The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-20
TROPICAL HURRICANES.
Sea Born, Near the Equator, at the
Close of Summer.

: Close Of Summer.
The most terrible tempests known t
man are those which develop in great
err or less abundance near the equator
Immediately after the hottest season o
the year. Those with which American
are most familiar generally occur il
August, September or October ant
make their first appearance in or nea
the West Indies At this period TIL
trade winds have caused an accumula
ton of hot surface water at the western
limit of the ocean in low ATTITUDES, an(
out of this steaming caldron, whos
temperature ranges from ninety to nine
ty-five degrees, are generated storm.
like that Which has just almost annihi.
lated Galveston
These hurricanes show a disposition
to follow a certain typical track. Al
first their movement is nearly west
ward, under the influence of the trade
winds, but they seek to push north
ward, and, having done so, they are
caught by the great eastward upper
current of atmosphere and turned in
almost the opposite direction. The
curve described is a gentle one, and is
sharpest in about latitude twenty five
br thirty degrees. Sometimes the
storm continues on its westward way
until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico,
but more often it ''recurves," so as to
follow the Atlantic coast from Florida
to Hatteras. Thence, as a rule, it
swings away toward northern Eu-
rope, following the Gulf Stream very
/ closely.
ALONG NEW JERSEY AND LONG
ISLAND.
| In exceptional cases these tropical
hurricanes are diverted to the left
hand sufficiently to be felt seriously
on the New Jersey and Long Island
coasts. Sometimes the center keeps
just inside the coast line. Again, the
recurvature may occur so far to the
eastward that the Bermudas suffer
and the United States is entirely ex-
empt What was known as the Nova
Scotia cyclone" and with Greedy de-
scribed as the most destructive storm
of this type known to America, oc
CURED in 1875, and did practically no
damage on land, but it destroyed no
less than 1928 vessels of different kinds
and caused the deaths of six hundred
people.
The chief characteristic of tropical
hurricanes is their high wind velocity.
No storm of temperate ATTITUDES every
develops such appalling fury. There
are few places in the interior of the
United States where the wind ever
blows more than forty or fifty miles an
hour, but in a West Indian cyclone We
locities of eighty ninety and one hum
dred miles are not uncommon, and in
1897, at Cape Lookout, North Carolina,
the thermometer registered 1881 At sea
this means the destruction of small YES
sells and often proves fatal to large
ones; on land it means the demolition
of weak edifices and damage to crops,
and where the contour of the shore ia
vors such an operation, continued gales
Of exceptional force bank up the sea
five, ten and even fifteen feet higher
than usual
This last phenomenon should be dis
cinguished from the mysterious total
wave that sometimes accompanies a
hurricane, but which Is a momentary
affair. surge rising from ten to fifty
feet will sometimes rush in toward
land when a tropical storm is prevail
ing, working nconceivable disaster
within a few minutes Ships are torn
from their anchorages and hurled
ashore to remain high, IL not dry, hun
dreds of yards from the water. Small
vessels have thus been landed in tree
tops in the Bahamas. A storm wave
that swept the Ganges delta in 1864
$4,000 persons and another in
1876 no less than 100000
SLOW ADVANCE OF THE STORM
CENTER.
During the early stages of their his
tory tropical cyclones rarely advance
more than eight or ten miles an hour.
At that time their diameter is small,
between 100 and 200 miles. /
After reaching higher ATTITUDES and
recruving they expand somewhat, and
their progress is more rapid. Eight fun
days elapsed after the recent hurricane
was detected to the south of Porto
Rico before Galveston felt it, Another
popularity of this class of disturbances
Is the remarkable fall in the barometer
that accompanies them. From the out
side to the center, or calm EYE Of the
Storm" the distance may not be more
han fifty miles and yet the barometer
nay fall during the passage of the hur
'icane over given spot from the victn-
ty of thirty inches to 275, Greedy men
ions case in which the barometer at
Guadalupe fell from 29.6 to 27,9 in sew
,nty minutes. Much lower readings
han this have been observed, however.
Few storms of temperate attitudes ever
Effect the barometer to a greater extent
han half an inch and even this change
$ far more gradual than with hurri
ane owing to the much greater breadth
If northern depressions. Torrents of
ain, often amounting to three or four
inches a day, and sometimes even more,
Usually fall while a tropical storm is
REVEALING.
A West Indian hurricane is circular
n form. Hence Piddington applied to
hem the name of cyclone" derived
rom the same root as that found in
bicycle" Some fierce discussions
ave been conducted over the direction
f the wind with reference TO the CEN
er. Piddington and Redfeld thought
hat the wind blew in circles around
he latter. Espy held that it aimed
traight for the center. The truth lies
etween the two suggestions. The air
moves in an inward spiral, and its
curse forms a considerable angle with |