The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-19
The STORM HAS PASSED
IT WAS CENTRAL YESTERDAY
OVER HATTERAS.
IT'S PROGRESS HAS BEEN VERY SLOW
Foecaslet Won Herman Talks interestingly Of
Tropical Cyclones. Their Place Of
Origin is in he Atlantic
Near the Equator.
4 storm yesterday.
4 IL ,,rn,-n fnlnN

n storm yesterday
\ hot wave today.
That is the menu card that DIR. Won
Herman, the man who makes the
weather for this part of the moral vine
yard presents to us this morning.
ooh it'll be hot, mighty hot" he said,
gleefully, last night THE warm wealth
er's not over yet.
Owing to,the West Indian storm which
has been raging on this coast since
Tuesday the Thermometer has been UNI
usually low. Tuesday it went to Y,
Wednesday to 10 and Thursday and Fri
day to 66. With the exception of the
''copl spells in August, 1887, 1889 and
1894 this has been the coolest middle
August known here for many years. In
1894, from August 9TH to August Sth,
the lowest temperature ranged from 81
to &c. In 1889, from the 18th to 21st,
it was from 56 to 20; and in 1887 from
the 9th to Dist, the mercury lowered
around -.
The storm which began here Tuesday
increased remarkably in force Thursday
afternoon and was yesterday central
over Eastern North Carolina about Hat
teras-with a pressure below 1880. On
the south side Of the storm at Whining
| tom the wind was blowing gale from
the west, and on the north, at Norfolk,
| from the east with maximum velocity
of 40 mile; these directions showed the
| spirally inilowing winds around the vor
| tex of the storm. Fair, warm weather
prevailed during the day in the cen
| trail valley, with the 20 degree isotnerm
| extending as far north as Marquette.
| This warm wave will reach North Car
olina today.
The storm just passed originated some
| two weeks ago near the island Of Quad
aloupe, West Indies, and has followed
almost exactly the path of similar
| destructive storm which occurred
August 18th, 1927. 1t passed over Porto
| Rico, and the exceptionally slow for
ward movement accounts for the enor-
nous destruction wrought there; thence
| it passed north of Haiti and the Ba-
! hamas, and became evident off the
Florida coast last Saturday morning.
There is evidence that the center of
| the storm remained considerable dis
| lance out at sea, until it reached. the
| eastward prolongation of our coast line
| at Hatteras on Friday morning, with a
barometer down to 29.6 inches, west
wind at Wilmington northwest at Raj
eigh and east at Norfolk, sufficiently
indicating a spiral whirl central near
Hatteras. At p M, it was central
over Norfolk, Va, with much diminished
force, as the maximum wind velocity
then was only 30 miles an hour, and the
| rainfall less than am inch.
1.-The remarkable feature about this
| Storm said Mr. Won Herman, is it
unusually slow progressive movement,
| unquestionably due to the presence of a
area of high barometer over New Eng
land which interferred with its new de-
yelopment. 1t is now practically eX-
hausted, and the amount of damage
caused along the Atlantic coast was
fortunately small. Fair weather with
a warm wave viii set in Saturday.
The storm which has been passing
slowly along the Atlantic coast for
the past few days belongs to a class
known as tropical cyclones" continued
FOrecaster Won Herman '"They occur
only during the late summer and early
fail, chiefly in August, September and
| October, and usually in numbers not
greater than five to eight year. Their
place OF origin Is region In the At
lantic to 10 degrees north of the equa-
tor, called the Doldrnms, where the air
| is generally calm, saturated with mois-
| ture and intensely heated under the
influence of the tropical sun. at the be-
ginning the storm is merely an ascend
| ing current of air due to connection with
cooler air near the sea flowing inwards
to supply the place of the not air car
ried upwards in the center. As the
prevailing winds in the equatorial region
are from east to west, these storms
gradually move off westward from their
place of origin, increasing in force as
they go, and nourished by the warm
currents of the South Atlantic and the
Gulf stream.
1T is an Important scientific fact diff
| ficnlt to understand, yet true. that their
chief power is due to the rotation of
the earth on its axes, causing DETECTION
OF the winds around the storm, and
the development Of their destructive vio-
lence by centrifugal force. They become
| whirlwinds from three to FIVE hundred
| miles in diameter; the winds acquire
a spiral course around the center of
the vortex, and may attain destructive
violence near the center, while the
| storm liesurely passes over its parabolic
path at the rate of perhaps 10 to II
miles an hour.
In the northern hemisphere the
winds circulate in a direction contrary
70 the movements of the hands OF a
| watch Accompanied by masses of
clouds from which rain falls in torrents
and by winds often over 100 miles
an hour, they approach the coast of
Florida from the southeast and change
thelr direction about latitude 80 de-
gfees north by recurring towards the
northeast. If land is encountered, how
ever, the force of the storm is generally
much diminished"