Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-04
DESCRIBES
WEATHER SOUNDS
Meteorological Society Told
Elijah Could Hear Ap-
proach of Rain.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
The prophet Elijah heard 1.-THE sound

The prophet Elijah heard 1.-THE sound
Of abundance Of rain"
The validity of Elijahs weather pre-
dictions were upheld before the Ameri-
can Meteorological Society yesterday by
Prof. William j. Humphreys of the
United States weather Bureau, who
presented evidence that coming weather
can be heard, smelled and felt.
The velocity of sound, he said, de-
ponds on the temperature OF the air.
In clear weather this is very uneven,
with warm and cool pockets every
where. So the speed of sound is con-
stantly changing. The sound has a
rough road to travel and soon loses
its force. But just before a rain the
atmosphere on the same level is OF just
about the same temperature. Sound
with q clear road travels far.
So before rain, Prof. Humphreys
said, sounds can be heard for greater
distances than ordinarily. Persons
with sensitive ears. such as Elijah may
have had, can sense this, he said, and
Pressure Releases Gas.
It also is possible, he said, to smell a
coming storm. This usually happens
within shifting distance of pond
which contains considerable decaying
vegetation. The process of decay re-
leases gas bubbles which ordinarily are
kept down by the pressure of the air.
But just before a storm this pressure
is greatly reduced, the bubbles escape
to the surface and burst, releasing the
pungent smelling gas into the at
mosphere. 1t may travel considerable
distances, DR.. Humphreys said.
The human feeling" of heat and cold
are different from what is indicated by
the thermometer and generally supposed
to depend on the amount OF dampness
in the air, he said, and never has been
satisfactorily explained, although persons
complain of feeling colder at freezing
point in wet air than when 1t Is far
below zero in dry air. The two COM
mon explanations, that humid air Is q
better heat conductor than dry air
and that the specific heat of humid air
is different, are not borne out by labora-
tory tests, DR.. Humphreys said.
AS his own explanation, he said that
the sensation of cold does not depend
directly on the temperature Of the at
mosphere but the rate bodily heat Is
flowing out into the air. It escapes
very slowly through a perfectly dry
skin, one of the poorest possible heat
conductors. But when the skin Is damp,
as on q humid day, 1t becomes a good
conductor and the body heat flows out
as fast as 1t can be replenished.
Use Of Oil Coating.
Covering the skin with q thin Aim
Of oil, he said, changes it into q poor
condutor again. This practice, he said,
Is common to long-distance swimmers
and to persons living in the Far North
who continue to grease their faces on
cold days even after coming to America.
The physiological reason for sun
strokes and heat strokes, he said, still Is
unknown. The fact that some person,
especially those suffering from rheuma-
tism, have an observed abnormal sen
sitivity to weather changes cannot be
explained, 1t was brought out In the
discussion of DR.. Humphreys paper
Director Patterson of the Canadian
Weather Bureau said that this sem
sitivity to change is experienced in
rooms with uniform heat and air mo-
ton which seem to be entirely shut on
from the outside. The factor respor-
sible would repay study, he said.
The wierd phenomenon Of the aft
erglow," observed rarely on Eastern
mountain tops after twilight and whose
appearance In the Blue Ridge Noun
tains excited the wonder of Thomas
Jefferson, was explained by DR.. Hum
phreys.
First, he said, comes the much more
common Alpine glow when a mountain
top seems to shine with red and green
light Just as the sun sinks below the
horizon. This can be explained by
mathematical analysis Of the wave
length of light. Then comes the dim,
beautiful "afterglow" on rare evenings
when the conditions are right.
It Is apparently due, he said. to .
mirage effect caused by a warmer layer
of atmosphere far above the noun
tain top. The same wierd effect, he
said, sometimes Is seen by man walk
ing at evening to a house on q hilltop,
the location of which he knows per-
fectly. But when he looks ahead 1t
seems very much higher than 1t really
Is, giving the walker the thought that
"he Is seeing things and had better get
another bootlegger."
other meteorologists advanced the
explanation that the "afterglow" might
be due to the reflection Of light back
against the mountainside by dust in the
atmosphere or to q reflection from the
underside Of high clouds.
There are very few Winter days In
some large industrial cities, said DR.. H.
H. Kimball of the United States
Weather Bureau, when any health-giv-
ing ultraviolet light at all comes to
the level of their earth because II its
absorption by dust. DR.. Kimball's con-
clusion was based on counts of the dust
content Of the air and Its absorbing
qualities.