The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-03-14
MOON AND THE WEATHER.
Belief That Our Satellite InAueaces
Changes IL . False One.

A belief that the moon has a potent in.
| fuence on weather changes il well nigh
universal. The moons appearance goes
through such marked changes each month
that 1t would be very natural to attribute
weather changes to these. In this way
| undoubtedly such sayings as these have
arisen: 1.-The weather won't change until
the moon changes" III the moon lies SO
water cannot run out, we shall have q
drought" "a wet moon is one upon
which huntsman can hang his horn"
etc. Dligcnt inquiry at one time MS to
the popular belief regarding this question
brought ont the view, more persistent
thnn any other, that more rain will occur
at the new than at the full moon. Singu.
larry enough, in Connecticut on Long
Island sound there does seem to be such
law, but 1t does not hold in the inte-
riOr of the country. and test on the Pa
citic coast showed, il anything exactly
the opposite. At London, where observa-
tions have been made for more than q
century, a careful computation for the
whole period has shown no effect.
If we reflect that the moon is dead and
does not have any air even upon it. that
it always shows the same face to the
earth, that its changes are simply due to
changes in its position as respects the
earth and sun, and that its varying ap-
pearances are all borrowed, we see how
absurd the notion is that the moon does
influence our weather. There Is, however,
another argument that appears quite val
i'd at first sight. If the moon can raise q
tide of GO feet in the ocean, why may it
not raise tremendous tide in the ex-
tremely tenuous air, 800 times lighter
than water, or tide of about $4,000 feet,
and, If SO, il seems easy to see that such
commotion would affect our weather
enormously.
The tide Of 60 feet tthe highest In the
world is experienced only in the bay of
Fundy and is due to the confguration Of
the Atlantic coast. In the open Pacific
the tide is only little over one foot.
Most careful observations of a lunar at
mospheric tide have been made at st.
Helena, in midocean. and have shown a
tide little more than .001 inch. Since
ordinary weather changes affect the pres
sure 1000 times as much, we see how ex-
tremely insignificant the moons total
effect must be.
There is common saying, "The full
moon has power to drive away Clouds"
and some computations seem to bear cut
this idea. If any one will look to the east
as the rising full moon shines through
the clouds, he will often see the clouds
disappear. There is natural explanation
for this, however, and in nowise depend
ent upon the moon. A long series of OBJ
servations has shown diurnal range in
cloudiness with minimum point. or time
Of least clouds, from 6 TO p. H., hence
we see that as the full moon rises and
advances in the sky during this period
there will often appear a diminution of
clouds. Lord Rose turned his big re-
fecting telescope $50 big that tall man
walking erect in it could carry spread
nmbrclla) toward the moon and found
that, If anything. the earth received just |
a little chilling from the full moon. More
recently the bolometer, an instrument
which can measure less than one mill
ionth of degree of temperature change,
has shown that the earth receives a tiny
bit of heat from the full moon. The evil
1ence is cumulative and overwhelming |
hat no weather changes can be ascribed |
% the moon.-Professor II. A. Hazen in
Popular Science.