Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1899-04-06
nOI ANU COLO WAVES.
Both kinds Flourish beautifully in
This Happy Land of Freedom.

ms HAPPY Lana OF Freedom.
Speaking about cold waves and
weather in general yesterday a mem
Der of the Maryland Academy of Sci
ences said:
I'VE 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 a
couple of years ago. 1t was n record
breaker, you know, carrying the risors
of winter to Il lower latitude than has
been known for sixty years at least
Florida suffered $4OOO,OOO worth of
damage. At Pensacola the oranges
froze hard on the trees. The thermom
eter at Tampa fell to IS degrees above
zero, ) 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
howery peninsula in 1880, but tempera-
lures were not recorded with reliable
accuracy.
cold waves are unknown in Europe.
We may justly pride ourselves upon
them as an American institution. 1t is
the same way with billiards.. Who
ever heard of IA blizzard in Europe?
Cold 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 cold. 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'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 rarefied air ut a tempera-
ture of 100 degrees below zero, or even
much lower. The body of cold formed
by the dOwnrush of this frgid air from
above starts on journey eastward
across the continent. travelling at the
speed of a fast railway train, thirty
five or forty miles an hour AS it pro-
ceeds it spreads out. Obviously the
cold air would be gradually warmed
during the trip unless the waves were
replenished with cold in some fashion.
My notion is that while the wave is in
ransit fresh cold is continually drawn
ntO it from above, where there Is al
4 Ways an unlimited supply Of air at an
\ extremely low temperature. Finally,
he wave passes off over the ocean. In
ome manner the Allegheny Mountains
eem to interrupt the passage of cold
aves, to a certain extent, as If the
N I'D air was banked up against that
nge Of hills, and it's passage thus i'm
.ded. On this account it is very diff
1t to predict cold waves for the re-
On of Baltimore and Washington.
The lowest temperature ever record
on the earth was taken at WerchO-
lsk in the interior of Siberia, Jan.
1885. 1t was 80 degrees and frac-
q below zero. Werchojansk Is in the
II stude of the pole of cold. There the
tn is frozen to a depth Of about 100
IIh !, and in the warmest season it
er thaws. The highest temperature
3
n IN in Algeria. July II, 1879. The
EST temperature on record in the
ted States is Ga degrees below zero,
tobacco Garden, y. d. Greedy, the
lie explorer, has probably expert
d wider range Of temperature
any other living man. He record
IS degrees below zero at Fort
er, on Lake Franklin Bay. On an
occasion, in the Maricopa Desert,
riZOna, his thermometer in the
: ran up to III degrees above. A
r match dropped upon the burn
lnds of Sahara will catch fire. 1t
(, y difficult even with the finest
Ometers, to get accurate records
rene temperatures, and on that
i ut such observations in general
Il be regarded as only approx
III correct" baltimore American