Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-10-20
QUAKES, STORMS, FLOODS
AND OTHER UPHEAVALSLAD
TO METEOROLOGICAL MUMPS

The old spheroid known as the
earth is emerging from what some
human diagnosticians might call
severe attack of meteorological
mumps. It has been accompanied
by an intermittent fever, manifested
in a world wide heat wave of I'M
usual length and intensity. In spite
of crises and relapses-earthQua
tidal waves, cloudbursts, typhoons'
waterspouts hailstorms, floods and
hurricanes in many widely separated
parts from Kamchatka to Cape
Horn and from Guam 20 Guadalupe
the doctors are confident the pa
tent will recover.
Meanwhile, the United States for
the last year has been suffering
chiefly from an excess Of high tenn
perature, a condition unprecedented
in the fifty years history of the
weather bureau. From January !, to
September %, last, the temperature
Of New York city, which is typical
Of the country, has shown ar aggre-
gate excess above normal While there
las been a shortage Of 6.7l inches in
rainfall. The greatest amount OIL
September precipitation vas In 1882,
when more than IA IL inches fell
snd the least for that month oc-
CURED two years later with only III
teen hundredths of an inch.
Temperature Above Normal
Some time before the present phe-
nomenon, the nine months period pc
ginning in October, 1918, and end
r., hn month";
lv temperature was 2.71 degrees
above normal and this was a record
until sun spots, sea bottom upheav-
ais or other hypothetical causes sent
the mercury still higher. The high
est average temperature ever record
ed in this country for the month Of
March, weather officials say, was
48.3 in March, 1921.
The average temperature for April,
1921-55 degrees-was the warmest
for that month in half a century.
May and June were not unusual, but
July broke all records for the pre-
ceding eleven years. A curious freak
Of the weather in America for the
week ending September % was that
while every section Of the country
from Bismarck, N. D., to Halifax, N.
S., and from Phoenix, Ariz., to Miami,
Fla, was suffering from abnormally
G1IlpSl dIul 1d1 So oil LII
Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Me-
vada were having freezing nights.
Whether the worldwide heat wave
is due to some terrible paroxysm of
nature, such as volcanic action in
some reliable region of the earth or
seismic upheaval in the depths of
some unknown sea. or whether it
is due to sun spots or some other
cause, is entirely problematical. 1t
is only as recently as last December
l6 that scientists were cudgeling
their brains to solve the mystery of
an earthquake estimated to have been
$500 miles from Washington" A
few days later news came of an earth
quake in far-off Kan-Su province
China, four times that distance, In
which 1000 persons persisted. The
probably had occurred two distincc
shocks, each widely separated and
from that day to this seismologists
speak of the lost" earthquake The
present temperatures may be due
TO Rough Usage
1t is a fact, however, that what
ever the cause, this terrestrial ball
has been subjected of late to rough
usage, notwithstanding that the war
is over. A glance back at some of
the recent disasters and natural phe-
nomena shows the following:
Two million Koreans starving in
Manchur1a owing to drought-ruined
crops. Three hundred buildings
wrecked and many killed by haiIstorIn
and waterspout at Baez, Cuba. Three
volcanoes, Vtllarica, Llama and La
MIN, spout fiames more than a thou
sand feet from craters.
Drought kills fish in river Seine
and France suffers most severe
drought in forty-seven years. Rhine
and Moselle rivers do great damage
in highest flood in 1876 years. Cloud
burst and hail storm damage Rome.
Italy.
Mt. Vesuvius shows activity and
earthquake shock is felt from Leg
horn to Lake Lugano. Italian de-
stroyers carry Inhabitants to safety
as volcano Strombell resumesAactiv-
lty. Damage of several million
hail storms. Earth-slide blocks Cor
NTH canal.
Cyclone devastates three towns in
Haiti. Volcano Kilauea in Hawai-
spouts Immense fountains of lava.
Activity Of the volcano Popocatepetl
IN Mexico increasing. Earthquake
shakes Vera Cruz and four other
cities. lightning strikes oil wells.
causing millions of dollars damage,
in Tampico and other districts. Mex
leans pray to water goddess" to end
drought.
Volcano Colima, in Jalisco, is in
eruption: Many lives lost in water
spout which destroyed art of Tan
gler, Morocco. Volcano Masaya. in
Nicaragua, In eruption. Typhoon and
floods in Philippines, and especially
on the island of Luzon. do great dam
age: Six new craters opened in Mt.
!zdico, salvador. Waterspout in
Mata-Doura province of Spain dam
ages crops and villages. Heet in the
Alps causes glaciers to spring and
nine mountain climbers are killed.
Seventy-five tornadoes which sween
southern United States. Flood in
undates Pueblo, causing S1O,000 900
property loss, Forty-seven perish IN
San Antojio. Texas, flood.
One consolation of the freak
weather. however is the prospect OF
an open winter"