The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1934-02-01
Facts and FancieS About "A1ilder'' Winters


its average was only "a degrees.
Even at their worst Baltimore win
ters are not very cold when compared
to those of other regions. Byrd's ex-
petition, for example, is ready to in
trench in the Antarctic where w. c.
Haines, the expeditions weather eX-
pert, some years ago recorded 80 de-
grees below zero. An instrument, at
tached to a sounding balloon was sent
into the upper air and brought back
to earth the lowest aerial temperature
ever found-132 degrees below zero.
Strangely enough, this was recorded
almost above the equator, at Batavia,
Java.
At Verkhowansk, Siberia, human
beings have existed in the lowest tenn
perature so far found on the surface
go degrees below zero. A new
weather station was opened in the
Oimekon district of Siberia, and it is
expected that this winter will record
CNtIl lOWCl dGuItSs
On Mount Mckinley, in Alaska,
thermometer was discovered after re-
manning on the peak for nineteen
years. It's index had retreated into the
bulb which indicated that a cold of
more than 100 degrees below zero had
been reached.
Greenland's Icy Cap
Greenland still worries navigation
with thousands of icebergs breaking
away from an ice cap nearly a mile
thick. The Byrd flagship, in the Ant
arctic, reports thousands of great ice
bergs drifting north, one being fifteen
miles in length. More than 100000
square miles of the earth's surface
still lie under ice at the ends of the
globe. Only a few thousand years
ago most of nothern North America
was covered with ice to a depth of
hundreds Of feet. The advance of mil
der climatic seasons has melted most
of the glaciers and the polar ice cap
has retreated northward.
Jack Frost, that elfin personifca-
ton of natures winter arts, is the
strong man of the frigid kingdom The
strength Of freezing water is amaz-
ing, for it expands with such force
that when confined to an inclosed
space it is capable of exerting a pres
sure of over three tons per square
inch!
The volume of water is increased
one-eleventh when qualification takes
place. If cast iron container should
be filled with water, tightly plugged
and exposed to freezing temperature,
it will be exploded as if by dynamite.
When the great pressure created by
the expansion of the superchilled wat
er, which does not freeze under pres
sure, is suddenly released, the water
solidifies at once. That is why a
tongue of ice is seen protuding from
the crack Of frozen motor after its
owner has neglected to add an anti
freeze solution to the radiator.
The frost pictures, discovered on
the windows in the morning are
painted" in this fashion: At night
the indoors temperature falls to a
point wher cit cannot keep the window
glass as warm as during the day. The
cold, outside air, therefore, chills the
glass below the freezing point. Water
vapor is condensed from the moist, |
indoor air and deposited upon the cold
glass. There it freezes into a thin
sheet Of crystallized ice. The crystals
on the glass are small, separate par
ticles, added one at a time, and they
reflect the daylight so as to appear as
tiny, white fakes resembling ferns,
trees, feathers and lace.
Fortunate, indeed, is the person who
IS permitted to Sc rime storm. This |
strange frost is created when fogs and |
clouds pass over freezing surfaces of |
objects. Tiny, needle-like particles of |
HAoioLuIC 4IOII IHc ilOiSI diT lmplnSe
upon the windward side of very cold |
objects. Soon heavy, bearded mass
of moss-like frost is built up, some
times at the rate of an inch an hour. |
Moisture high in the air freezes in
to tiny, invisible ice or frost crystals
and floats as clouds far above-the !
feather-like cirrus type. A ring
around the moon indicates the pres
ence of frost in the upper air. This
halo appears as a sort of rainbow
red on the inside and blue without. |
The smaller corona, with more of a |
glare and the colors reversed, indi-
Gates the presence of water in the
air
GeOmetric SnOwfiakes
The climax of frost loneliness is
achieved in snowfakes, which are
composed Of many tiny frost particles
of frozen moisture. They are always |
geometrically hexagonal in shape, |
with tiny certerpieces of ice having /
feathery points that resemble fern |