Part 10

On the night of the 24th of December, the same central vortex ascending passed between Cape Clear and Liverpool.

On the 25th, at midnight, the vortex passed to the north of Liverpool: its northerly progress being very slow, being confined for three days between the parallel of Liverpool and its extreme northern limit in latitude about 57d. The accompanying account of the weather will show the result of a long-continued disturbance near the same latitude:

The Baltic, three days out from Liverpool, encountered the vortex on the night of the 23d. On the morning of the 25th, very early, the gale commenced at Liverpool, and did much damage. On the 26th, the vortex attained its northern limit; but we have not been able to procure any account of its effects to the northward of Liverpool, although there can be but little doubt that it was violent on the coast of Scotland on the 26th; for the next day (27th) the vortex having made the turn, was near the latitude of Liverpool, and caused a tremendous storm, thus showing a continued state of activity for several days, or a peculiarly favorable local atmosphere in those parts. It is very probable, also, that there was a conjunction of the central and inner vortex on the 27th. The inner vortex precedes the central in passing latitude 41d; but as the mean radius of its orbit is less than that of the central, it attains to a higher latitude, and has, consequently, to cross the path of the central, in order again to precede it descending in latitude 41d. As a very trifling change in the elements of the problem will cause great changes in the positions of the vortices on the surface of the earth, it cannot now be asserted that such a conjunction did positively occur at that time; but, it maybe suspected, that a double disturbance would produce a greater commotion, or, in other words, a more violent, storm.

It is on this account, combined with other auxiliary causes, that the vicinity of Cape Horn is so proverbially stormy, as well as for the low standard of the barometer in that latitude, it is the stationary point of the vortices in ordinary positions of the nodes and perigee of the moon. We have already alluded to the fact, that none of the vortices scarcely ever pass much beyond latitude 80d, and then only under favorable circumstances, so that we ought to infer, that gales in high latitudes should set from the poles towards the storms in lower latitudes. This is, no doubt, the fact, but, nevertheless, a hard southerly blow may possibly occur in high northern latitudes, if a storm should be raging very violently in a lower latitude on the opposite side of the pole, the distance across the circle of 80d being only about 1,400 miles. As the different vortices have a different limit in latitude every year, the determination of this turning point is obviously of great practical utility, as the fact may yet be connected with other phenomena, so as to give us the probable character of the polar ice at any assigned time. On this point we have more to say.

PASSAGES OF ALL THE VORTICES.

Our remarks have hitherto been confined to the central vortex. We shall now show from the record, that the other vortices are as effective in deranging the equilibrium of our atmosphere. In the following table we have given the passages of the different vortices, which will serve as their true positions within moderate limits, to calculate from, for all future time.

PASSAGES OF THE CENTRAL AND LATERAL VORTICES, OBSERVED IN JUNE AND JULY, 1853, IN LATITUDE 41d 20' NORTH.

I signifying Inner; O, outer; C, central; A, ascending; D, descending.

___________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | Order.|Vortex.| Date. | Meridian |Passage.| Calculated latitude | | | | | Passage. | | and Remarks. | |_____|_____|_______|________|______|____________________| | | | | | | | | 1st | I. A. | June 22 | 7 A.M. | south | Centre. About 40d. | | | | 23 | 8 A.M. | north | Warsaw. Storm. | | 2d | O. D. | 27 | 0 noon | north | | | | | 28 | 1 A.M. | south | See record. | | 3d | C. A. | July 1 | 9 A.M. | south | | | | | 2 | 10 A.M. | north | Lat. 43d. Storm. | | 4th | I. D. | 7 | 5 P.M. | north | | | | | 8 | 6 P.M. | south | Lat. New York. Storm.| | 5th | C. D. | 12 | 5 P.M. | north | Aurora. | | | | 13 | 6 P.M. | south | Stormy, very. | | 6th | O. A. | 14 | 10 A.M. | south | | | | | 15 | 11 A.M. | north | See Record. | |_____|_____|_______|________|______|_____________________|

The intervals between the ascending and descending passages of the different vortices, are

Between I. A. and I. D. from 11 to 14 days. " O. A. " O. D. " 10 " 12 " " C. A. " C. D. " 9 " 11 "

and the effect is greatest when the vortex comes to the meridian before the sun, and least when after the sun; in which case the full effect is not developed, sometimes until the following day.

A brief abstract from a journal of the weather for one sidereal period of the moon, in 1853.

June 21st. Fine clear morning (S. fresh): noon very warm 88d; 4 P.M. plumous cirri in south; ends clear.

22d. Hazy morning (S. very fresh) arch of cirrus in west; 2 P.M., black in W.-N.-W.; 3 P.M., overcast and rainy; 4 P.M., a heavy gust from south; 4.30 P.M., blowing furiously (S. by W.); 5 P.M., tremendous squall, uprooting trees and scattering chimneys; 6 P.M., more moderate (W.)

23d. Clearing up (N.-W.); 8 A.M., quite clear; 11 A.M., bands of mottled cirri pointing N.-E. and S.-W.; ends cold (W. N.-W.); the cirri seem to rotate from left to right, or with the sun.

24th. Fine clear cool day, begins and ends (N.-W.)

25th. Clear morning (N.-W, light); 2 P.M. (E.) calm; tufts of tangled cirri in north intermixed with radiating streaks, all passing eastward; ends clear.

26th. Hazy morning (S.-E) cloudy; noon, a heavy windy looking bank in north (S. fresh), with dense cirrus fringe above on its upper edge; clear in S.

27th. Clear, warm, (W.); bank in north; noon bank covered all the northern sky, and fresh breeze; 10 P.M., a few flashes to the northward.

28th. Uniform dense cirro-stratus, (S. fresh); noon showers all round; 2 P.M., a heavy squall of wind, with thunder and rain (S.-W. to N.-W.); 8 P.M., a line of heavy cumuli in south; 8.30 P.M., a very bright and high cumulus in S.-W., protruding through a layer of dark stratus; 8.50 P.M., the cloud bearing E. by S., with three rays of electric light.

June 29th. A stationary stratus over all, (S.-W. light); clear at night, but distant lightning in S.

30th. Stratus clouds (N.-E. almost calm); 8 A.M., raining gently; 3 P.M., stratus passing off to S; 8 P.M., clear, pleasant.

July 1st. Fine and clear; 8 A.M., cirrus in sheets, curls, wisps, and gauzy wreathes, with patches beneath of darker shade, all nearly motionless; close and warm (N.-E.); a long, low bank of haze in S., with one large cumulus in S.-W., but very distant.

July 2d. At 5 A.M., overcast generally with hazy clouds and fog of prismatic shades, chiefly greenish-yellow; 7 A.M., (S.-S.-E. freshening,) thick in W; 8 A.M., (S. fresh) much cirrus, thick and gloomy; 9 A.M., a clap of thunder, and clouds hurrying to N.; a reddish haze all around; at noon the margin of a line of yellowish-red cumuli just visible above a gloomy-looking bank of haze in N.-N.-W., (S. very fresh;) warm, 86d; more cumuli in N.-W.--the whole line of cumuli N. are separated from the clouds south by a clear space. These clouds are borne rapidly past the zenith, but never get into the clear space--they seem to melt or to be turned off N.-E. The cumuli in N. and N.-W., slowly spreading E. and S.; 3 P.M., the bank hidden by small cumuli; 4 P.M., very thick in north, magnificent cumuli visible sometimes through the breaks, and beyond them a dark, watery back-ground, (S. strong); 4.30 P.M., wind round to N.-W. in a severe squall; 5 P.M., heavy rain, with thunder, &c.--all this time there is a bright sky in the south visible through the rain 15d high; 7 P.M., clearing, (S.-W. mod.)

July 3d. Very fine and clear, (N.-W.); noon, a line of large cumuli in N., and dark lines of stratus below, the cumuli moving eastward; 6 P.M., their altitude 2d 40'. Velocity 1d per minute; 9 P.M., much lightning in the bank north.

July 4th. 6 A.M., a line of small cumulo-stratus, extending east and west, with a clear horizon north and south 10d high. This band seems to have been thrown off by the central yesterday, as it moves slowly south, preserving its parallelism, although the clouds composing it move eastward. Fine and cool all day--(N.-W. mod.)--Lightning in N.

July 5th. Cloudy (N. almost calm), thick in E., clear in W.; same all day.