The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-04
FREAKS OF WEATHER.
FOGS, WINDS AND STORMS OF
 VARIED KINDS.

The "wnItwau" That Spends Itself Upon Terra del Fuego-Ths "Fohn" Wind of Switzerland and the Zero. efousE Purga" Of tbsrtn.
 In mountainous countries, such as Scotland. a fog forms at the top of hill and works downward. The cold mountain top, cooling a warm current of wet air, renders it's moisture visible, and this cold fog. being of lower temperature than the air below and therefore heavier. drops gradually to the valley. Colorado. however, can show an exception to this general rule. There in winter the frost on the low ground is so intense that fog often forms in the valleys and works slowly up the mountain side. This is known by the Indian name of ''pogonip"
 Peru has hundreds of square miles along it's coast of rainless country. Tn this tract rain is never known to fall from one century's end to another. Yet the region is not entirely barren of veg citation. Some parts of it, indeed, are comparatively fertile. This is due to the extraordinary fogs known as ga runs." They prevail every night from May to October after a summer that is sultry and extend up to a level of 1900 feet above the sea. Above 1,20O feet rain falls.
 "The calina" of Spain is fog we may be grateful that we do not have. It is dry, yellow mist which sometimes hides the sun for days at a time over vast tracts of country and makes the sky look as though covered with leaden gauge
 Another peculiar freak of weather we must be thankful to escape is the ''williwau." This form of storm is con- fined to that far off island Tierra del Fuego. The coast is indented with deep fiords crowned with high mountains. Down from their gorges drops the twill iwau." A low, hoarse muttering is heard in the distance. Suddenly, with out the least preliminary puff. fear full blast of wind drops upon the sea. The water is not raised into waves, but driven into fine dust. Fortunately the shock lasts but ten or twelve seconds, and calm follows at once, for no vessel could stand such a wind of even half a minute. During the coming and going of "williwau' the barometer may be watched to drop a tenth of an inch or more and rise again at once.
 Similar in name if not in nature is the "willy willy with which Kalgoorlie gold diggers are acquainted to their cost. Dust deviis,'' some people call them. Half a dozen may be seen danc- ing harmlessly along over the de m.t when suddenly one will dive into the city and fill all the shop windows in Hannah street with dust and sand, blinding every passerby. The willy willy" is 8 thief of the worst kind. It will steal the washing from line or the roof from a shed. In some parts of the country wire ropes are anchored over the roofs Of huts to save them from the attacks of these odd little whirlwinds. Most people have heard of the "fohn'' windE of Switzerland, that warm dry gale which comes over the mountains and in spring will melt two feet of snow in a day. Its cause is most peculiar. The "fohn' comes from the south. As it strikes the Alps it is wet. like most gales which have crossed the sea, but the south face of the mountains receives It's rain, and as 1t crosses the summitsit it is dry. The moving air current is also compressed and therefore dynamically heated. As it falls into the northern valleys in a cataract of air it gains heat at the rate of half a degree for every 100 feet of descent. It usually blows for two or three days, causing great suffering by it's dry heat and oppression. While it lasts the temperature is about thirty degres above the average. "The s'crinook'' of British Columbia and the western side of the United Staes is very similar to the 'fohn."
 England has adopted the American word blizzard for a gale with snow. But the blizzard, however, must yield to the ferocious "buran" of the central steppes of Asia and the "purga" of northern Siberia. To be caught in gales such as these means death in a very few minutes, however warmly clad, for the very air becomes unbreathable, so filled isit with spikes of ice drift.
 "Khamsin" is the hot wind from the desert which blows out of the Sahara upon Egypt The word means fifty, from the idea that it lasts for fifty days. The "khamsin" is terribly hot and dry and sometimes brings pestilence with it.
 Red snow we have all heard of. It is caused by a microscopic infusorial growth and only occurs in snow that has lain unmelted for a long time. In Spitzbergen recently green snow has been noted tinted by similar organisms.
 Gold dust" snow has often been seen, but only in spring. At one time it was mystery how the surface of new fallen snow came to be strewn with a shining yellow deposit. Now it is known to be due to the pollen of pine trees.-Pear- sons Weekly.