The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-01
Hot and Cold Waves.

| Speaking about cold waves and
weather in general yesterday, mem
ber Of the Maryland Academy Of
Sciences, said:
eve have some kinds Of weather in
the United States that are unknown
abroad. Take the cold wave, for ex-
ample, that struck the far south sew
eral years ago. It was record
breaker, you know, carrying the rigors
of winter to lower latitude than has
been known for sixty years at least.
Florida suffered $4,000, 900 worth of
damage. At Pensacola the oranges
froze hard on the trees. The ther-
mometer at Tampa fell to Is degrees
above zero, five degrees below the low
est ever noted. At Orange Park ice
two inches thick formed on ponds. A
cold wave Of equal severity, it is said,
struck the fiowery peninsular in 1885,
but temperatures were not recorded
with reliable accuracy.
Gold waves are unknown in Eu-
rope. We may justly pride ourselves
upon them as an American institution.
1t is the same way with billiards..
Who ever heard Of blizzard in Eu-
rope?
Gold waves are very strange phe-
nomena. Nobody knows with certain
ty where they come from or how they
are formed. They are formed some
where inland in the far northwest. in
the latitude of greatest ce}d, which, as
you know, is good way south Of the
north pole. At the north pole it is
probably comparatively warm, and
that extremity of the earth IS axis is
perhaps surrounded by an open and
unfrozen sea. AS for the typical cold
wave, my belief is that it is composed
of air drawn from the higher and more
frigid regions OF the atmosphere. AS
cend 20 an attitude of 30 miles above
the earth surface and you might find
rarcfed air at temperature of 100
degrees below zero, or even much lower
The body Of cold formed by the down
rush of this frigid air from above starts
on journey eastward across the con-
tinent. travelling at the speed of fast
railway train, 35 or 40 miles an hour.
AS it proceeds it spreads out. Oh
viously the cold air would be gradual
ly warmed during the trip unless the
waves were replenishcd with cold in
some fashion. My notion is that while
the wave is in transit fresh cold is
continually drawn into it from above,
where there is always an unlimited
supply Of air at an extremely low tenn
perature. Finally, the wave passes off
over the ocean. In some manner the
Allegheny mountains seem to inter
rupt the passage of cold waves, to a
certain extent, as if the cold air was
banked up against this range Of hills,
and it's passage thus impeded. On
this account it is very difficult to pre-
dict cold waves for the region of Bal
timore and Washington.
'The lowest temperature ever re-
corded on the earth was taken at
Werchojansk, in the interior of Sibe-
ria, January Is, 1885. 1t was so de-
grees and fraction below zero. Wer-
chojansk is in the latitude of the pole
Of cold. There the earth is frozen TO
depth Of about 100 feet, and in the
warmest season it never thaws. The
highest temperature recorded is 1874
degrees and fraction, taken in Algc-
ria, July Il, 1870. The lowest tenn
perature on record in the United States
is "a degrees below zero, at Tobacco
Garden, N. D. Greedy, the arctic ex-
plorer, has probably experienced
wider range Of temperature than any
other living man. He recorded 10 de-
grees below zero at Fort Conger, on
Lady Franklin Bay. On another oc-
casion, in the Maricopa desert of Ari-
zona, his thermometer in the shade
ran up to ia degrees above. A lucifer
match dropped upon the burning sands
of Sahara will catch fire. It is very
difficult, even with the finest ther-
mometers, to get accurate records Of
the extreme temperatures, and on that
account such observations in general
are to be regarded as only approx
mately correct. "-Bdltimorc .imeri-
can.