Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-10-09
AN OLD THEORY UPSET.

is abroad in the land. The weather
for the past few days has inspired him
with the requisite supply of confidence
and has strengthened the general be-
lief that storms may be expected about
September 81 and March 81. So long
has it been accepted as a fact that
storms are certainly to accompany the
equinoctial period that probably no
one but member of the Thirteen
club would ever think of getting up q
picnic for September 81. Farmers in
dry seasons always say, "Wait till the
equinox and we are sure to have
rain" This belief was mentioned to
Prof. Hazen, official forecaster of the
weather. bureau, who proceeded to
nail this tradition to the tree of e1-
ploded theories from whose branches
the tattered remnants of many anoth-
er time honored fallacy wave.
"This matter Of so-called equiuoc-
tial storms has been thoroughly inves-
tigated," said Professor Hazen, "and
so far as it concerns the occurrence Of
any unusual number of storms on
March 81 and September 81 there is
nothing whatever to support the pop
ular theory. The trouble with the
people who insist that equinoctial
storms are fact is that you cannot
hold them down to any particular date.
Of course there are only two days in
the year to which the term equinox
applies, March 81 and September 81,
but the defenders of the equinox ira
ditions want latitude of three or four
days or week on either side of the
2lst of these months.
"As a matter of fact, the term equi-
noctial cannot be properly applied to
any storm that does not occur on the
21st. Then, too, they refuse to agree
on what shall constitute storm. The
wind velocity and amount of precipi
tation constitute a storm only when
they exceed certain limits, but the
man who has been brought up on the
equinoctial storm theory wants to be
allowed to attribute everything that
may occur on the 21st of September or
March, from a sailing breeze to hur-
ricane and passing shower to cloud
burst, to the equinox" .....
This matter has heen investigated
very thoroughly in England by Prof.
R. H. Scott, of London, and by the
weather bureau of the United States.
The results of the Investigations made
| in the United States are compiled in
a report of Prof. Hazen's The inves-
tigation here covered the entire coun-
try, and took into consideration every
element going to make stormy con.
ditions. This belief in equinoctial
storms is fairly well grounded in the
minds of many intelligent persons, who
believe that storms are influenced, If
not generated, by the seeming passage
of the sun across the equator. Some
90 still further and derive what they
consider a logical connection between
storms on our earth and the equinoc-
ton points of the planets. When it is
considered that equinoxes are based
on wholly imaginary points in the sky,
or the intersections of the Two imagi-
nary lines, the equator and the path
of the sun, no adequate reason appears
for any consequent effect upon the
weather of this earth. The day is
lengthening when March 21 comes
around and the night is lengthening
when September 21 arrives.
These conditions are directly con-
trary to each other, and present no
reason for supposing that they pro-
duce similar effects. When the days
are increasing in length about two and
half minutes daily from December
to June, and decreasing proportion
ately from June to December, no ade-
quate reason appears as to why the
advent of any particular day in this
progression should break the chains of
Borea and his brother winds or throw
wide the foodgates of heaven.
In the absence of any apparent rea-
son for regularly recurring storms at
the equinoctial periods, investigations
were made to ascertain whether there
was such a recurring storm period.
Prof Scott, after an examination of
the English records for IA years, found
that out of As storms in March, not
one occurred on the 21st, and out of
1S storms in September only l was on
the 21st, so in II years there was only
1 rightly so called equinoctial storm in
Great Britain. In the United States
an elaborate series of observations, OK
tending from St. Paul to New Orleans,
and New York to San Francisco, were
made. The period examined was six
teen years. The general results are
thus summarized in Prof. Hazen's re-
port:
"Wind was lower after the March
equinox than at it. During the Sep
tember equinox there is tendency to
decrease of wind on the 2lst. At the
autumn equinox there is nearly the
minimum amount of rain for the
month. For March the maximum
number of storms fall on the 9Th, the
next highest number on the 21st. In
September the highest number of
storms occurred on the 9th, and almost
the minimum for the whole month on
the 2lst."