The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-03-23
EoUiNocTIAL STORMS.


time superstition that brief storm
period is an inevitable cOnsequ-
ence of the sun crossing the
line"
We know a great deal about
meteorology and the various other
"ologies" in this latter half of the
last decade of the Nineteenth
Century, but it is GER
tainly to be regretted that
scientific observers of the weather
have paid such little attention to
ancient whims and fancies. The
phrase eluinOctial storm did
not spring up and come to full
maturity in single night, like the
traditional gallows plant" but
was incorporated into our langu-
age after centuries of crude and
unscientifc observation. The I'M
lettered man of the Dark Ages,
and his followers who came crop
ing in the. uncertain dawn which
preceded the present age of en-
lightenment, noticed year after
year that the third weeks of March
and September brought a season of
rain in the latter case and of rain
or snow in the former. Reasoning
from the single standpoint OF
analogy, they argued that there
must be some generic connection
between the phenomenon of line
crossing and the storm period.
In these days of broad thought
and general enlightenment, how
ever, it is hardly necessary to go
to the trouble of stating the fact
that the equinoctial storm is almost
if not altogether a delusiOn. True,
we generally have a period of un-
settled weather between the 18th
and 23d of the present month, ana
an era OF similar character and
duration between the 10Th and
oath of September of each year,
but that the sun crossing the
line" has anything to do with it
there is no proof whatever
In time past the imaginary con-
nection between these periods of
unsettled meteorological conditions
| gave the manufacturers of weather
lore a chance to work out the
= line" theory in all desired minu
teness OF detail A theory so
groundless could never have as
sumed a definite shape had cheap
scientific literature been as plenti-
full in the Seventeenth and Eigh-
teenth centuries as it is today
Such ammunition does great ex-
ecution when directed against folk
lore romances, whether their rQr
mancing is of the meteorological
sort or of some other character.
There are still thousands of peO-
pie who persist in believing in the
eqinoctial storm delusiOn. They
are not to blame, because such
superstitions have become so firmly
engrafted in the human family that
the pruning knife of science is
scarcely equal to the task of lop-
ping them off. A few decades
since, even the sO-called scienti-
fc" weather sharps placed a. great
deal of confidence in the theory of
the equinoctial storm. Since
weather wisdom and rough wealth
er guessing have shaped them
selves into a science. however,
thoughtful men have pondered over
the subject until they have come
to the conclusion that there can
not possibly be anything in the
line theory
Since the day when the sun
passed the winter solstice, or
touched it, rather, on December
81, it has been steadily coming
north, !" as we say to keep from
going into a scientific explanation
of the phenomenon. Every day
since that time it has been cross
ing some degree or fraction of a
degree of latitude. All of these
degrees and even the equatorial
line itself are imaginary, and in
our estimation the statement is
none too broad when we say that
the line storm" is also a fallacy.
When we are breaking over the
point of demarcation which separ-
ates the winter from the spring
season the changes that are taking
place in the atmosphere are likely
to cause unsettled weather. -
Further than this the equinOc-
tiaIv is a superstition, a faliacy
and a meteorological delusion #
the most delusive sOrt.-St.
Louis Republic.