Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-22
Icebergs and Weather.

To the Editor of The Star:
plead guilty to the authorship of the
card on How to Cool the Country to
which The Star recently referred editori-
ally. Let me define my status. l am in
no sense a prophet. / have not recently
attempted to forecast future events-a
few whacks at the stock market having
cured me of that a great many years
ago. l am only common garden
variety" of observer, who notes any
transient phenomenon that happens to
stray into his bailiwick. Yes, if / am
any sort of genius. l am a genius of
suggestion, and you ought to be obliged
to me for suggesting the opportunity, by
treating my little communication with
mock seriousness, to lambaste, over the
shoulders of an anonymous correspondent
in an impersonal way, the whole pestif-
erous tribe of "goosebone" prophets, in
which you came SO near including my
self
Your reference to the farmer and the
sailor was wise concession to large
classes of influential citizens. and in your
happiest vein.
Permit me to say that it was not the
first time during my forty years resi-
dence in Washington that l have noticed
a close connection between an unusual
number of icebergs in the Atlantic and
a cool wave in Washington in midsum-
served a rise in temperature here on
the occasion of great forest fire as
far away as Maine or Michigan. The
heat from great forest fire is plainly
distinguishable from direct solar heat
The wind from a great forest fire is OPP
pressive. while breeze accompanying
solar heat is always refreshing.
If my theory In regard to iceberss
chilling the atmosphere on the coast is
erroneous. the blame is largely the fault
of The Star to which i have been a
subscriber for nearly forty years. From
what other source could | have obtained
the information that two-thirds of the
bulk of an iceberg is under water, or
that there ever was an iceberg in the
Atlantic ocean? And from what source
did ! learn that the trade winds Called
the Chinook winds) blowing over the
warm Japan current that flows along the
north Pacific coast into Puget sound and
i, up the valley of the Columbia, modify
the temperature of our north Pacific
coast as far inland as Montana and up
the western base of the Rocky noun
tains?
/ submit that if from such teaching I
have evolved a theory that the atmos-
fected by icebergs coming into the cur
rent that rushes through the straits of
Belle Isle into the Gulf of st. Lawrence.
and that we receive benefit from the wind
that blows over this current OF cold
water across the Dominion of Canada.
il is a more plausible theory than that
the cooling was effected by haistorm
at Duluth
By what cause or through what route
the chilly weather was sent here | do
not know. but | will state as a general
proposition that artificial temperatures
are not amenable to the same laws that
govern barometrical changes. / am
willing TO leave the matter to the solu-
ton of the weather bureau. with it's
highs and lows and barometric lines, and
will accept its dictum absolutely. The
country has an abiding faith in the in
falliblity of our weather bureau, especi-
ally since il so calamity rescued its repu-
iation by its ingenious explanation of a
bareback" when il failed in it's pre-
diction for good weather on our last
Inauguration day, j. S. HICkCOX.