Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-04
AYs r's 4 7AI1AcY.
Weather Maa on the Equinoctial, or
 Lne 6torm-His Figures.

| 45ff3
 1ne storm-His Figures. Among the many erroneous im-
 pressions regarding weather phenom-
 ena there. probably, is none more widespread than the popular belief | in the recurrence from year to year of
 the so-called 4line storm" at the
 time of the autumnal equinox. The
 believers in the fallacy are easily sat-
 lsned when 1t comes to verifying
 their theory. If there happens to he l moderately severe storm any time during the month previous to the equinox, 1t Is the 'line storm little ahead of time and the same reasoning applies to the succeeding month. The plain facts of the case are that
 students of astronomy and meteOrOl-
 ogy have found nothing that war
 rants the assumption, and the re-
 cords of long series of years fail to
 corrOborate 1t. No one conversant
 with the subject will deny that begin-
 ming with the early part of September
 the number of stormy days increases
 somewhat, but to maintain that the
 mere passing Of the sun across the
 equator and the equality of the days
 and nights Is caugal, or accompanied
 by any marked weather disturbances
 Is intellectual and in direct opposition
 to the theory ond facts of meteorol-
 ogy. To refute the idea that there Is any special day or period more likely than another to be stormy the subjoined table has been prepared by Forecaster Niefert, from the records made by various reliable observers in Hartford, in cooperation with the national weather service, covering the period from September 15 to 29 of each year since 1871, and showing the precipitation, if any. that occurred on each day during that time.
 On September P, the middle day of the period, measurable amounts of precipitation occurred only six times the heaviest being 1.40 inches in 1882, the next OBS during the current year, and the amounts In the other four years were considerably below half an inch. For the week of which the 22d was the middle day, we find only ten years in which the total amounts for the week equaled an inch, and nine years In which there was no rain at all observed during the week. For the fifteen-day period there were nine years in which rain fell upon but two days of the fifteen, and in 1879 and 1881 upon but one. The latter year will be remembered by the famous yellow day.; no rain fell from August 2Oth until September 18th, and the total fall for the entire month of September was but 0.54 of | an inch. The most severe storm noted was in 1882 when 1t began rain- Ing on the Fist and continued for five days, with total fall of 5.72 inches. This was one of those unusual storms which happen 'once in life time" and is the only occasion within the history of authentic records In this city that can be pointed out as hay ing any close connection with the equinoctial date. The whole month of that year was exceptional for heavy there being total of 1923 inches, the greatest amount that has been recorded for the month of Sep tember in thlrty-six years.
 In 1900 rain fell on each day from the 18th to the 18th inclusive. the to- tai amount being PTS inches. In 1894. the records show fall of 4.S7 inches on the 1Sth-2 2Oth, of which amount i.7S Inches feif in less than twenty four hours. i. e. from 9 a, m, of the 18th to. 7:30 a. m.. of the 20th. This single storm gave more precipitation han the total gave for the months of June. July and August of that year. md broke the protracted drought which many readers will recall.
 With these facts in view let any 'andid mind review the data here presented and see if the belief in ,quInoctial storms is not a popular de- usion. It will be noticed that Mir leifert has taken wider range in, inc than have others. as a better test han to place the time limit in space # three or four days, and therefore 'etter to demonstrate the utter un- oundness of the general Idea.