Part 9

"SUMMIT, Waukesha Co., Wis., July 4, 1853.

"Our town, on Saturday, the 2d, was visited by a terrible storm, which will long be remembered by those who witnessed its effects and suffered from its fury. It arose in the south-west, and came scowling in blackness, sufficient to indicate its anger, for the space of eighty or a hundred rods in width, covering our usually quiet village; and for nearly half an hour's duration, the rain fell in torrents, the heavens blazed with the lightning's flashes, trees fell and were uprooted by the fury of the blast, fragments of gates and of buildings, shingles, roof-boards, rafters, circled through the air, the playthings of the wind--and buildings themselves were moved entire from their foundations, and deposited at different distances from their original positions. A barn, fifty-five feet square on the ground, owned by Mr. B. R. Hinckley, is moved from its position some ten feet to the eastward; and a house, some fifteen by eighteen feet on the ground, owned by the same person, fronting the east, was driven by the wind to the opposite side of the street, and now fronts nearly west; and what is most strange, is that the grass, in the route the house must have passed over, stands straight as usual, and gives no evidence that the building was pushed along on the ground. A lady running from a house unroofed by the storm, took an aerial flight over two fences, and finally caught against a tree, which arrested her passage for a moment only, when, giving way, she renewed her journey for a few rods, and was set down unhurt in Mr. O. Reed's wheat field, where, clinging to the growing grain, she remained till the gale went by."

The weather at this place is briefly recorded in the accompanying abstract from the journal, as well as in an extract from a note to Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, from a friend of the authors, who has long occupied a high official station in Illinois. But such coincidences are of no value in deciding on the merits of such a theory, it must be tried before the tribunal of the world, and applied to phenomena in other countries with success, before its merits can be fully appreciated. The accompanying record, therefore, is only given to show how these vortices render themselves apparent, and what ought to be observed, and also to exhibit the order of their recurrence and their positions at a given time.

Extract of a note addressed to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, by Hon. John Dean Caton, on this subject.

"As a striking instance of the remarkable coincidences confirmatory of these calculations, I will state, that on Friday, the first of July last, this gentleman stated that on the next day a storm would pass north of us, being central a little south of Milwaukie, and that he thought, from the state of the atmosphere, the storm would be severe, and that its greatest violence would be felt on the afternoon or night of the next day. At this time the weather was fine, without any indications of a storm, so far as I could judge. At noon on the following day he pointed out the indications of a storm at the north and north-west, consisting of a dark, hazy belt in that direction, extending up a few degrees above the horizon, although so indistinct as to have escaped my observation. At five o'clock a violent storm visited us, which lasted half an hour, although a clear sky was visible at the south the whole time. On Monday morning I learned, from the telegraph office at Chicago, that early on Saturday afternoon communication with Milwaukie had been interrupted by atmospheric electricity, and that the line had been broken by a storm."

NEW YORK STORM.

After this was written, the author discovered that the vortex was equally violent the day before at New York, July 1st, 1853. An account of this storm follows. The calculation has not been made, but it is easy to perceive that the latitude of the vortex, on July 1st, must be very nearly that of New York--being in latitude 43d next day and ascending.

"At a meeting of the American Association, convened at Cleveland, Professor Loomis presented a long notice of the terrible hail storm in New York on the 1st of July. He traced its course, and minutely examined all the phenomena relating to it, from a mile and a half south-east of Paterson, N.J., to the east side of Long Island, where it appeared nearly to have spent its force. It passed over the village of Aqueenac, striking the Island of New York in the vicinity of the Crystal Palace. It was not much more than half a mile wide. The size of the hail-stones was almost incredibly large, many of them being as large as a hen's egg, and the Professor saw several which he thought as large as his fist. Some of them weighed nearly half a pound. The principal facts in relation to this storm were published at the time, and need not be repeated. The discussions arising among the members as to the origin and the size of these hail-stones, and the phenomena of the storm, were exceedingly interesting. They were participated in by Professors Heustus and Hosford, of Cambridge University, Professor Loomis, and Professors Bache and Redfield. The latter two gentlemen differ somewhat, we should suppose radically, in their meteorological theories, and had some very sharp but very pleasant "shooting" between them."

CENTRAL VORTEX DESCENDING.

We will now make the calculation for the central vortex descending, for longitude 88d 50' west, August 7, 1853,--putting down the necessary elements for the time of the meridian passage in order:

Meridian passage in local time at 2h. 25m. P.M. " " in Greenwich time 7d. 8h. 18m. Mass of the moon 1/12.3 M. R. V. minor 3,256 miles. Obliquity of the vortex, same time 26d 5' 0" Polar angle of " " 17 41 47 True longitude of moon's node " 78 42 0 " inclination of orbit " 5 5 0 " longitude of the sun " 135 20 0 Moon's longitude " 169 44 0 " distance from node " 91 2 0 " distance from quadrature " 55 36 0 " true semi-diameter " 943 " right ascension " 172 30 0 " declination north " 8 42 20 Constant logarithm 2.889214 Arith. comp. of log. of 943 7.025488 Log. cos. arc. AR 9.914702 = 34d 44' 48" 1st. correction, + 2 45 0 2d. correction, - 1 14 15 -------------- Corrected arc AQ = 36 15 33 PA = 81d 17' 40" PV = 26 5 0 P = 115 11 47 V = 63 34 26 A = 23 28 24 AV = 92 48 39 Q = 31 32 18 Complement of lat. = PQ = 48d 49' 41" The latitude is therefore for the earth, as a sphere 41 10 18 Correction for protuberance + 0 16 0 ------------ True latitude of centre 41 26 18 north. ------------ Latitude of Ottowa 41 20 0 " ------------ Vortex passed 6 18 north of Ottowa.

As this was nearly a central passage, and as the influence was less extensive than usual, on account of great atmospheric pressure with a low dew point, the central disturbance could the more readily be located, and was certainly to the north, and but a few miles. The following is from the record of the weather:

August 6th. Very fine and clear all day; wind from S.-W.; a light breeze; 8 P.M. frequent flashes of lightning in the northern sky; 10 P.M. a low bank of dense clouds in north, fringed with cirri, visible during the flash of the lightning; 12 P.M. same continues.

7th. Very line and clear morning; wind S.-W. moderate; noon, clouds accumulating in the northern half of the sky; wind fresher S.-W.; 3 P.M. a clap of thunder overhead, and black cumuli in west, north, and east; 4 P.M. much thunder, and scattered showers; six miles west rained very heavily; 6 P.M. the heavy clouds passing over to the south; 10 P.M. clear again in north.

August 8th. Clear all day; wind the same (S.-W.); a hazy bank visible all along on southern horizon.

This was not a storm, in the ordinary acceptation of the term; but the same cause, under other circumstances, would have produced one; and let it be borne in mind, that although the moon is the chief disturbing cause, and the passages of the vortices are the periods of greatest commotion in both settled and unsettled weather, still the sun is powerful in predisposing the circumstances, whether favorable or unfavorable; and as there is no periodic connection between the passage of a vortex and the concurrence of the great atmospheric waves, it will, of course, happen only occasionally that all the circumstances will conspire to make a storm. There are also other modifying causes, to which we have not yet alluded, which influence the storms at different seasons of the year,--exaggerating their activity in some latitudes, and diminishing it in other latitudes. In this latitude, the months of May, June, and July are marked by more energetic action than August, September, and October. The activity of one vortex also, in one place, seems to modify the activity of another vortex in another place. But the great question to decide is: Do these vortices really exist? Do they follow each other in the order indicated by the theory? Do they pass from south to north, and from north to south, at the times indicated by the theory? Do they obey, in their monthly revolutions, a mathematical law connecting them with the motions of the moon? We answer emphatically, Yes! And the non-discovery of these facts, is one of the most humiliating features of the present age.

OTTOWA STORM, DECEMBER 22, 1852.

To show that the same calculations are applicable for other times, we will make the calculation for the centre ascending, for the 22d December, 1852, taking the following elements:

Moon's mer. passage, Dec. 22d 15h. 16m. G. time. " right ascension, same time 51d 57' " declination north 15 42 " true S. Diameter 886.6" " distance from node 37 " " " quadrature 52 -------- Which gives the arc AR 29 5 1st correction -1 51 2d +1 11 -------- Corrected arc AQ 28 25 --------

And the latitude at the time of the meridian passage = 42d north, or about forty miles north of Ottawa.

Abstract from the record:--

Dec. 21st, 1852. Wind N.-E., fine weather.

Dec. 22d. Thick, hazy morning, wind east, much lighter in S.-E. than in N.-W.; 8 A.M., a clear arch in S.-E. getting more to south; noon, very black in W. N.-W.; above, a broken layer of cir. cumulus, the sun visible sometimes through the waves; wind round to S.-E., and fresher; getting thicker all day; 10 P.M., wind south, strong; thunder, lightning, and heavy rain all night, with strong squalls from south.

Dec. 23d. Wind S.-W., moderate, drizzly day; 10 P.M., wind west, and getting clearer.

The next day the vortex passed the latitude of Montreal (the moon being on the meridian about 10 P.M.)

MAGNETIC STORM, DECEMBER 23, 1852.

In the July number of Vol. XVI. of Silliman's Journal, we find certain notices of the weather in 1852, by Charles Smallwood, of St. Martins, nine miles east of Montreal. He mentions "two remarkable electrical storms (which) occurred on the 23d and 31st of December, (in which) sparks 5/40 of an inch were constantly passing from the conductor to the discharger for several hours each day." At 10 P.M. (23d) the vortex passed over Montreal, and again descending on the 31st North, and was visible at Ottowa on the morning of the 1st of January, with southerly wind setting towards it. On the 29th of December, Mr. Smallwood records "a low auroral arch, sky clear." On the 20th, the vortex was 5d to the northward of Montreal, and the aurora was consequently low--the brightest auroras being when the vortex is immediately north without storm, or one day to the northward, although we have seen it very low when the vortex was three days to the north, and no other vortex near.

LIVERPOOL STORM.