The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1895-04-30
WEATHER WONDERS
STRANGE PHENOMENA PECU-
LIAR TO THIS COUNTRY.
Cold Waves and Billiards Are I'm
known I'm Europe Extremes
of Temperature-NI
Artificial Clouds.

Professor II. n. HnZen in the Wash
ington Star. Take the recent cold
wave, for example. 1t was n record
breaker, you know, carrying the
rigors OF winter to lower latitude
than has been known for sixty wears,
at least. Florida suffered $1,000, 900
worth OF damage. At Pensacola the
oranges froze hard on the trees The
thermometer Mt Tampa fell to eighteen
degrees above zero-fve degrees be-
low the lowest point ever noted. At
Orange Park ice two inches thick
formed or ponds. a cold wave of
equal seve-itY, it is said, struck the
tiowery peninsula in 1885, hut tenn
peratures were not recorded with re-
liable accuracy.
Gold waves do not occur in Eu-
rope; they are unknown in that part
of the world. We may Justly pride
ourselves upon them rs an American
institution. 1t is the same way with
billiards.. Who ever heard of n biz
gard in Europe? Tho thing does not
exist over there.
"ln blizzard the air is filed, not
with snowilakes, but with actual
needles of ice, which sting most pain
fully wherever they strike the flesh.
These ice needles are phenomenon
peculiar to billiards.; but the Inter
have another eccentricity yet more
remarkable. The wind seems to blow
all ways at once, and, Whatever direc-
ton you may pursue, 1T IS always in
your face. Such thing rs real
blizzard Is not known in the eastern
part of the United States; it belongs
90 the West. The so.called blizzard
that struck New York and buried the
metropolis under several feet OF snow
in March. 1SSS, was not the true
article, but merely great storm.
cold waves are very strange phe-
nomena. Nobody knows with GER
tninty where they come from or how
they are formed. They are formed
somewhere inland in the far North
west, in the latitude of greatest cold,
which, rs you know, is a good wav
louth of the North Pole. At the North
Pole it is probably comparatively
warm, and that extremity OF the
earth's axis IS perhaps surrounded by
an open and unfrozcn sen. As for the
typical cold wave, my belief is that it
Is composed of air drawn down from
the higher and more friGId regions of
the atmosphere. Ascend to an alti-
tude of thirty miles above the earth's
surface and YOU might find rare;ied
air at temperature of leo DEGREES
below zero, or even much lower.
The body of cold formed by the
downrush of this frisid mir from above
starts on journey eastward across
the continent, travelling Mt the speed
OF fast railway train. say, thirty
five or forty miles an hoHr. As il pro-
ceeds At spreads out Obviously the
cold air would be gradually warmed
during the trip unless the wave were
replenished with cold air in some fash
ION. My notion is that while the
wave is in transit fresh cold is coutlu-
ually drawn into it from above, where
there Is always an unlimited supply of
air Mt an extremely low Temperature.
Finally tho wave passes oil over the
ocean. In some manner the Allie
ghenY Mountains seem to interrupt
the passage of cold waves TO a certain
extent, rs if tho cold air was banked
up against that range of hills, and it's
passage thus impedel On this nc
count it is very difficult TO predict
cold waves for the region about Wash.
in2ton.
81 have spoken of the extreme cold
OF the higher layers ofthe utmOsphere
I The temperature OF outer space is very
low, of course-p rhaps rs low as 300
degrees below zero Fahrenheit. If il
were not for the atmosphere, which
serves as n blanket for the earth. we
should be exposed 90 this fearful cold.
and not all the fires that could be kept
| burning would save us from being
frozen stiff at short notice. The low
est natural temperature ever recorded
was taken in balloon nj IN altitude
OF ten miles. 1t was 100 degrees be.
low zero. The balloon was tho Aero.
phile, which assembled from Paris
under the guidance of Gusiaye Her
mite.
The lowest temperature ever re.
corded on The earth was taken MI Wer-
chojansk, in the interior of Siberia.
January -, 1885. 1t wns ninety de-.
grecs and % fraction below zero
Werchoinnsk is IN thc latitude OF the
pole of cold. There the earth is frozen
to depth of about 100 feet. and ia
the warmcst season it, never thavs.
The highest temperature recorded IL.
I2l degrees and fraction. taken in
Algeria. July ~, 1879. The lowest
temperature ON record iu the United
Stotcs is siXty-four degrees below
zero, at Tobacco Garden, n. -. Gree.
~, the arctic explorer, has probably
experienced wider range of tcmpcr.
nture than my other living man. He
recorded slxty-six degrees below zero
ut Fort Cougcr, i'm Lliv Franklin
Bay On another occasion. i'm the
Maricopa desert Of Arizona. his Their.
momctcr I'm the shade ran NIP To- ia
above. a lucllcr match droppedupo
the burning sands of the Sahara will
catch fire. II is very difficult even
with tho finest thermometers TO Get
accurate records of extreme tcmpcr
aturcs, and ON that account such oh.
servntions, IN general, aro to be re-
gardcd as only approximately correct.
When the heavens are covered with
clouds there rs little or no danger of
killing froste, because the blanket of
yapor hanging overhead prevents the
heat from rodiatiug from the earth,