Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-10-29
Statistics on the Equinox.

"Wait till the equinox and we are
sure t. have rain. is what the farm
ogs always say in the midst of the dry
season But according to the official
iorcca >tcr III the Weather Bureau,
Prof. Iazcn. who has been making
extensive Investigations on the sub
jcct, the good farmers, n well as very
many other intelligent persons, are all
wrong and the ropulcr cquinoctial
storm theory is Il fallacy. The matter
has been investigated very thoroughly
in England 10y Prof. J.. ii. Scott, OF
London, and by the Weather Bureau
in the United States. The results OF
the Investigations made in the United
States are compiled in a report OF
Professor Hazen. The investigations
here covered the entire country, and
took into consideration every element
going to make stormy conditions. The
belief in the equinoctial storms is
fairly well grounded in the minds of
many intelligent people, who believe
that the storms are influenced, if not
generated, by the seeming passage of
the sun across the equator. Some so
still further and derive what they con-
slider logical connection between
storms on our earth and the equinoc-
tial points OF the planets. When it is
considered that equinoxcs are based
upon wholly imaginary points in the
sky, or the intersections of two
imaginary lines, the equator and the
path of the sun, no adequate reason
appears for any consequent action
upon the weather of this earth. The
day is frightening when March 81
comes around, and the night is length
ening when September 81 arrives.
These conditions are directly con-
trary to each other, and present no
reason for supposing that they are
productive Of similar effects. When
the days are increasing in length about
two and half minutes daily from De.
cember to June, and decreasing pro-
portionately from June to December,
no adequate reason appears as to why
the advent of any particular day in
this progression should break the
chains of Boreas and his brother winds
or throw wide the floodgates of heaven.
In the absence of an 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 fourteen years,
found out that out of Is storms in
March, not one occurred on the 2lst,
and out OF eighteen storms in Septem-
Der, only one fell ON the twenty-frst;
w AAA AOoAVNS ySthAo tiCAC was Ouly
one rightly so-called equinoctial storm
in Great Britain. In the United
States an elaborate series of observa-
tions, extending from st. Paul to New
Orleans, and New York to San Fran
cisco, were made. The period exam
ined was sixteen years. The general
results are thus summarized in Prof.
Hazen's report:
"Wind was lower before and after
the March equinox than at it. Dur
ing the September equinox there is a
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 maxi
mum number of storms fall on the
9Th, the next highest number on the
2lst. In September the highest num-
Der of storms occurred on the 9th, and
almost the minimum for the whole
month on the 21st."