Weather Warnings for Watchers

Part 1

WEATHER WARNINGS FOR WATCHERS

BY THE “CLERK” HIMSELF.

WITH CONCISE TABLES FOR CALCULATING HEIGHTS

“The actuating force of every wind that blows; of every mighty current that streams through ocean depths; the motive cause of every particle of vapour in the air, of every mist and cloud and raindrop, is SOLAR RADIATION.”—George Warington.

LONDON HOULSTON AND SONS

PATERNOSTER SQUARE, E.C.

1877

LIST OF WORKS OF REFERENCE.

BOUTAN ET D’ALMEIDA. Cours Eléméntaire de Physique.

BUCHAN, A. Introductory Text-book of Meteorology. W. Blackwood and Sons, 1871.

CAZIN, ACHILLE. La Chaleur. Hachette and Co., 1868.

CRAMPTON, REV. JOS., M.A. The Three Heavens. W. Hunt and Co., 1876.

CHAMBERS’ Encyclopædia. W. and B. Chambers, 1875.

DREW, JOHN. Practical Meteorology. Van Voorst, 1870.

FITZROY, THE LATE ADMIRAL. Weather Book and Barometer Manual.

FLAMMARION, CAMILLE. L’Atmosphere.

GUILLEMIN AMEDÉE. Les Forces de la Nature.

GLAISHER, J., F.R.S. Hygrometrical Tables. Taylor and Francis, 1869.

HARTLEY, W. N. Air and its Relations to Life. Longmans, 1875.

HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN F. W. Meteorology, from Ency. Brit. A. and C. Black, 1860.

KAEMTZ, L. F. Complete Course of Meteorology. Baillière London.

MARTIN’S Natural Philosophy. Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1868.

TYNDALL, JOHN, D.C.L., &c. Heat, a Mode of Motion. Fifth Edition. Longmans, 1875.

RODWELL. Dictionary of Science. E. Moxon and Co., 1871.

PROCTOR. Science Byways. Smith, Elder and Co., 1875.

SCOTT, R. H., M.A., F.R.S. Instructions in the Use of Meteorological Instruments, 1875.

WARINGTON, GEORGE. Phenomena of Radiation.

CONTENTS.

Part 2

PAGE

Actinometer 10

Æthrioscope 16

Altitude tables 37

Anemograph 84

Anemometers, velocity 80

Aneroid barometer 35

Atmidometer 25

Atmospheric electricity 89

Barograph 38

Barometer precautions 40

„ description of 29

„ construction of 26

„ self-recording 36

„ warnings 43

„ syphon 30

„ wheel 33

„ corrections of 27

Beaufort’s scale of wind force 76

„ weather notation 82

Black bulb in vacuo 12

Boiling-point thermometer 36

Calorification 8

Condensation 45

Capacity, correction 27

Capillarity, correction 28

Centigrade thermometer 20

Cirro-cumulus cloud 56

Part 3

Cirro-stratus cloud 56

Cirrus cloud 52

Clouds, forms of 52

„ amount of 57

Compass bearings 71

Conversion of thermometer scales 23

Cumulo-stratus cloud 56

Cumulus cloud 53

Dew-point 48

Electrification 86

Electrometers, forms of 90

Electroscope 89

Evaporation, measurement of 24

Fahrenheit’s thermometer 20

Fortin’s barometer 27

Freezing-point 20

Frost, management of hygrometer in 50

Gold-leaf electroscope 89

Glass, storm 41

Heights, measurement of 37

Hours of observation 39

Howard’s cloud nomenclature 52

Hygrometer, Daniell’s 47

Hygrometer, Mason’s 48

Hygrometer precautions 50

Kew verification 42

Lightning 90

„ conductors 91

Part 4

Mean sea-level 28

Maximum thermometers 16

Meteorology, list of works on 4

Minimum thermometers 17

Mountain barometers 35

Motion 67

Nimbus clouds, form of 57

Ozone, determination of 91

Ozonometer 92

Packing barometers 32

Position of barometers 33

Pyrheliometer 9

Pressure anemometer 79

Psychrometer 49

Radiation, solar 9

Radio-solar thermometer 13

Rain, measurement of 60

Rain gauges 62 to 67

Rarefaction 26

Réaumur’s scale 20

Regnault’s hygrometer 47

Robinson’s anemometer 81

Solar radiation 9

Six’s thermometer 18

Standard barometer 28

Stevenson’s thermo-screen 51

Stratus cloud 55

Suspension of barometers 40

Part 5

Sympiesometer 41

Temperature, correction for 27

Terrestrial radiation 13

Thermographs 23

Thermometer scales 20

„ screens 50

„ radiation 11, 14

„ standard 21

True bearings of wind direction 71

Vernier, principle of 30

„ setting the 31

Weather warnings 40, 44, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 73, 77, 94

Wet and dry bulb hygrometer 50

Wind, registration of 85

„ gauges 79

„ scales 76, 83

„ vane 78

PREFACE.

The late Admiral Fitzroy entertained the opinion that the various phenomena which go to form what we call “weather” are “measurable at any place, and that having these measurements at various places over a given area, such as the British Isles, we ought to be able to foresee the peculiar results as regards the direction and force of air currents which have their distinctive weather characteristics in relation to temperature, rainfall, and electrical manifestations.”

A conviction of the soundness of this opinion has induced the writer to make the present compilation, in the hope that many who have hitherto avoided the subject of meteorology and the weather may find interesting matter, where before all seemed dull and technical.

Any attempt at rigid mathematical accuracy is disclaimed at the outset; the leading principles involved in weather forecasting and storm prevision will, however, be stated in a sufficiently definite manner to divest the subject of the mystery in which it has hitherto seemed to be enshrined, and thus enable the unscientific reader to become weather-wise, and casual observers to note weather phenomena with some degree of method and precision.

On page 4 will be found a list of works which have proved useful aids in making the present compilation. The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the various authors and publishers, and especially to Mr. Strachan, for permission to quote from his able pamphlet on “Weather Forecasts, and Storm Prevision,” and to reproduce the valuable table on page 37, for Calculating Heights of Mountains, from the fourth edition of his handy “Pocket Meteorological Register.”

The publication of Weather Reports in the daily journals must have convinced the most indifferent that much greater importance is now attached to weather phenomena than formerly; and this conviction will be deepened when it is remembered that a Parliamentary grant of £10,000 is annually expended in support of the Meteorological Office and its seven fully organized observatories in this country, while America expends no less a sum than £80,000 annually in the pursuit of weather wisdom; and the leading nations of Europe have also established meteorological observatories in suitable localities.

The balloon ascents of Messrs. Glaisher and Coxwell attracted much attention to the instruments used in estimating atmospheric phenomena, and awakened a desire to know something of the functions of a barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, &c., and especially of the classification of those important weather-warners, clouds. These subjects will be found duly noted in their order, and every phenomenon being traced to its source, Solar Radiation, it is hoped that these pages may prove generally acceptable, and be deemed not altogether unworthy of

“THE CLERK OF THE WEATHER.”

WEATHER WARNINGS.

The two great Forces of Nature are Gravitation and Heat, which always act in opposition to each other.

WEATHER is the result of the action of these forces on matter, and where one form of force is in excess of another, changes are produced which become apparent to our senses, or are indicated by suitable instruments.

Part 6

THE MATTER composing the earth on which we live is of three kinds—solid, liquid, and gaseous.

THE FORCE incessantly acting on these is the radiant heat of the sun.

THE RESULTS of this incessant action are:—

1. CALORIFICATION, or Heating, which, besides being appreciable by our senses, is indicated by the THERMOMETER.

2. EVAPORATION, which alters the weight of the air indirectly, by the diffusion of aqueous vapour through it. This alteration of weight is indicated by the BAROMETER, the accompanying increase of moisture being indicated by the HYGROMETER.

3. RAREFACTION, which alters the weight of the air directly.

4. CONDENSATION, producing fog, dew, rain, hail, and snow; all sufficiently apparent when they occur, but estimated accurately only by the Rain Gauge, or PLUVIOMETER.

5. MOTION, producing winds, which we are able to appreciate in the gentle breeze and the awful cyclone, the force and velocity of which are indicated by the ANEMOMETER.

6. ELECTRIFICATION, producing lightning, thunder, magnetic phenomena, and chemical change, respectively indicated by the ELECTROMETER, MAGNETOMETER, and OZONOMETER.

I.—CALORIFICATION.

Before considering in detail these results of the action of solar radiation on our globe, an attempt to realize the immensity of this stupendous force will materially aid in the general comprehension of the subject.

The earth is a sphere somewhat less than 8,000 miles in diameter; and if we assume, with the gifted author of “The Phenomena of Radiation,”—“that it is about 91,300,000 miles from the sun, and moves around it in a slightly elliptical orbit, occupying rather more than 365 days; that its shape is globular, somewhat flattened at its two extremities; that it rotates upon its own axis in the space of 24 hours, that axis being inclined to the annual orbit at an angle of 23-1/2—if we further assume that solar radiation is of such kind and quantity as it is, we are enabled to account for the total amount of light and heat the earth receives, for the superior temperature and illumination of equatorial regions, as compared with polar, with the gradations of intermediate zones, for the alternation of day and night, and the annual progression of the seasons.

“The actuating force of every wind that blows; of every mighty current that streams through ocean depths; the motive cause of every particle of vapour in the air of every mist and cloud and raindrop, is SOLAR RADIATION.

“The delicate tremor of the sun’s surface particles, shot hither through thirty million leagues of fine intangible æther, has power to raise whole oceans from their beds, and pour them down again upon the earth. We are apt to measure solar heat merely by the sensation it produces on our skin, and think it small and weak accordingly; a good coal fire will heat us more. But its true measure is the work it does. Judged by this standard, its immensity is overpowering. To take a single instance: the average fall of dew in England is about five inches annually; for the evaporation of the vapour necessary to produce this trifling depth of moisture, there is expended daily an amount of heat equal to the combustion of sixty-eight tons of coal for every square mile of surface, or, for the whole of England, 4,000,000 tons. Compare now the size of England with that of the whole earth—only 1/3388th part; extend the calculation to rain, as well as dew, the average fall of which on the whole earth is estimated at five feet annually, or twelve times greater; and then estimate the sum of 4,000,000 × 3,388 × 12 = 162,624,000,000 tons, or about 3,000 times as much as is annually raised in the whole world; and we have the number of tons of coal required to produce the heat expended by the sun merely in raising vapour from the sea to give us rain during a single day.”

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