The evening times., 1896-10-24
WEATHER OF THE WORLD
This Year Il Has Been Of EX-
traOrdinary Kind.
TORNADOES AND CYCLONES
Equatorial Rain Belt Less Developed
Than nUsual-Europe Has Been More
Fortunate Than the Rest OF the
world-Greatest Storms of Years
Have Swept Over the United States.

The exceptional violence of the recent
tornado i'll Paris, analogous TO but fortu
nately far less destructive than the fear
ful~catastrophe at st. Louis in May, this
year, attracts attention to the eXtraordi
nary vicissitudes of the worlds weather
during the last eighteen months, says the
st. James Gazette.
1t will be observed that storms of this
locally violent character, entirely differ
ent from what are properly termed cyclones.
generally occur at the close OF long
period of drought, such as we have lately
experienced. 1t Would almost seem, indeed,
as though nature, weary of one type, swung
over to the other side with the Dctuant
violence of spoilt child.
The tnrnadoes which peppered the middle
States of America this spring terminated
drought which affected large portion
Of the same area SO severely as to allow
FOR coal, reduced the fall at Niagara,
and lowered tie St Lawrence to an unpru
cedented extent. Extending the area of
observation, We find ever since February.
1898, equally abnormal conditions preva-
lent ever India. Australia, and the Pacific
and Indian oceans.
of the Indian Ocean and its twin brother,
, the southwest monsoon OF India. were
very feeble last summer, the failure of the
latter causing drought nearly down to
famine mark in some parts of India.
WEATHER IN AUSTRALIA.
Coucidentally with and following these
conditions on the Australian side OF the
| high-pressure atmospheric wall bounding
| the southeast trades, an extraordinary
! prevalence of hot. dry northwest winds
| occurred right on to April, 1896, through
! out Australia and New Zealand raising
the temperature in New South Wales to
| such "A height that the government actually
carried people free by rail from the interior
TO the coast in order to save their lives.
The temperature in Sydney ran up To
| such record heights as loo and los de-
| grees. and even in New Zealand, except
| at the extreme southern end, the famous
| hot nOrthwesters of the Canterbury district
| dr.ed up the crops, while the North Island,
| especially near Auckland. looked as though
| II had been toasted in front Of some Titanic
| fire
Inconlrast. but evident yin correspondence
| with these abnormal features the North
| Pacific was unusually stormy Honolulu
| receiving quite IN unusual supply OF" koua, =
| or winter storms, while California at the
| boundary of the oceanic area, came in for
| similar excess of its curiously- marked
| winter rains. Elsewhere drought seems to
| have been the rule. The "low Nile was
recently Il formidable obstacle to the soudan
! expedition. and the violent resumption of
rain over its basin, in common with the
similar change which now seems to be
| everywhere terminating this world land
drought, is creating a fresh scourrc by pro-
noting the conditions fav ora BILE O he spread
| of cholera.
CAUSES NOT KNOWN.
II is not easy to discover even the proxi-
mate causes for such a widespread anomaly,
or to draw practical moral; but a general
survey would appear to show that the equa-
torlai rain belt has been less developed than
usual and that the atmosphere over the con-
tinents on either side of 1t has been less
heaped up into narrow belts Of high pressure
and more uniformly spread over large sur
faces.
Where this occurs in summers we have
the conditions which are favorable to
drought, merging subSequently-whent the
lower air remains stationary, as it did over
the United States in the spring, and grad
ualiy becomes charged with excessive heat
| and humidity-into those favorable to the
| production Of local storms and tornadoes.
| The storm at Paris was due to such con-
| dtions, and the result of stagnation, rather
| than anincrease in the ordinary movements
OF the atmosphere.
| When the circulation over the North At
| lantic is more than ordinarily vigorous the
| energy is expended in the larger horizontal
movements. termed cyclones, which fire.
| quently embrace an area as large as Russia.
| 1t is only when these motions are so re-
duced as to allow the warmer lower air
| to penetrate the upper layers in places. like
water flowing through a sink, and like it
to draw in the surrounding air in rapidly
rotating Srhirls, that tornadoes are gener
ated.
Such conditions. though common enough
| overa large land area like the United States
are, fortunately. rendered rare in Europe
by virtue of its latitude and geography; Sc
that we need not conclude that the tornado
epidemic will ever find favorable breed
ing ground over here.
In Danger of LynchinG.
| Sarnnur Ind Oct % Peter IamS