Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-04-24
HOT AND COLD WAVES,
Eoth Kinds Flourish Beautifully in This
Happy Land of Freedom.

Happy Land of Freedom.
Speaking about cold waves and
weather in general a member of the
Maryland Academy of Sciences said:
"We have some kinds of weather in
She United States that are unknown
abroad. Take the cold wave, for ex-
ample, that struck the far South a
couple of years ago. 1t was record
breaker, you know, carrying the rigors
Of winter to lower latitude than has
been known for sixty years at least.
Florida suffered $4,000,0 900 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
lowest ever noted. At Orange Park
ice two inches thick formed on ponds.
A cold wave of equal severity, it is
said, struck the fowery peninsula in
1885, but temperatures were not re-
corded with reliable accuracy.
"Cold waves are unknown in Eu-
rope. We may justly pride ourselves
upon them as an American institution.
1t is the same way with blizzards.
Who ever heard of O blizzard in Eu
rope?
"Cold waves are very strange phe-
nomena. Nobody knows with GER
tainty where they come from or how
they are formed. They are formed
somewhere inland in the far North
west, in the latitude of greatest cold,
which, as you know, is good way
south of the North Pole. At the
North Pole it is probably compare.
lively warm, and that extremity of the
earth's 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. Ascend to an altitude of
thirty miles above the earth's surface
and you might find a rarifed air at a
temperature of 100 degrees below
zero, or even much lower. The body
of cold formed by the downrush of
this frigid air from above starts on a
journey eastward across the continent,
travelling at the speed of q fast railway
train, thirty-fve or forty miles an
hour. AS it proceeds it spreads out.
Obviously the cold air would be gradu-
ally warmed during the trip unless
the waves were replenished 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 un-
limited supply Of air at an extremely
low temperature. Finally, the wave
passes off over the ocean. In some
manner the Allegheny Mountains
seem to interrupt the passageof of cold
waves, to q certain extent, as if the
cold air was banked up against that
range of hills, and its passage thus
impeded. On this account it is very
difficult to predict cold waves for the
region of Baltimore and Washington.
"The lowest temperature ever re-
corded on the earth was taken at
Werchojansk, in the interior of ST.
IBERIA, January Is, 1885. 1t was 80
degrees and fraction below zero.
Werchojansk is in the latitude of the
pole of cold, and in the warmest sea-
son it never thaws. The highest tenn
perature recorded is 124 degrees and
fraction, taken in Algeria, July II,
1879. The lowest temperature on
record in the United States is ca de-
grees below zero, at Tobacco Garden,
N. D. Greedy, the Arctic explorer,
has probably experienced a wider
range of temperature than any other
living man. He recorded &C degrees
below zero at Fort Conger, on Lady
Franklin Bay. On another occasion,
in the Maricopa Desert of Arizona,
his thermometer in the shade ran up
to la degrees above. A lucifer match
dropped upon the burning sands of
Sahara will catch fire. 1t is very diff
fcult, even with the finest thermom-
eters, to get accurate records of ex-
IRENE temperatures, and on that ac-
count such observations in general
are to be regarded as only approx