, 1911-03-22

S"N ''
the passage of a cyclone whose centre pa ,ses
north Of the isltud, shift, towards the north
then through northwest to west and thence
through south round to east again. Thu.
the lower wind give, up, IN such case, its
regular movement from east to west ana
shifts through all the points Of the compass.
Does the upper wind also come under the
Temporary rule of the cyclone? 1t does, but
not III the same way. How then? Accord
ing to the most commonly received theory.
the lower air, which moves spirally rnwards.
towards the cyclones centre, there ru she's
upwards, and is then thrown outwarls from
the centre all round. An observer TO whom
the world IS indebted for many valuable OBJ
servations on cyclones, the late Father Vih9z
of Havana, held that tile ar Thus thrown
upwards and outwlrds radiated from the
centre or vortex Of the storm in Str0i0bt
lines; but this cannot be quite correct
for the rotation of the ealth requires
that the movement from the centre should
be in cur1ed lines, bending more and
more to the right as they 60 outwards. Oux
editors observations for the past five wears
show pretty clearly hat this is the case.
When I cyclone centre is rather near rs. saw
at a distance OF a hundred miles or less. the
great misses OF low cloI1 that then covar
the sky are generally so dense that il i
impossible to see anything of the high
clouds, but Whau the centre is not 50 near.
it is often possible to see the high clouds
and hence 10 learn from them how the
higher air is moving. 1t sometimes hap.
pens that we can IN that way watch the
course of q cyclone for a week or more. Ia
the great Havana hurricane of last October,
for instance, the high clouds came from the
southwest when the cyclone centre was south
Of Santa Cruz, but shifted daily as the cy-
clone went west, till when it was south of
jamaica they were coming from the north,
and us the .torm went forwards and, turn
ing to the northeast, passed over western
Cuba and Florida, finally moving up the
Atlantic, the high cIou Is as seen here in St.
CroiX shifted gradually to northeast. And
this last fact leads Us back to our question
What was the problem standing over from
last November Well it was this From
the 23rd OF October down to the 18th of
November the high clouds had been coming
from normal, that is to'say western, points,
as was to be expected, the hurricane season
being over but late in the afternoon OF that
day (the 18TH some high clouds we're seen
coming from the north. Was there then a
cyclone out to the westward? Perhaps the
high clouds next morning would help US to
Judge; but the next morning no such clouds
appeared nor throughout that day nor on
the day following. Houco it was impossible
to say from what direction the upper mir
was moving on those two days a gale might
have been blowing up there, but if 50 there
was nothing to show it. On the third day,
however, 0he 2lst) we find noted, Light
cirrus (high cloud) from northeast by east,
very slow" SO, after all, the direction had
changed in the way we had thought that it
might do.
The higher air had in fact been moving as
it would be likely to have done if there were
Il cyclone centre to northwest and finally
moving to northeast, and the question was,
did such a cyclone really exist ? That was
the problem, one which could only be solved
il information of such came to hand, and
now by a late mail it has come. We find it
in the Monthly Weather Re0iev for Novem-
Der, recently to hand. In that number the
chart of the tracks of low pressure centres,
shows among others, the track of storm which
seems to have been fist noticed on the 14th
near the mouth of the RioGraude, from whence
it travelled along the northern part of the
Gulf of Mexico, arriving off the mouth of
the Mississippi on the 18th and at Florida
on the 18th. 1t was not a hurricane, for one
of tha accOuDtS UIvan in tbo Po,.o,. -..l.