Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
CLIMATIC CHANGES.
Ideas Of Weather Theorists Concern
Ing Temperature of Seasons.

Ideas Of Weather Theorists Concern.
Ing Temperature of Seasons.
From the New York Tribune.
The hot weather Of last summer and the
stiIl warmer weather Of the last July have
set people to wondering If gradual change
has for years been coming over the cH-
matte conditions of this part Of the coun-
try. Where, too, it Is asked, are the old
fashioned winters. when sleighing con-
tinued for weeks uninterrupted1y and peo-
pie frequently crossed the East river on
the Ice? Many theories have been ad-
vanced regarding the seeming change In
the eastern climate. The influence Of sun
spots, the course Of the gulf stream and
the destruction OF forests have each in
their turn been suggested as possible ex-
plantations. DR.. Daniel Draper, when asked
about this subject, expressed himself az
skeptical regarding any real change In the
climate. There were fluctuations he said
but the working of permanent change. IL
going on at all. was SO slow that in the
thrty-three years in which obserya tions
had been made no permanent change had
been remarked. The fluctuations came in
no regular groups Of years, and were gov
erned by no apparent laws. The destruc-
ton of forests, DR.. Draper asserts. has mot
changed the rainfall, and, therefore. does
not affect the climate. Nor are the sun
spots accountable for changes in tempera-
ture, he thinks. In India, he said. an at
tempt had been made to work out a theory
In regard to sun spots, but at present
| though the laws obtained might hold good
for India, they could not apply to the rest
OF the world. Theoretically, they ought to
hold good anywhere! To formulate salts
factory laws on the subject of climatic
changes observations extending through
many years would Oe necessary and the oh
serVationS must not be confined as former
iy, to isolated places, but extend over large
tracts.
The disappearance of the old fashioned
winter Draper denies. He points to the IA
nous blizzard of 1888 as one of the hea yfest
. snow1aiis ever known In this city. People,
ne sa1d might still occasionally cross To
Staten Island on an Ice jam, as General
washington did in revolutionary days If
the continuous shipping did not keen the
narpor open, and they might still go about
In slelghs for many weeks at time through
sheer necessity If better means of locomO-
ton had not been contrived. Believers in
the old-fashioned winter took old instances
or intense cold that impressed them at the
time and later exaggerated the Importance
OF them. On the question of the oId-fash
Toned winter e. 3. Dunn differs from DR.
Draper. Mr.. Dunn holds that the seasons
were formerly better defined than now; the
winters steadier int cehR and the summers
With fewer suddaM contrasts in tempera-
ture. Yet the average temperatures of the
less blended seasons Of former years Mr.
Dunn thinks, aresabout the same as the
Sio6C OIL the present.
Neither the direction of the gulf Stream nor
the destruction Of the forests stxisses Mr..
Dunn as a possible explanation of the
change. SAncT weather conditions pass from
west to east. the gulf stream has no effect
whatsoever on this climate, is his conten-
T ton. 1.-The heat Of forest, too; can no
more modify cold wave than the heat Of
great city.
The explanation that Mr.. Dunn thinks
plausible lies in the great extension of ir-
risation through the west in the last twen-
ty-hVe years, for The blending of the sea-
sons has been nsticed from the Atlantic
seacoast to the Rocky mountains. There
are now from 100000 to 100000 acres in
the west under artificial irrigation This
great area of irrigated land creates moist
ure and tendency to the development of
low pressure storms. In Mr.. Dunn's opin-
lon, therefore, the great extension Of irri-
cation in the west may be one cause of
any change now noticeable If. then. as
seems generally agreed, the average heat
or recent seasons Is as much as it has
been In the thirty-yhree years Of observa-
ton, there Is no reason to fear steady in
crease in the heat here