The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-07
TIE TERROR OF
 TIE WEST INDIES Two to Four Hurricanes Sweep the Antilles
 Yearly.
MUCH DEVASTATION
What Is Known Concerning Their Origin and Habits
 Their Seasons. /"

From two to four hurricanes occur nearly every year in some portion of the West India waters, or along the adjacent coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The great de- struction of property and the frequent loss of life wrought by these "Tltans of the Storms" have made them the subject of study by meteorologists all ever the world, and plausible theories of the formation, the development, and of the atmospheric mechanics of these mighty disturbances have been worked out and made to conform to the phe- nomena observed.
 To the nhabitants of the West h. dies, says the Porto Rico Review, the hurricane has more than a merely sci entific interest. It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the various, and in some respects conflicting, hypothe- ses advanced to account for the tre- mendous energy developed in these storms, but rather to briefly summarize the accepted facts that are known about the hurricane formation, it's usual path of translation, the premonitory signs that announce it's approach, and the methods of forecasting employed by the United States weather Bureau.
 The Hurricane Season" extends from about the first of July to the mid dle of November. During this portion of the year there seems to be a marked tendency toward unstable atmospheric tlo oe4, T,1d region. This unstable condition general ly first manifests itself over the region to the east of the central Lesser An- titles, although exceptional hurricanes have been known to form even to the west of the Island of Jamaica. If con- ditions are favorable, the storm devel- ops rapidly, assuming the typical hur- rtcane characteristics and frequently causing damage within one or two days after the first indications of its for nation.
 The West Indian hurricane usually moves in a west-northwest direction from it's place of origin, continuing in that general course until 1t reaches about latitude 28 degrees north, when the storm path recurves sharply to the northeast. The greater number of the hurricanes reach latitude 2S degrees north and recurve, in the vicinity of the Florida Peninsula Occasionally, however, one continues on it's westward course as far as the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico, thence recurving to the northeast and passing up the Mis- sissippi Valley. It follows that the in- !, habitants of the West Indies may rest secure once the hurricane has passed to the west of them, as this storm never retraces its path.
 The storm path varies from 30 to as much as 200 miles in width. Beyond the outer edge of the storm proper and moving with it is a circle, or wave, as 1t were, of high barometric pressure. From this high pressure circle toward the storm center the barometer falls quite regularly, but with different gra- dient for different storms, until the center is approached, when the barofi1- eter falls rapidly and irregularly, sometimes dropping an inch in a few minutes as the center of the hurricane passes. As a result of this low pressure in the storm center the heavier air rushes in from all sides to retore the equilibrium.
 The earth's revolution on its axis causes any freely moving body, as the air, to deviate from the path along which it's inertia alone would tend tc direct it. Tn the Northern hemisphere this deviation Is always toward the right, Hence the air masses which are set in motion toward the hurricane center are defected to the right of that center and whirling movement of the winds results. The surface winds thus blow spirally inward toward the hurricane center, with a rotation about that center in direction opposite tC that of the hands of a witch, when hel( face upward. The heated air in tho center of the hurricane is rising, beinS lifted. as it were, by the thrush of th' heavier air from all sides. Hence, il the extremely high strata of the at mosphere above the hurricane centei there is a counter current of ail spreading out over the lower strata il