Arizona republican., 1898-12-11
HOW IT ALL HARDENED
Observer William C. Burns Talks
 About fhe Big Storm.


 Mir William G. Burns, U. s. weather
 observer at this place, says that the
 storm of Friday and yesterday was one Of the worst which ever visited this country. 'The station was estab- lished here in August of 1885, said he,
 ''so our information does not go very far back. But at any Tia.e, the coadi- tiCns are certainly abnormal which
 brought about such storm in this val ley. This is evident from the action of the weather bureau which instructed me on Friday to take two special Cb- serValiOnS daily. The results of these special observations revealed an unus- ual condition, as there was difference of over an inch indicated by the bulb readings, which shows that the distur- bance has been something remarkable. There was Ia high pressure at Denver yesterday and a low pressure southeast of Phoenix which drew in the humid air of the Gulf of Mexico and this com ing in contact with the cold air Of Colorado resulted in the precipitation of sncw in this locality.
 That the Gulf of Mexico is respon- sible in large degree for the storm which has visited this section is shown by the reports from Fl Paso, Yuma and San Diego which were that the rain was falling there at the time of the high pressure reported from Denver These places being south of Phoenix leads me to believe that this storm was driven here from the Gulf of Mexico, and this accounts for the fact that no forecast was given the public as to it's coming because there are no obsarva- tion stations in the regions of the Gulf of Mexico where the storm found it's source. You perhaps n-ticed that the winds of Friday and Saturday came first from the southeast and then from an easterly direction.
 q predict that Flagstaff in the nor thern pcrticm Of Arizona was visit cd by a heavy snow storm of ten or twelve inches. It was showing there as the last observation was takan and over an inch had fallen.
 ''Tha people Of this valley do net realize the situation with reference to obsarvatf1n stations, CT they would net be so prone to find fault with us for letting a stcrm come in unheralded. They should remember that south O. Phoenix there is a vast unprotected country which is liahle at any time 10 be the rhl0me Of a disturbance which will sweep upan Ariz.Ala WI hcut it be- ing observed until it reach S -Pho2niX. Where the stations are centrally lc- cated as in the northsTn and eastern S .ates the observers are enabled to | keep close watch upon the storms brew ing and report their progress with ac- | curacy. This accounts fer the much i better service that is giv5n in other | cities of the country.
 "Arizcma air, observe, is made up Of | two types-ohe Mexican type ard the | Pacific type. I am inclined to think that the Mexican type, which is made up of moist air, predcminatas, and when the pressure of air is high north cf us, as it was Friday. it means a storm for this valley. We observed :. an increasing humidity in the atmos- phere Thursday which was the only indication we had of the approaching storm.
 Advices from San Francisco ye9ter- lay gave warnings Of Q damaging frost which would be the continuation of the storm here The snow did no damage to the oranges or other fruits in the