The San Francisco call., 1897-06-26
THE WEATHER
TN THE DIDOES
The Experts Say Things
Are Remarkable and
Unprecedented.
The Present June Beats All
Records for Gloudiness
and Showers.
Weather Observer Harmon Has No
Explanation to Offer, and
Is Puzzled

Something is out of whsck with the
weather. The oldest inhabitant swears
that never did he see such proloug ed
spell of wet and murkiness, and the
Weather Bureau goes him one better and
declares that the present conditions are
the most remarkable in the history of its
observations.
June, one of the dry months of the year,
this time seems to have got misplaced in
the calendar, and has given the State al
most two weeks of rain and dampness.
With the exception of three days there
have been overcast skies, with showers at
intervals, since the 10th of the month.
This is condition OF things that is excit-
ing much comment. Never have they oc-
CURED before as far as the record goes.
Up in Oregon it has rained almost uninter-
ruptedly for the past three weeks. The
barometric pressure has been away below
normal along the entire Pacific coast dur
ing the same period, and many other pc
cullar things have happened.
April and May were also out of kilter.
The weather in these months was un-
usually dry. In the first-named month
the rainfall was but .07 of an inch. There
was slight shower on March 81 and an
other on the last night in April. May was
nOb QQllc dS Dau- IL allOIQ6Q out one
shower, and that on the very last day OF
the month, but it was watery enough to
give fall of 81 OF an inch. Thus far in
this month the fail has been ID of an inch
the heaviest in the history of the Weather
Bureau, June, 1884, coming second with a
record of 10 o. an inch. But it is the con-
tinual cloudy weather that is puzzling
every body In this the ideal month of a
California summer
Something is wrong sure enough.
Weather Observer Harmon admits this
and Is puZzling himself in solving the
problem. There were June conditions in
April, and possibly nature is eQualizing
herself, at least that is the only theory
that is being advanced by the meteorolog-
1cal sharps. Harmon says things have
been topsy turvey generally all over the
United States tor the past year when the
truth is told. There were more people
killed by cyclones last year twice over than
in any preceding one. The thermometer
registered over 1O0degrees at Fresno in the
the early part of the spring and the hot
wave is supposed to have gone East break
ing all records in its path. There were
seventeen days continual rain in the South
Sierra last August while at the same time
the Sonora showers came north out of
date and knocked the raisin-growers al
most out. There were heavy frosts all
over the State in the spring in 1896 and
freaks Observer Harmon recited yester-
day.
Mature is certainly in very peculiar
mood" he said. "Our present meteor
oloeical conditions are remarkable, and
us far as / know. unprecedented in Cali
fornia, and ali over the coast. for that
matter. l know OF no explanation to
offer unless it be the conditions abnormal
earlier IN the season are now righting
themselves. The weather in April and
May was unusually dry, and l believe we
are now making up the average, so to
speak. Nature IS ever equalzing matters
TINS is a cardinal Of ineteorology.
There is so much about this science we
do not know yet that it would be of grea
advRntage-greater than that tn at has ac-
crued from the Academy of Sciences
were some of our million aires to build a
meteorological observatory on top OF
Mount Tamalpais"