Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-23
OF WORLD wilde INTEREST
EOUZNOXES AND STORMS
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN

there was a notoble cold wave. The
weather bureau wanted name for II.
The members ransacked their diction-
aries for term. and finally fell back
on the word blizzard" which, like the
storm, came out of the west. They ap-
piled 1t to that cold wave, and the
term has never lost it's popularity. The
hardest wind that ever blew In the
United States beat around Mt. Wash
ington in 1875 For one and a half
hours 1t blew at the rate of 1856 miles
an hour. When a wind is blowing at
the rate of a hundred miles an hour
the pressure it makes is nearly fifty
pounds to the square foot. A wind
blowing fifty miles an hour registers
only 1913 pounds.
The greatest series of tornadoes the
world has ever seen occurred on Feb
ruary 8, 1884. In the territory extend
ing east from Mississippi, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Illinois to the Atlantic
There were more than sixty different
tornadoes, which destroyed over 10000
buildings, killed 500 people and wound
ed 2500 more. The destruction of prop
erty by tornadoes from 1890 to 1898
amounted to over s26, 900, 900. and there
were some 1900 lives lost during that
period The most telling blow the
United States has ever received from
storms was the one which deluged
Galveston, Texas, September s. 1900, in
which 1000 people lost their lives, and
stroyed. Floods at Topeka, Kas,, in
May, 1908, rendered 5000 people home
less. In June of the same year a
cloudburst at Clifton, s. c., destroyed
life and damaged property to the ex-
tent of S3,500,000, and a week after
ward a like disaster in Hepner. Ore,
lost 500 lives and damaged millions
nf 6Oilarci n Ynrnnertv
1t is rather surprising to not the
amount of damage reported in the
United States from lightning. The lat
est report of the weather bureau on
the subject shows that there were 5527
strokes of lightning which did damage
during that fiscal year, and that's the
number of buildings injured or de-
stroyed thereby was 6256. valued at
$3.016.000. From tables for other years
this seems to be about a fair average.
There We're 563 people killed, and $50
injured by lightning during the year.
and nearly 5000 head of live stock
killed. ,
The Washington monument at Wash
ington, d. c.. has lent itself to many
scientific investigations. One of these
related to lightning. In 1886, during
severe storm, a man stationed him
self in the top of the monument with
an electrometer to determine whether
lightning flashes tended to lessen the
tension of electricity in the air. The
instrument showed that it did.
One of the most striking illustra-
tions of the influence of wires over
lightning is the case of a telephone
line in Virginia. Prior to 1896 there
was a single wire on small poles for
a distance of twelve miles. Every cleo
trical storm seemed to carry destruc-
ton to many of the poles of that line.
When LIGHTNING would strike at the
ton of a hill every pole to the base
of the next hill was likely TO be shlV-
cred. Then another company acquired
the line and replaced it with new
one. carrying today ten wires. AT every
tenth post q piece of common gaiVah
lied wire was planted in the ground
and stapled to the post without insula-
ton of any kind. 1t projects aDout
six inches from the top of the post.
In the eleven years that have elapsed
since the new line was built not
post has been struck. Prior to that
time not a summer passed without
there being a score. or more shiVered'
The weather is fun of freaks. Just
before the vernal equinox of 1885, at
Bloomington, ILL.,, three-quarters OF an
inch of snow fell from an apsoiuteY
clear sky In 1886, near Whltehali' lll''
hailstones. some said TO ne as Dig as
goose eggs, fell to a depth of from
eight TO twelve inches In Iowa, on
one occasion, hailstones as big as
mans fist fell in such volume as to COW
er the ground TO the depth of from
two to three feet.
with the coming of spring there ap-
pears the usual number OF weather
and near-weather prophets. one of the
most widely acclaimed of these says
that we are going to have some hot
weather next summer. Tho weather
bureau, jealous of its prerogatives, re-
niles that we are pretty sure TO have
some rather cold spells next winter
But in spite of them all. the weather
continues to act independently, and tn
hide it's real secrets from those who
would proclaim them to waiting
world.