The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-14
nor avn COLD waves.
Both Kinds Flourish Beautifully in This
Happy Land of Freedom.
From ne Baltimore American.

From ne Baltimore American.
Speaking about cold waves and weather IN
general yesterday a member OF the MARYLAND
Academy Of Sciences said:
I'VE have some kinds Of weather in tbs
United States that are unknown abroad
Take the cold wave. for example. that struck
the far South a couple OF years ago. 1t was
record breaker. you know. carrying tho rlpor,
OF winter to a lower latitude that has boon
known for sixty years at least. Florida suf.
fered 81. 900, 900 worth OF damage. Al Pensa.
cola the oranges froze hard on tho trees. TLs
thermometer at Tampa, fell to lS' above znr",
Orange Park Ice two inches thick formed o w
ponds. A cold wave of equal severity, /, Il
said, struck the flowery peninsula in lS35, bnt
accuracy SnaS > rrtrovr +, r,,
may Justly pride ourselves upon them az nm
American Institution. IT is the same way with
blizzarls. Who ever heard OF a BLIZZARD IN
Gold waves are very strange phenomcp,
Nobody knows with certainty where they come
somewhere inland in the far Northwest. in tSss
latitude of greatest cold. which, Us you know
Z a go9 pd, wy south nIdh otht II so North 1T !. Pole At tho
and that extremity OF the earth's axis is per..
hans surrounded by, an open and u~nfrozcp sea.
is composed OF air drawn from the higher and
more frigid regionsot the, atmosphcre. Ascend
surface and you might hnd a rarefcd air at at a a
temperature OF 10OF below zero. or even mirHS
lower. The body OF cold formed by the down.
rush OF this frigid air from above starts on a
journey eastward across the continent. travel
thirty-fvo or forty miles an hour. As i
proceeds it spreads out, Obviously the cold
air would be gradually warmed during
the trip unless the waves were repIene
ished with cold in some fashion. My no.
ton is that while the wave is in transit
fresh cold is continually drawn into it from
above, where there is always an unlimited sun.
ply of air at an extremely low temperature.
Finally, the wave passes OF over the ocean, In
some manner the Allegheny Mountains seem
to interrupt the passage of cold waves. To a Ger.
tain extent. as il the cold air was banked up
against that range Of hills, and its passage thus
impeded. On this account it is very difficult 10
predict cold waves for the region of Baltimore
and Washington.
"The lowest temperature ever recorded on
terror OF Siberia. Jan, ID. 1895. 1t was 90. and
latitude OF the pole OF cold. There the earth ia
frozen to a depth of about 100 feet. and in tho
warmest season it never thaws. The high
est temperature recorded is 12+' and
United States is 84o below zero, at Tobac.
60 Garden. n. d.. Greedy. the Arctic ey-
plorer. has probably experienced. a wider
range Of temperature than any other living
Conger. on Lady Franklin Bay. On another r oc.
casion. in the Maricopa Desert Of Arizona, his
thermometer in the shade ran up TO lie
above. A hlcifer match dropped upon the
burning sands of Sahara will catch fire. 1t is
very difficult, even with the finest thermome.
tiers. to get accurate records of extreme TEN.
tions in general are to be regarded as only ap-
proximately correct"