
artillery is piercing in its detonations,
and especially is this the case when two
separate local cloud centers join. as il
were, in an electrial duel and, as some
times occurs, third participant ap-
pears to add to the elemental warfare.
,s b IL ~ a
ing vividness and stunning peals that
seem to pin the listener to the earth-
Long before the echoes can die away
come others, until the suricular me
chanisn seems hammered into chaos,
Just how and why it is that there 10
here generated so immense an amount
of electricity as to keep up such an in
cessant ignition is one OF those prob
lens that can only be solved when SUI.
ficient data are at hand TO work upon
II is probab bic that with the commence
ment 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: va
riously charged. and as lightning IL the
passing of electricity from one cloud 70
another, seeking equilibrium or the
passing of the fluid from cloud TO the
earth. il is probable that, in this con-
tinued friction OF currents may be
found a starting point 20 unravei the
mystery. II is in svirling and oppos-
ing cloud strata, especially where these
get into gyrs.ery motion. that electro
cal phenomena are most zouna-
ant, Just as in an eves- Uniform few
of clouds. such disturbance u rarer and
often entirely absent
IL would not seesh. from the rneagre |
formation bearing on this matter. that
the electrical Interchange ia between
the clouds and The earth. as there n no
reference made 10 what are termed
lig htning strokes-vhen the descend
ing current strikes q tree, building or
other object, or strikes the ground d.
rectly. But il would certainly be try
ing ordeal on any fairly balanced nerv-
Gus organization 70 behold blazing
sky FOR days and nights together and
listen 20 the incessant rolling Of the
thunder until the very senses seemed
etupehed 70 further recognition Hap
PLY such localities have been rarely pe-
slowed by nature. and this one "a shun-
ned By the d1s.y natives and The mere
advanced fauna when the vet srason
approaches. leaves u By Instinct
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