The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-04-26
The Moon and the weather.

belief that the moon has a potent |
influence on weather changes is we'll
nigh universal. The moons appear
ance goes through such marked |
changes each month that it would be |
very natural to attribute weather
changes to these. In this way ur-
doubtedly such sayings as these have
arisen: '"The weather won't change
Till the moon changes" "If the moon
lies Sc that the water cannot run out
we shall have a drought" "a wet
moon is one upon which huntsman
can bna.is horn" etc. Diligent in
-; as to the POI popular llar
other, that more rain will occur at lbo
new moon than at the full mooc.s~sin.
gularly eneSsa. i u as Connecticut on Long
lsian sound, there does seem to be
sucn "a law, but it does not hold in
tne ll,nterior of the country, and test
On tie Pacific coast showed, if any,
3e6g, exactly the opposite. At Lon
don, where observations have been
made for more than century, care
full computation for the whole period
has shown no effect. If we reflect
that the moon is dead and does not
have any air, even, up on it, that it
always SHOWS the same face to the
earth, that it's changes are simply due
to changes in its position as respects
the earth and sun. and that its vary
ing appearances 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 valid at first
sight. If the moon can raise tide Of
sixty feet in the ocean, why may It
not raise tremendous tide in the
extremely tenuous air, 800 times light
er than water, or a tide of about 49,
600 feet, and if so, 1t seems easy to see
that such commotion would affect
our weather enormously. The tide OF
sixty feet, (the highest in the world)
is experienced only in the Bay Of Fun
| dy, and is due to the confguration Of
| the Atlantic coast. In the open Pa
cific the tide is only little over one
foot Most careful observations of
lunar atmospheric tide have been made
shown a tide a little more than .00i
inch. Since ordinary weather changes
| affect the pressure thousand times as
| much, we see how extremely insignif-
cant the moons total effect must be.
There is a common saying, 'The full
moon has power to drive away Clouds"
and some computations seem to bea:
mt fhic i6oo onv ono Mill 1noly RI
the east as the rising full moon shines
through the clouds, he will often see
the clouds disappear. There is nat
ural explanation for this, however,
and in no wise dependent upon the
moon. A long series Of observations
have shown diurnal range Of cloudi-
ness with a minimum point, or time
of least clouds, from to p. M, hence
we see that as the full moon rises and
advances in the sky during this period.
| there will often appear diminution of
clouds. Lord Rose turned his big
rejecting telescope ESQ big that a tail
man walking erect in it could carry
spread umbrella) toward the moon and
| found that if anything, the earth re-
ceived little chilling from the full
moon. More recently the bolometer,
an instrument which can measure less
than one-millionth of degree of tenn
perature change, has shown that the
earth receives tiny bit of heat from
the full moon. The evidence is cumu-
lative and overwhelming, that no
4 weather changes can be ascribed to the
moon.-Prof. H. A. Hazen, in Popular
Science.