NEW VIEW 
OF THE 
WEATHER QUESTION 
By ISAAC P. NOYES, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
RE-PRINTED FROM THE 
WESTERN REVIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
JULY AND AUGUST, 1878. 
KANSAS CITY, MO. 
PRESS OF RAMSEY, MILLETT & HUDSON. A New View of the Weather Question. 
By ISAAC P. NOYES, Washington, D. C. 
RE-PRINTED FROM THE 
WESTERN REVIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, 
JULY, 1878 
The following remarks are respectfully offered in the hope that they may tend 
to throw some light upon the further solution of the weather problem. 
In connection with the facts and comments thereon, theories will be advanced 
on the basis of the facts as at present known to us, not with the idea that they will 
be new to the initiated, but rather with the hope that they may better serve the 
object of the article by drawing attention to this interesting problem, and in a 
general way reaching some minds that by other means might not be attracted to it. 
The weather by many seems to be regarded as among those things that are 
“ past finding out,” yet it would seem that as familiar as the knowledge of natu- 
ral phenomena is now to the world at large, it should no longer remain quite the 
great mystery that it has necessarily been in the past. The simple trouble in the 
past, in this department of science, was the want of the proper medium by which 
to collect the facts. This subject has had very earnest apostles, but what even 
can the most earnest devotee do when the very material on which he would con- 
struct his laws is beyond his reach. After much controversy on this subject and 
discussion by such men as Halley, Espy, Henry, Butler, Loomis and others, the 
great want which they labored for and knew to be absolutely necessary, was 
finally supplied by the United States Signal Bureau, under Gen A. J. Myer, of 
the United States Army. Of course such a bureau has its enemies, and steps 
have at times even been taken to cripple its actions, and perhaps some would cut 
off all appropriations for it and leave it among the things of the past, but such a 2 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
course it is to be hoped will not be seriously thought of by any controlling ele- 
ment, at least so long as the general treasury can be made to meet the modest 
demands of so happy a combination of science and practibility. Only by such a 
large and simultaneous collection of daily facts as this office is year by year pa- 
tiently collecting have we been able to obtain valuable material toward complet- 
ing the solution of these questions, and our hope for still more and more light 
upon this important question is in maintaining such a bureau, and that it may be 
able gradually to extend its influence to more and more new territory whereby it 
may be able to do better work and obtain more reliable results, and enlighten 
mankind with the mysteries that preside over the natural phenomena that govern 
the weather, making them familiar with its workings, whereby they may turn this 
knowledge to practical account. 
STATEMENTS AND COMMENTS. 
The first question that seems to present itself in this relation is, “What 
makes the changes in the weather?” Years ago certain general facts were known 
about the changes of the weather. Dr. Franklin, it is said, first ascertained that 
“all storms travel toward the north-east.” Though this fact may not be exactly 
true, it shows that in his time they had some idea of how a storm travels. Then 
it has also long been known that a storm travels in the “eye of the wind,” and 
that in order to clear away, the wind must come out a certain quarter; these 
and many other things were known, yet there was much that could not be known 
at that age—that must wait for an advanced condition of things to be explained 
more fully, while such absurd notions that the moon effects the weather by driving 
away clouds, etc., were also held. This notion about the moon affecting the 
weather seems to be difficult to eradicate, at least from the minds of the people at 
large. They claim to know what the weather will be for the month to come by 
certain signs about the moon, and they believe that the moon has power to drive 
away or even collect clouds whereby great changes in the weather are brought 
about. The only possible affect that the moon could have upon the weather 
would be from its reflected heat from the sun—thereby working in this manner as 
the sun does, but this heat is so infinitesimal that if it should be concentrated for 
all night long upon a given locality it would not be able to develop a cloud as big 
as one’s hand. 
I. The first source of the weather, as to changes, conditions, etc., is the 
sun. This, though a common and well-known fact, is simply enumerated with 
other facts in order that they may here stand, as they act, together. 
II. Is the rotation of the earth on its axis. 
III. The motion of the earth around the sun. 
IV. The parallelism of the earth whereby the light and heat of the sun is 
made to shine on the earth’s surface alternately more on the North pole than on 
the South pole. 
V. These various conditions ever changing their relation to each other 
have for one of their results what we term the weather. A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
3 
VI. The text books on natural philosophy tell us that “currents of air, or 
winds, are produced by the unequal distribution of heat over the earth.” The 
facts gathered by the Signal Service Bureau substantiate the statement; but then 
very little is gathered from this single statement by which to understand the 
weather. 
VII. When an effect is noticed it is our duty to ascertain the cause. The 
inquiring mind seeks to get at the most plausible cause. We cannot alter the 
facts to make them accord with what would seem reasonable to us—we must take 
them as we find them and build up our theory accordingly. 
VIII. Mere meteorological tables taken without relation to one another are 
of very little account. They form a cumbersome material very awkward to 
handle. The system now in vogue of daily observations taken, at the same mo- 
ment of actual time, is far more valuable and reliable as to facilitate the opera- 
tions of working out the great weather problem. 
IX. We should endeavor in this, as in all our labors in behalf of science, 
to separate whatever is merely accidental or local from that which is general and 
forms an essential element in the grand laws of the universe. 
X. It is the practice of the Signal office to publish three1 maps a day, but 
only one, that based upon the observations taken at 7:35 a. m., receives a gen- 
eral circulation. The second and third maps, more specially designated for sci- 
entific purposes we presume, are founded upon the observations of afternoon and 
midnight. More observations the better, for the changes are sometimes so rapid 
that an observation taken at 7:35 a. m. would give no idea of the actual condi- 
tion of the weather for the best part of the day. 
XI. Some localities are dry and some wet. In some, changes-from one 
condition to the other are rapidly taking place, while in others one condition or 
the other is more or less protracted. The question is, Why is this so ? It would 
not seem that any one thing was the cause. Nature obeys the strongest force. 
We see this in all things. The strongest, however, is more or less influenced; it 
however predominates; yet not without more or less compromise. 
XII. The wind from the South, it is obvious, must be warm, while that 
from the North is cold. As a wind partakes of these elements it will be either 
warm or cold. Yet at times there are apparent exceptions to this. Sometimes in 
the winter we have quite a cold southerly wind, but this it will be found to be 
because what is to us locally a southerly wind is generally an easterly or westerly 
wind partaking more or less of northern influences. 
XIII. All winds from all quarters, that is, all kinds as to force and moisture. 
The quarter itself not the governing influence only as to cold or heat; for exam- 
ple, more especially in the Atlantic States an easterly wind is dreaded, and 
thought to bring peculiarly disagreeable stormy weather, yet it does not always, 
and apparently it is the merest accident when it does. Some of the finest weather 
we have in this country we have with an east wind, and that, too, without result- 
ing in a storm. 
XIV. It is sometimes locally hotter at the North than at the South, because 4 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
it is generally hotter at the South. This may seem paradoxical, yet it is plainly 
evident from the facts that bear upon the subject depending on the condition and 
location of the low barometer center. 
XV. In this matter of the weather we need to give our attention to all the 
laws respecting it, but more particularly to observe the general rather than the mere 
local forces, for the general force will prevail over the local—swallow it up as it 
were—sweep it along with the tide. 
XVI. Change in weather. The great factor that makes the change in the 
weather is what is termed “low barometer.” The great source of which is evi- 
dently the variable concentration of the sun’s heat upon certain portions of the 
earth’s surface. This fact has long been held, and like many other points in 
natural phenomena has been controverted and ridiculed, but the later observa- 
tions by the United States Signal office seem to verify it and place it beyond 
dispute. 
XVII. It is an undisputed fact that there are certain localities where the 
barometer is much lower than at others; 
XVIII. And that the winds from all quarters move toward the centre of low. 
XIX. Though the winds are in the direction of low they do not at all times 
blow with equal force toward this center. Sometimes it blows the hardest from 
one direction and sometimes from another, depending upon local conditions. 
XX. In opposition to low barometer is high baroyneter. So on the weather 
maps will always be indicated these two extremes. 
XXL There are a great many of these centers of high and low barometer. 
XXII. There are large and small centers of high and low barometer. 
XXIII. These centers are ever changing. 
XXIV. Low travels from West to East and generally on a line somewhat 
North of East, as will be seen by a daily observation of the weather maps. At 
least this is true as to land. What it is .on the ocean we do not as yet know, 
though there is some evidence that under certain conditions the direction is re- 
versed. We have few facts to prove either that it does or does not, and what 
little authority there is on the subject would seem to convey the idea that there 
was no difference in this respect from the land and the sea. Yet if one will fol- 
low up the course of Low as presented on the weather maps this would not seem 
unreasonable to believe. We trace a low along the land till it enters the ocean. 
Then if we will bear (XXV) in mind the fact, that other things being equal (and 
the other things are local forces) the wind will travel in a straight line from High 
toward Low. This is both natural and in accordance with the facts of the 
weather maps, though it has been stated by some that such is not quite the case, 
rather that the wind is between the two, that is if you stand with your left hand 
toward high and your right hand toward low the wind will be directly in your 
face. The natural forces and the facts of the weather map will not warrant any 
such a supposed law. The undoubted law is that the wind from all quarters will 
take the most direct course possible toward the vacuum low, and it seems obvious 
that the wind will take a more direct course on the ocean than on the land, for A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
5 
here it is all one element—water—consequently there will be less of local forces 
to detract it. This being the case, even though we know not exactly where low 
is, we can by noting the direction of the wind tell in which direction it is and 
trace its course. 
s. XXVI. Now in the United States low disappears off of the coast, generally, 
though not always, up in the north-east. By some it is said to be lost in the sea. 
The wind then begins to blow to the west—north-west—north—then finally 
around to the north-east. About this time a new low sets in down off Florida. 
In no particular locality, but in this general neighborhood, and at times the move- 
ments of low are so regular as to present itself in the neighborhood of some one 
locality on a certain day for weeks, varying in its course but leaving its tracks in 
part at least over the same ground. 
XXVII. This being the case it would seem that low barometer under cer- 
tain conditions obeyed the other great laws of nature, of the course of our earth 
around the sun and the planets and comets in general, and that when in connec- 
tion with land and water as on the east coast of the United States (and perhaps on 
the west coast of continents also) it travels in ellipses ; i. e. on land generally 
traveling from west to east and perhaps the same on the sea, but in the immediate 
vicinity of land and sea from east to west. 
XXVIII. Of course we have not the facts to prove this, and it seems con- 
trary to the general fact that low travels, at least on land where we can trace it 
from day to day, toward the east, or the sun, yet the course of the wind along 
the east coast of the United States, as traced above, would seem to carry with it 
some weight that low somehow or other was differently influenced by the joint 
action of land and sea to what it was when directly on one element. We know 
not the facts in the case; we can only infer this—attempt to interpret the un- 
known by the known. It may be many years before it can be actually proved; 
yet as an aid toward solving it, it would seem well to have some staunch, swift 
and able steam vessel to endeavor to prove it by being in readiness up in the 
north-east when low was just moving off the coast, and follow the center of the 
storm as close as possible. Judgment should not be based on simply one experi- 
ment, but it should be followed up a number of times, and even by a number of 
vessels, that we might have as much information on the subject as it would be 
possible to obtain. 
XXIX. We cannot at present make ourselves familiar with all the changes 
of low barometer. We have no information from a greater portion of the land 
surface and can at present have nothing from fixed localities at regular stated 
intervals from the vast expanse of water, that make up the greater portion of the 
globe. At some future day, however, we may be able to establish mid-ocean 
stations,* when we can greatly further our studies of this beautiful system where- 
by our earth is made habitable. We, however, do already understand enough to 
see the passing wisdom in having this constant shifting of the areas of low and 
high barometer, whereby blessing in the form of grateful showers and fruitful 
sunshine is made continually to visit different portions of the earth’s surface— 
*A plan for this was suggested by the writer in a paper published April, 1876. 6 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
making it more habitable for man—generating the “clouds that drop fatness,” and 
following this up with freshness of air and sufficiency of heat to propagate and 
maintain life. 
XXX. The “first cause” in this department, putting aside heat, etc., is 
low barometer. Whether we have all the information on this particular point that 
we can ever ascertain we know not, but one thing we do know, that the lightness 
of the air at low is a fact, and that where low is there will be the storm center, 
and when this passes away and the barometer indicates high we will see the sun 
shine and we shall have what is understood to be pleasant weather again. 
XXXI. What makes the conditions we term low is not so easy to compre- 
hend. With our present knowledge it would seem more reasonable to us to have 
low barometer in the vicinity of the warmest places, but (XXXII) a low barome- 
ter does not go with a high thermometer, at least so far as we can detect. We 
have low barometer in regions of perpetual ice. Though at present we cannot 
comprehend why this should be we can see a passing wisdom in having it such. 
XXXIII. The movements of low barometer are much the same in winter 
as in summer, that is in summer we have northerly winds and in winter southerly 
winds; though in the winter we have a prevalence of northerly winds and in 
the summer a prevalance of southerly winds, showing that as the wind is always 
toward the low barometer that the conditions of low barometer are generally in a 
higher latitude in the summer than in the winter (i. e. north of equator and the 
reverse south) though these conditions are not confined to localities of latitude. 
XXXIV. A theory as to low. First, low as marked *on the weather maps 
and as generally understood is only relatively low, and so with high. A low may 
sometimes be really higher than high sometimes is, and the reverse. Then 
these change as to latitude. Generally throughout the United States 30.30 inches 
high, and 28.30 very low. 
The sun shines on the earth. We may call high or low barometer normal, 
it matters little so long as we take some definite starting point. In this paper let 
the whole area of the United States be represented as high. In this condition we 
will have bright sunshine and clear sky. If the earth were one vast plain, and 
the sun a fixed point of heat, and no water present or near, we should continue 
to have a sameness of weather for month after month and year after year. But 
the surface of the United States is not, nor is any portion of the globe generally 
made up on this basis. There are, however, local spots on the earth’s surface 
answering partially to these conditions but not wholly. The mere condition of 
the earth’s surface in certain localities in flat-plain-like without certain factors to 
cause, or with certain factors that prevent change, but the sun does not remain 
stationary, so even though the earth’s surface be favorable for a normal condition 
in itself, the constant changing of the sun’s heat and its regular periodical with- 
drawal would necessarily make changes from time to time. The earth’s surface 
fortunately is irregular and interspersed with much water in addition to the great 
oceans. The sun must shine over the eastern portion first. The surface of the 
earth at this point will begin to be heated; this will expand the air immediately A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
7 
above it causing it to ascend; cooler air will rush in to fill up the vacuum, or per- 
haps better to prevent it. From the time the sun is relatively to a given spot 
450 high in the east to 45° in the west, the greatest heat of the day will be con- 
centrated on that spot. In addition to this the heat of the sun will gradually 
begin to evaporate the water and form clouds. These obeying the natural law 
of their peculiar construction will float in the air; showing that they are in this 
state balloon-like and lighter as a mass than what we call air, even though they 
have apparently a far more materialistic form. A current of wind is gradually 
established toward the most heated portion. Clouds are not only being devel- 
oped here but all over along the path of the sun. The sun will move along on 
its course, the earth will retain its heat; the water present will have a propensity 
as it forms in clouds to cool. Perhaps the first day will not make any great 
change, but after a few days some one point or circuit, say of a hundred miles, 
becomes established, from the attraction of peculiar local forces and other causes, 
whereby this air is heated and becomes lighter than its surroundings. Though 
night comes on and cools the air, the whole of the earth is subject to the influence 
of night, making the different portions of the earth relative in this respect. So 
when the sun rises on a new day he as it were takes hold of the near or eastern 
end of the track where he left off the preceding day. His rays are naturally 
concentrated where it is the warmest, yet beyond any area of heavy clouds. 
Of course as there is an effort on the part of the sun to heat there is on the other 
part of nature a disposition to cool. Clouds are the while developing and even 
becoming attractive and condensed in themselves, etc. 
The process advances till a quantity of clouds or suspended moisture is 
formed; the more the moisture the heavier the clouds, From all points currents 
of air set in whereby these clouds are gathered together. This gathering together 
of clouds and wind produces a number of effects. The winds are from all quar- 
ters and therefore of all degrees of temperature, but on the whole the tendency 
from this is to cool the atmosphere. The presence of the clouds is another ten- 
dency to cool even though they become a mantle over the earth for retaining 
heat. So these facts if nothing more would cause the locality called low to be 
reduced in temperature. The clouds are full of rain and they will precipitate. 
The sun the while has moved along to another point, where there are less clouds, 
heating that and going through with the same process say at an interval of five 
hundred or a thousand miles, more or less, depending on locations causing an 
attraction of wind and clouds to that spot. The next day the sun rising in the 
East it will more or less heat spaces to the east of these localities, and perhaps a 
little north of south, thereby causing, as it were, the centers of low to move to 
the eastward—at least for land. Perhaps, so far as we know at present, the 
centers of low may encircle the earth though there is some evidence (as referred 
to above) of the sun heating portions more and more to the south of east and 
gradually working to the south—south-west—west—north and north-east and so 
around in a circle or circular course—at times larger or smaller. These points as 8 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
to the course of low at present, however, are not facts ; this is only to suggest an 
account of certain facts seeming to favor it, but whether low travels thus or 
directly across the ocean as on land can only be ascertained by further and care- 
ful observation. Low is continually on the march generally toward the east, 
unless there be local exceptions, this much is an admitted fact. 
It is said that “a vessel bound to the westward meets advancing areas of low 
pressure, and the observer finds that his barometer falls and rises again more 
rapidly than it would were he on shore, while an observer on board of a ship 
bound to the eastward has just the reverse experience.”—(Circular Signal office 
1878). This if anything would seem to show that water heats and cools more 
readily than the land and that the sharpest grades of temperature would be on the 
east of the side the sun approaches the center of low. So from the barometer an 
expert could tell, if he had no other means, the general course of the vessel— 
eastward or westward. Yet at the same time this does not necessarily prove that 
low does not K’avel in ellipses. This, however, would seem to suggest that the 
navigator, especially the officers of the ocean steamers, be requested to note the 
course of the wind in connection with the low barometer centers; by a careful 
note of this fact we might be able to determine something quite reliable as to the 
probable course of low barometer centers. 
XXXV. The center of low is not the warmest point for various reasons. 
The generation and concentration of moisture tends to cool, to say nothing of 
the winds coming in from all quarters north as well as south. This being the 
case, it has been a subject of warm discussion on the part of some writers on the 
subject of the weather, Mr. T. M. Butler, for example, (in his “ Atmospheric 
System,” 1870) for this and for other reasons contended that the conditions we 
term low could not be thus caused. His idea was that if low was caused by 
the concentration of the sun’s rays on a given point that weWbuld have low at 
places where there is the greatest heat. According to human ideas it certainly 
would seem that such should be the case, but it is also a law of nature that 
(XXXVI) the conditions of low barometer is not, at least often, associated 
with a desert or very dry places, and not at very hot places at the expense of cold 
places. Other things being equal, low will predominate where there is the most 
water, or at least where there is the most admixture of water, and the reason seems 
obvious. When there is no moisture, sure, the ground heats up quick, but there 
is no material for clouds there. The sun is all the while passing on, night comes 
and what was so hot during the day becomes very cool at night. Had there 
been clouds to center there the heat would have been retained ; no heat is retained 
as a basis for the work of developing a low the next day. The process of heating 
has to be all gone over again. Evidently the best combination for retaining heat 
is a good interspersing of land and water. 
XXXVII. Other things being equal, the lows would probably be perma- 
nent at the equator, but they are not, and as we become more and more familiar 
with the facts of the weather the more and more we see the wisdom of the Creator 
in having the various combinations of heat, the distribution of land and water, the A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
9 
inclination of the axis of the earth, etc., whereby the weather is equalized, tem- 
pered and changed. 
XXXVIII. Mr. Butler, after discussing the question of low and saying what 
it was not, put himself on record (“Atmospheric System,” page 381) that it was 
caused by “ electricity.” Such a man as he we know would not deal with such 
a thing lightly and say “electricity” in any wiseacre sense. It is not pleasant to 
controvert one much older in the service than yourself. Perhaps it is electricity, 
but Mr. Butler did not sufficiently explain his point, and now, for this world at 
least, he is beyond the power of the discussion of a topic in which he took such 
an absorbing interest. On this point, however, I would venture the suggestion 
that electricity itself may, after all, be nothing more or less than heat. Without 
heat there never could have been electricity; it seems to be only a higher or more 
subtile form of heat, as it were, bearing about the same relation to heat in general 
as ozone to oxygen. 
XXXIX. Again Mr. Butler maintained that if there was what is now com- 
monly called a “hole in the sky,” that clouds must necessarily shoot up through 
this hole, and he offers quite a reward to any one who ever saw such a sight as a 
cloud—a scud—going heavenward This he seemed to think conclusive evidence 
against the theory that low is formed in the manner here referred to. The air 
may go up without taking a cloud. A cloud is only a mass of water combined 
with air—balloon-like. When a maximum point of moisture is reached the water 
re-falls to the earth. At a center of low, clouds are piling in towards each other; 
as they are thus brought together they are compressed in proportion to the force 
of the currents that brought them together and, as it were, the water is squeezed 
out of them as though they were so many sponges. Where is the air that also 
helped form them ? It is not unreasonable to suppose that it rises towards the 
heat that is on the upper side of the clouds. So it does not seem inconsistent to 
believe the common and generally-acknowledged theory on this point—and it 
would seem very strange to see a heavy rain-cloud take an upward flight—espec- 
ially when we know that beyond a certain limit the air becomes very rare and 
incapable of sustaining bodies of any great weight. 
XL. It is a fact, however, that the lighter cirrus clouds are often seen moving 
above the lower and heavier clouds, and in an opposite way from the way the 
wind is blowing on the surface of the earth. This fact, if it proves anything, 
would seem to go to prove the “hole in the sky” theory, by showing that there 
are upper currents, as is also ascertained by balloons moving in another direction 
from the surface currents. This will readily fit the theory that the air does ascend 
over the spots called low and that the air is seeking to equalize the various forces 
whereby it exists. 
XLI. This is, as it were, Nature’s grand plan of ventilation and purification, 
whereby we have a bountiful supply of fresh air far beyond the demand. 
XLII. Low travels eastward, at least as a general rule, or towards the sun. 
Did the sun rise in the west this would undoubtedly be reversed, and we should 
see storms traveling (generally) from the East towards the West. 10 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
XLIII. There is a common saying that a storm travels in the “ eye of the 
wind,” i. e., in the direction that the wind is blowing. This is true in some 
cases, but it must be seen that it cannot approach to the dignity of a universal 
law—it depends much upon the locality, and particularly upon the relative loca- 
tion of low. Along the Atlantic coast this is more true of a North-east storm than 
any other. There are cases where this for some localities may be true with a 
North-west wind, when a low starts in on the coast and takes a North-west direc- 
tion. Such a storm center or low, however, bends to the East, and apparently 
sgoe to prove that low travels in circles or ellipses. Familiarity with the motion 
of low and the fact that its general course is towards the East, will make it a very 
easy matter to trace a storm and make us more skillful at forecasting the weather. 
XLIV. On the maps the changes are marked high and low. High it would 
seem, according to the principles here treated upon, should follow loiu, and such 
appears to be the fact, although it would not seem to rank with low as an inde- 
pendent condition, but rather as an adjunct. We could have no high without a 
low; the low is the governing condition. 
XLV. Can we ever have low under our control ? It would seem not, yet 
we evidently can help in establishing centers for low, as in deserts, where there 
are naturally none, by planting trees and inducing foliage to develop, whereby 
moisture may be drawn up from the earth and what may be present in the atmos- 
phere retained, thereby heat prevented from escaping through the night, etc. 
XLVI. Where there is foliage the conditions low are more equally and 
extensively developed, and this leads to (XLVII) the conditions of storms that 
follow woodless countries. Where the woods are cut away we have great droughts 
and sudden and fierce winds and rains. As to rain, much depends on the extent 
of the area of barren soil. In all these changes many influences are at work, 
and we cannot make ourselves too familiar with the idea that the strongest factor 
is going to prevail. 
XLVIII. When a storm is working up more or less moisture is developed 
according to the circumstances herein spoken of. If clouds are spread over a 
large extent of territory and low is not very concentrated the precipitation will be 
light. It is then that rain “ comes down like mercy,” and does so much good, as 
it has plenty of time to penetrate the earth, and therein lay up a supply against 
the seasons of drought. As foliage tends to accomplish this and regulate and 
equalize it, as it were, it would seem worth our while to heed it. The fact itself 
is known, yet many facts that we really well know are not fully appreciated until 
stern necessity presents them to the world in the most forcible manner and in the 
most powerful light. 
XLIX. As has been remarked one low follows another at shorter or longer 
intervals. Again a condition of low may circumvent a place or locality, and then 
at times one place or locality will have an abundance of rain—rain almost every 
day for perhaps two weeks, while another will not the while have any; as it were 
one locality has rain at the expense of another. (See plate). 
A low may start in on the coast of L and take a regular course toward the north-east; it may start in at G, take a more or less circular course, and thereby 
pass locality K, or start in H or I and travel to the northwest, leaving the Atlan- 
tic States without rain; or it may, separately or in conjunction with others, start 
at E, F or D and take a more or less direct easterly course to the Atlantic ocean. 
These lines illustrate the general course of low, but if the engraver should exercise 
his imagination to the utmost and make the lines so thick and intricate that they 
could not be deciphered, or lose their identity in multiplicity of directions, he 
could not give all the changes that are constantly occurring in the paths of low. 
One of the missions of the Signal Bureau will be to note the course of these lows 
and to see how they are associated with any particular season of the year. 
L. In nature nothing is more marked than is this matter of rainfall that the 
strongest factor will prevail. Other things being equal the rainfall will be at low, 
but they are not, so we occasionally have an apparent exception to the fact that 
low barometer is the cause of rain. On the ioth of April, 1878, low was off in 
the north-west and extended over a large territory. The wind, as was natural, 12 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THE A’ QUESTION. 
set in to the eastward, and under such conditions it does not move with the 
rapidity it does when low is concentrated, so under these circumstances the 
clouds were carried along very slowly. They were the while, however, growing 
heavier and being wafted toward low, but coming in contact with a changed con- 
dition of atmosphere on the border lines of high and low, precipitation took place, 
prematurely as it were, so that there was little or no moisture to precipitate when 
the real center of low was reached. The strongest factor in this case was the 
coming in contact with a changed condition of atmosphere. This does not often 
occur and it would seem could only occur at such times as when such conditions 
have referred to meet. Yet this would prove, if anything, that clouds were 
being developed all over—more or less according to circumstances of moisture, 
heat, etc., and that the condition low was simply a means of concentrating mois- 
ture over a given district. Such a condition as this may be difficult to prognos- 
ticate. It would be, apparently, the most natural to expect the rainfall at low. 
This, however, is a fair illustration of one of the many things with which the 
Signal office has to contend, at least at present; perhaps at some future time when 
the officers become more familiar with the workings of nature they may know 
better how to calculate upon the neutralizing influences of what may become 
under some circumstances, for the time being, the strongest factor. 
LI. The United States is a fine field to study this subject, and it seems to 
be divided into three distinct systems; that east of the Rocky Mountains, A ; 
that embracing between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast range on the 
west, narrow strip embracing betweeen the Pacific Ocean and the coast 
range on the east, C. Could we have the same complete system throughout the 
world as we have here we could undoubtedly gain still more valuable informa- 
tion as to the working of the weather system. The natural laws are evidently 
the same though they may not in all parts be in the same balance as here. On 
the basis of the strongest power prevailing, there may be certain apparent varia. 
tions which may appear to conflict, when in reality they all follow the same gen- 
eral law. 
LII. The best portion of the United States for regular conditions to follow 
each other seems to be east of the Rocky Mountains. It has sometimes been 
said that our storms come from the Rocky Mountains, but from the weather maps 
and the natural laws that low appears to follow, it would seem that they do not 
generate anywhere in particular, and are liable to generate at any portion of the 
Earth’s surface; indeed, there is a constant struggle at every point—the strongest 
force prevails and a small low is sometimes, as it were, swallowed up by a larger 
one and borne on by it, or at times to even develope within a very extended one. 
LIII. There are general and local laws, and this accounts for places near 
each other having currents of wind in even opposite directions, and for the fact 
while the general wind is in one direction, a local wind may be in another and 
even just the reverse. In such cases, however, the wind will not generally be 
very heavy. 
LIV. “Polar Waves.”—This is a nice expression, yet strictly speaking there A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
13 
is no such thing; the laws that govern the system do not warrant the use of it, at 
least otherwise than in a figurative sense, for to the north of us there is evidently 
another line or lines, as it were, of lows, running in all directions as generally in 
the territory of the United States; and to the north of what is here called a 
“polar wave,” there are undoubtedly warmer circles at the time than in the cur- 
rent of this “wave” that is supposed to be, or, as its name implies, is all the way 
from the icy North, for the reason of there being another center of low away up 
there, whereby in that north latitude local south winds are generated. We learn 
from Arctic voyagers that the wind up North at times blows from the South, as 
well as at other places on the Earth’s surface; perhaps not as much, yet it does 
so blow, and this will reasonably account for it and is evidently the reason for it. 
At the North they might as well have the expression, “ an equatorial wave,” and 
it would be just as proper as to say a “polar wave,” at least in this sense. 
LV. The condition low is, as has been remarked, the controlling power— 
where low is there will the wind be concentrated—toward these centers the cur- 
rents will be established. When (North of the Equator) a North wind blows, it 
will necessarily be cold, unless, perhaps, as in cases where the low is not very 
positive, and the wind is light and must travel over extended plains, as occasion- 
ally in summer, as herein referred to. This, though, is only an illustration of 
the predominance of the stronger factor. And when a North wind blows it will 
be on account of a low barometer area at some point South, and not, as is some- 
times thought, because of a condition of high barometer up North. A condition 
of high does not push on a current but a condition of low pulls along the current; 
in other words, wind is pulled, not pushed. 
LVI. The territory in the United States embraced between that portion of 
the Rocky Mountains running N. W. and S. E. and S. W. and N. E., Salt Lake 
City being its eastern angle, and the “Blue mountains” running N. E. and S. 
W., and the Sierra Nevada mountains to the S. E. and N. W. (see plate B), 
which has an elevation of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet, seems to have, as it may be 
termed, a “condition” by itself and to have its own local lows, as it were, cut 
off by the mountains. There are, however, few stations in this locality, so the 
world is not at present fully informed of its changes; yet, from the observations 
taken at its four quarters—Salt Lake City, Boise City, Pioche and Humboldt 
City—the conditions low seem to be local. The strip of territory between the 
mountain range and the coast has quite a different climate from the rest of the 
United States. California has a peculiar weather condition. If these mountains 
are the cause of this, it may be asked, why does not the Blue Ridge and the 
Eastern ranges of mountains affect the Eastern climate ? They undoubtedly do, 
but not in this manner, for low seems to travel without much regard to them. 
They are lower, less extensive (horizontally) and are, as it were, set in the midst 
of fields, whereby their influence for chilling the air is counterbalanced. On the 
Pacific slope, however, we have a high and extensive range of mountains that 
cools the air, thus affording a check to the further development of low across 
them. But for these high and mountainous regions, low would undoubtedly 14 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
travel directly across the land, start in at the Pacific shore and travel regularly— 
depending on the force of the heat and neutralizing influences—with more or 
less rapidity toward the Atlantic coast. But the coast range, backed by the high 
plateau country as far West as to include the Rocky Mountains, makes quite a 
different condition of climate for this territory from what it would be if it were com- 
paratively level. To illustrate, say low is developed on the land; it is checked 
in its course eastward by the coldness of the mountain airs and is, as it were, 
shut off from the East. So, in a similar manner, the low that is developed in 
what may be termed the mountain quadrilateral, but with the territory to the 
East of the Rocky Mountain range it is altogether different. Here low has a 
broad and comparatively uninterrupted field through which it travels as it wills, 
or as the Sun will dictate, sometimes starting here and sometimes there. (See 
plate.) 
LVII. The higher the Sun works up, generally, the higher the line of low, 
and the reverse; and the more concentrated and positive the low will be in these 
upper or lower latitudes. (Reference is now had to North latitude.) So we see 
that the North winds prevail in the winter and the South winds in the summer. 
This a general law and not a special one, that necessarily follows the Sun in its 
course North and South of the Equator. We do, however, have centers of low 
running quite high during the winter, and this causes South winds and warm 
weather; when the reverse and Imv is low, we have severe cold winters. Because 
in the United States or in any parallel of latitude they have a warm winter or cool 
summer, it does not imply that the weather to the North of this line will be cor- 
respondingly affected; it may or may not; may be correspondingly colder or 
warmer, all depending on the line of lows in these regions, which may be quite 
independent of those to the South of them. 
LVIII. As to cold winters and warm winters, it seems a matter of mere 
accident, so far as we know, yet of course beyond us there may be a Providence 
in the matter that has special reasons for such a condition of things, but so far 
as our knowledge reaches it appears to be the merest accident, as the location of 
low itself. Low starts at a certain point; it must continually seek new fields; 
and it is a wise law that it should, even though it may sometimes come around 
to locations that cause weather that to us appears out of season. This being the 
case, it seems very plausible to me that it must be irregular in its time and place, 
and that it is liable to be constantly overlapping itself, so that after a number of 
years it gets around to certain localities, causing atmospheric conditions that 
would not seem natural for a given locality, being cold when our months should 
say warm, and warm when they should say cold. But nature is nature, and it 
seems in accordance with herself to have her continually, as it were, overtaking 
herself. She is all the while obeying the strongest force, either positively or 
negatively. If our seasons in the course of periods change so as not to accord 
with the present names of the months, it will be in accordance with this principle 
—and it may account for many changes in the past history of our Earth that 
cannot otherwise be accounted for. The greater or less amount of water present A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
15 
has much to do with this matter of climate. We know that there is evidence in 
past ages of the world, of some northern localities, at least, being much warmer 
than at present. We also know that eruptions have occurred, and that whole 
tracts of country have been raised above the surface of the water. As the effect 
of the sun’s rays on the water is peculiar and different from their effect on the 
land, may there not have been conditions that have made localities relatively 
different from what they are now. This idea of Nature, as it were, gaining on 
herself, even though slowly, may also give the color of reason to the idea that the 
earth is gradually changing—that no one point is permanently relatively fixed 
with any outside body—and may not the same idea extend to the whole universe ? 
It would not seem unnatural; what may account for a small thing may also 
account for a large one. All nature works on a similar plan and after the same 
general laws. 
LIX. Low barometer centers in the ocean. The chances are that lou> is 
distributed over the ocean in a similar manner as on the land. The fact that 
vessels at sea have the wind from all quarters, meeting with storm centers and 
calms, and have the wind to shift from one point to another, would evidently, 
beyond doubt, go to prove that such is the case. This, however, would go to 
disprove the poetical idea that the waves beating on any given point, say on the 
rocky shores of New England when the wind in to the eastward, are all the way 
from the shores of the Eastern continent. It is very improbable that they are 
ever from such a distance. The chances are that there are a number of low 
barometer centres between the two continents, and that the wind that raises the 
seas that strike against the New England shores, starts not more than from two 
hundred to five hundred miles away, and perhaps not always at as great a dis- 
tance. The force of the ocean wave is not altogether in the distance that it has 
to travel, though it does require quite a distance in which to raise a heavy sea; 
the force of it, however, must depend upon the force of the wind, which in turn 
depends upon the power of low. 
LX. Clouds.—In the Signal office at Washington there is a large case in 
which the weather of the earth is illustrated in miniature. The clouds are formed 
of cotton and are nicely and artistically executed; the different kinds are true to 
nature, from the most delicate clouds that are first formed, to the heavy black 
clouds that produce the heaviest rains. The whole case is a wonder of handi- 
work, wherein the whole meteorology of the earth may, to the initiated at least, 
be seen at a glance. It is not the purpose of this article to more than refer to 
this; it would seem, though, that every college in the land, and every high- 
school, should have such a model, as by it this subject of the weather can be 
studied with great advantage. Certain conventional names have been given to 
the different kinds of clouds. Of course there are all kinds, from the very light 
to the very heavy, and these can be seen merging into one another without any 
respect as to the name they bear. However, it is well to know them by the 
established names, for thereby we not only have the pleasure of knowing them 16 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
better, but we can the better describe them and gather information in regard to 
the weather by their form and combination, etc. 
LXI. Winds.—The winds are governed by the condition low, and therefore 
the governing condition has been spoken of first; yet the two are inseparable, and 
are only here apparently separated because language will not allow us to speak of 
two things at once. 
LXII. The force of the wind depends upon the power of low. 
LXIII. The direction of the wind will generally be toward Imv. it may be 
deflected by local forces, for the local is ever contending against the general, and 
the reverse. This has been referred to under the head of Imv. The harder the 
wind the more direct it will blow toward the center. It has been said that if we 
will stand with our left hands toward the region of high, and our right toward the 
region of low, that the wind will be in our faces; but the weather maps do not 
seem to warrant this as a general fact, though when there is a very large circle of 
low, and therefore not concentrated, such at times may locally appear to be the 
case. If there is anything in the idea of the conditions of low as herein spoken 
of, it would seem natural that the currents of air should generally be in towards 
the centre low. The daily weather maps seem to warrant the assertion and to be 
in full harmony with it. 
LXIV. As to the force of the wind, it all depends upon the rapidity with 
which it is moving, and the rapidity depends upon the positiveness of the condi- 
tion known as low. It is, however, subject to natural forces in a similar manner 
to more materialistic things, water for example. 
LXV. It will be more or less retarded by friction, and over the sea there 
will be less friction than over the land and less over level tracts than over uneven 
and mountainous districts. 
LXVL As the wind will travel in as straight a line as possible, we can often- 
times, by observation as to the direction of the wind, trace the course of low, 
and form an approximate idea as to its probable locality. Occasionally there is 
an apparent exception as to the course of the wind towards low; for example, we 
sometimes have quite a cold south wind. This, however, will be found to be 
only local, and that such a south wind is in reality a west wind, with simply a 
changed direction for a comparatively short distance—changed by some local 
condition, such as a struggle to develope a sub or local low, or occasioned by 
some natural lay of land, such as the presence of a body of water, a mountain 
range, etc. An illustration of this effect may often be noticed in a city ; though 
the wind may be blowing from the northwest, it may eddy or be deflected around 
some corner and blow (locally) from the southwest or even south. Because in 
this confined locality the wind was from the south, it would not be right to say 
that it was a south wind. 
LXVII. Old people often speak of the wind going around from one quar- 
ter to another “with the sun.” Such observations are oftentimes made and 
transmitted from generation to generation, yet without reason. People see that 
a storm comes, passes and clears off in a certain manner, but it was not until A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
17 
within a very few years that we could trace a storm over such a vast area as the 
United States. Now we see why the wind should come up in a certain manner 
and pass around to another quarter, and so on till it comes out finally with the 
wind from another direction, and clears off; and why the wind is ever going 
from one point of the compass to another, and why a storm is liable to come up 
with one wind as well as with another. 
LXVIII. It is a common thing to hear that “the wind is blowing up a 
storm.” It may seem contrary to the wisdom of the past to deny that the “wind 
blows up a storm,” yet from the remarks on the condition, low, it must seem 
obvious that the wind does not blow up a storm, but rather that, if anything, the 
reverse of this is more true, that the storm raises the wind. A low is developed, 
the wind rushes in to fill the vacuum. If low is, say in the middle of the United 
States, to the west of the same, the wind will be from the west; while to the east 
of the condition, the wind will be generally from the east: and if it passes to 
the south of a certain point, the wind at that point would be from the north, and 
the reverse if to the north. So the manner in which the vane turns will depend 
upon the relative location of the center of the condition low, toward which the 
wind will always blow. This can be better traced by reference to the map or 
plate. 
LXIX. Then an east wind is generally considered a very stormy one with 
us, yet it is purely accidental, and we sometimes have exceedingly pleasant and 
clear weather with an easterly wind, for the simple reason that low is traveling to 
the west of our particular locality, and may pass us by altogether without pro- 
ducing a storm in our immediate locality. The greater part of the time, how- 
ever, an east wind is caused by low being in the line of our locality, then the 
clouds that have been generating for days over the Atlantic ocean are brought to 
us and we have rain in abundance, and all the effects derived from the condition 
of low barometer. Yet in this connection it must be remembered that what may 
be a northeast storm in one locality, will to another locality, on some other side 
of low be called a storm from another quarter, i. e., a condition low is circular, 
and the storm converges toward it from every direction. This center may not 
be an exact circle or even approximate thereto, for oftentimes its real outline is 
anything but circular. The term circular is here used only in a general sense. 
LXX. When there is a very positive low, a fierce wind is developed, and 
as the sun first strikes the east, the storm will travel generally in that direction, 
and as the wind will be from all directions toward this center, an elastic medium 
of air is established, as it were, as a cushion for the wind from each quarter to 
receive and be received upon, whereby the force of tornadoes are checked ; 
otherwise they would do far more damage than they do. 
LXXI. Much has been said about equinoctial storms. People have an 
idea that when the sun “crosses the line,” that there must be some extra com- 
motion whereby a great storm is generated. In regard to this, I will venture the 
assertion that there is no such thing as an “equinoctial storm.” Any storm that 
occurs within two weeks, before or after, is commonly given this name; because 18 
A NEW VIEW OE THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
such a storm happens, and is always liable to happen, somewhere about this 
time, it is no sign that the “equinox” has anything to do with it. Storms 
are liable to generate at all times, one may occur at this particular time, and 
that, too, in merely certain localities, when it is perfectly fair at others. This 
being the case it seems absurd to thus connect it with the sun passing over a 
certain imaginary line. 
LXXII. Rain and snow are essentially the same. This need not be told 
the initiated, yet there are people who think that the Signal officer has made an 
error when it is said that “it will probably rain,” and it snows instead. It is a 
mere difference between a few degrees of temperature, and perhaps local temper- 
ature at that; if warm it will rain, if cold it will snow. 
LXXIII. It is sometimes remarked, that it feels like rain or snow, but that 
it is too cold. In this case the clouds that contain this moisture are present, but 
if warmer a little beyond, they will pass along to that warmer spot. The strongest 
force, whether it be heat, cold, or wind, will predominate; the merely local must 
(generally) give way for the general or extended conditions. 
LXXIV. When low extends over a large territory, or we are in the center 
of a concentrated one, the rain will come down straight or nearly so; but when 
the center of low is to one side and a fierce wind is rushing in toward it, carrying 
heavy clouds along, the rain will come down at an angle ; the more fierce the 
more obtuse the angle at which the rain will fall, and sometimes the wind is so 
powerful as to make it come down almost horizontal. 
LXXV. Trade winds and hurricanes we have not much to do with in this 
latitude and longitude, yet they, with other conditions, must obey the general 
law of air seeking an equilibrium. It would seem from what we know of the 
laws of storms in general, that the “trades” should, as they do, prevail in the 
latitudes nearest the equator, and that hurricanes should predominate in the same 
localities. 
LXXVI. The manner in which a fierce wind travels has been much com- 
mented upon. It is said that it travels, as it were, in epicycles—going compara- 
tively straight or in an elongated curve for quite a distance, then taking a sudden 
turn in the shape of a small circle, as is sometimes the case with dust in the 
street. This, however, does not accord with the general law, though the air, like 
the heavier material water, is evidently turned in this manner by local inertia. 
The more fierce the wind the more compact and the more it is liable to be 
deflected or swept around in a circle, the same as water, by any resistance that it 
may meet with. Its inertia of speed forces it on—the inertia of fixed objects, 
even though small, must cause some compromise—must be overcome. 
LXXVII. Tornadoes look black, and oftentimes much resemble a huge 
serpent rushing over the ground. It would seem to be comparatively easy to 
account for this. The fiercer the wind the more condensed, and as it moves 
over the earth at the rate of a hundred miles or so an hour, it will necessarily 
take up with it much loose earth, dust, etc., whereby darkness of color is given 
to the whole mass. Then as to its serpentine form, the very compactness will A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
19 
account for that. The more compact, the more it holds together and becomes a 
thing of life, having elasticity whereby it may be deflected by one object to such 
an extent as to pass entirely over or by another object beyond, either horizontally 
or perpendicularly; thus, up or down, to right or left, it sweeps along on its 
course, taking as straight a line as possible, yet even in its most fierce condition 
being obliged to compromise its course more or less, bearing evidence to the law 
that the strongest force must prevail and showing that some mere local inertia is 
strong enough to deflect it from the straight line in which it seeks to travel. It 
is said, sometimes, to rain all sorts of things—-sticks, stones, frogs, etc. A tor- 
nado, moving at such a fierce rate, is liable to take up and carry along with it 
any such small things, and when there is a lull in the wind or anything tends to 
retard it or sufficiently check its velocity, these objects that were taken up will 
fall to the earth, and in that locality we will have a “shower” of sticks, stones, 
frogs, etc., although, strictly speaking, the term “shower” will not be appro- 
priate. 
LXXVIII. Wind has not much force until it, by great velocity, becomes 
much compressed and gains, as it were, solidity. 
LXXIX. At times the air is very oppressive, in common phraseology, 
called “muggy.” This occurs when low is being developed or we are on the 
outskirts of an extended condition of low. The atmosphere is full of moisture 
displacing air; in addition to this, the air is quite stationary; there is no new 
supply, or a very little, coming in from other quarters—the allowance of air is 
small. As soon as precipitation takes place, or low becomes concentrated or 
moves on we get a bountiful supply of air, which, in contrast, is very refreshing. 
LXXX. West winds seem to prevail with us, the cause being that low is 
more off in the ocean than on the land. Water heats quicker, the land retains 
heat the best. This will account for the constant changes, under some circum- 
stances, such as night breezes and day breezes, as occur along the shores of great 
bodies of water. 
LXXXI. Probably the best place for comfort would be between high and low; 
here we get a good breeze; we are, as it were, in the current, where the ventila- 
tion is generally perfect—occasionally there is too much rapidity for some local 
comfort, but we must reconcile ourselves with this when we know that it is carry- 
ing great comfort to another quarter, restoring balance of air or temperature to 
our fellow men in some other locality. 
LXXXI I. In the summer, especially the latter part, we have the wind 
much from what the Indians practically called the “sweet Southwest.” This is 
occasioned by a moderate low barometer up in the Northeast, perhaps off New 
Foundland’s banks, that region of fogs and mists. Had the Indians known the 
meteorological facts of the present day they would have had reason to have given 
this sweet name to the northeast rather than to the southwest—to the quarter that 
drew the currents on, rather than to a quarter from whence they were collected. 
The “sweet Southwest,” however, at least along the Atlantic coast, is a most re- 
freshing wind, bearing with it the tempered conditions of the West and South 20 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
and the effects of land and water; it was indeed beautifully and appropriately 
named by those sons of nature whom we term Indians. At this season of the 
year these winds are peculiar, in that they rise with the sun and die away with 
it, conclusively showing that heat is the cause of the wind. Though the wind 
dies away with the sun it very soon springs up again, and this may seem to con- 
trovert the theory, but instead it only substantiates it. The wind springs up but 
veers to the south or southeast, according to the trend of the coast, this being 
caused by the better retention of the heat by the land than by the water. Dur- 
ing the day it is on the water, up off the northeast coast. The night cools the 
water, the land retains the heat, so a current is established landward. 
T,XXXIII. Later in the season, and indeed, earlier too, loru is for much of 
the time still off in the ocean, but in a lower latitude, generating a northwest 
wind, causing fierce storms in the neighborhood of that storm centre off the coast 
of Hatteras, lying between there and the Bermuda Islands, in the locality by 
sailors called the “Devil’s Corner.” Sailors oftentimes have very expressive 
names for places and things. This is the locality where concentrated and even 
protracted lows are generated, therefore, a locality of storms; hence the name 
implying a very bad place—one to be avoided, and one where much caution 
must be exercised when necessity forces one to pass it. Yet this locality is not 
always deserving of this name; during the winter and spring months it would 
seem to be the most appropriate. 
LXXXIV. Under Low.—We see that low barometer is continually on the 
march, from point to point, from the land to the sea and from the sea to the land. 
After a storm has passed to the eastward the wind comes out more or less fiercely 
from the west; the sky is cleared of clouds; the wind hangs in this quarter for a 
a day or two, and, though cool at first, finally dies away, and in summer it comes 
out very hot and dry. These are probably the most trying days in summer, but 
this condition is not generally of long duration. Low is all the while as it were 
swimming ’round a circle of larger or smaller dimensions. Narragansett Bay in 
summer is a fine place to watch these changes. They generally occur about an 
hour or two after mid-day. At such times it is a common sight to see boats at 
different points sailing down as well as up the bay before the wind, though very lit- 
tle wind, and with a space of perhaps a mile or two between where it is all calm, 
with a slight flow of wind, first one way then another; the north wind and west- 
erly wind receding and the southerly wind gaining, and by and by coming out a 
good breeze to the southwest. Low, in order to make this change, has the while 
been shifting, and perhaps the governing one in this case is located up in the 
northeast, just off the ocean. 
The partial wreck of the steamer Massachusetts, while on her eastern trip 
in Long Island Sound, the early part of November, 1877, ls a good illustration 
of the change of wind in a similar manner, yet more sudden. A heavy southeast 
storm had prevailed during the day. The captain of the steamer, in order to 
avoid running the risk of exposing his boat to the fierce winds and waves of the 
Atlantic ocean, had hugged the Long Island shore. It was very foggy weather, A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
21 
and so thick, as the sailors say, that no lights were seen from the shore. They 
were running by dead-reckoning, that is, by their knowledge of the speed of the 
boat, the force of the currents and general experience of navigation in these 
waters. As the steamer was, about n p. m., near the gate to the ocean, it was 
decided to turn the head around towards the west, and “stand-by” till morning. 
From want of exact knowledge of their situation, from not having proper data, 
the boat was accidentally run ashore on a projecting sand point. Had the wind 
remained to the Southeast, at the slow rate of speed at which the boat was going, 
this would not have been a serious matter, but soon after midnight, or there- 
about, the wind suddenly came out to the Northwest. The captain now found 
himself, instead of under a lea, on a lea-shore and at the mercy of a fierce wind. 
What had caused the change ? When we follow up the path of low, it is all as 
plain of explanation as the blowing of the wind itself. On the return of another 
day, the advancing heat of the sun out on the ocean had caused (or pulled) the 
center of low to the eastward, whereby the wind, that had been blowing toward 
this center from the northward and westward, was permitted to go into other fields, 
as it were, in order still to seek the point of low that it is all the while striving for. 
These changes are more or less sudden, depending on the power and concentra- 
tion of low and the relation that it bears to a given locality. 
LXXXV. In this connection there are a few other general points of illus- 
tration that it may be well to refer to. It is known that there is no regularity to 
the speed and continuance of low, it evidently is continually on the move, yet 
practically for some localities in the United States it is stationary for some two, 
three, and sometimes four days, and, on rare occasions, perhaps more; but the 
most severe spell of such a blow that I bear in mind is that which commenced 
on the first of March, 1872, and continued with unsurpassed fierceness till the 
fifth. During this time the conditions were evidently favorable for a concentra- 
ted and long lotv off the coast along down and by Hatteras, or, in what sailors 
call the “Devil’s Corner.” This was probably one of the most fierce and con- 
tinuous winds that we have had along the Atlantic coast. 
LXXXVI. Sometimes we see all, or nearly all, the evidences of a storm; 
the clouds form, the wind is in the right direction, and it “feels like rain,” but 
no rain comes perhaps for a month, two months, or even more. Everything is 
parched for want of rain, and dust is very abundant. This has given rise to the 
saying “that all signs fail in dry times.” It would seem that there could be no 
fault to find with the “signs;” so far as they are concerned they are all right— 
they are evidence of conditions actually existing, but the trouble is that these 
conditions are a long way off. Low circles around, but sometimes, more particu- 
larly in the summer, it goes very far in some one direction, the circles that it 
describes are very large while its own circle or center is apt to be contracted, so 
that it passes by some localities merely touching them with its outer edge, which 
frequently gives the “sign” as it passes, but nothing more; the rain that is 
developed, even in part, in the dry localities, is taken off to other places. 
LXXXVII. Also on such occasions we see the evening flashes of light, 
away off in the distant horizon. This, in order possibly to give a name even 
though the cause was not known, is called “heat-lightning.” On the basis of 
these remarks, and I trust that they are not far out of the way, though we are 22 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
still in the dark as to many facts, there does not seem as though there could be 
any such thing as is implied by this name, but rather that it is a bona fide light- 
ning from some center of loiv—perhaps a local low or some regular passing centre 
of low, some twenty miles or more away. 
LXXXVIII. There is also a common expression in regard to thunder, that 
“Thunder in the morning, sailors take warning; Thunder at night, sailors de- 
light,” as though it were a law that it was worse to have thunder in the morning 
than in the evening, etc. In the first place it depends upon which direction the 
thunder proceeds from; if to the East of us it is evident that the storm center or 
low has passed our locality ; if to the North that it is passing; if to the South, that 
it is working its way up towards us; and if to the West, that we may expect it 
to be or come quite near us. Secondly, there may not be any great “ delight” in 
hearing thunder at night, as in the other case, it all depends on the direction 
from which it comes, immediately about us, to the North, East, South or West 
of us. Thunder is more apt to occur in the evening on account of the develop- 
ment of the heat of the day (see section XXXVIII on electricity); where there is 
thunder in the morning it shows great heat and perhaps the development of a 
low barometer, and therefore indication of a severe storm. These remarks on 
thunder and lightning may also, in a general way, apply to the lines “a rainbow 
in the morning,” etc. The principle is the same. 
LXXXIX. Among other common notions in this department of the weather 
is the idea that at certain times, mostly morning and evening, when a few heavy 
broken clouds are massed together and the sunlight is shining through such open- 
ings as there may be here and there among them, that the sun is drawing water. 
This notion evidently grew out of the desire to account for a certain natural phe- 
nomena after a supposed reasonable manner; but the knowledge of the present 
will not sustain any such fanciful idea as this implies. In the first place the sun 
does not “draw” water, at least in the sense we commonly use this word. It 
evaporates the water and combines it with air, and thereby forms clouds. Secondly, 
this process is going on all the while, at least when there is sufficient heat. 
Thirdly, this phenomenal called the “sun drawing water,” is simply the rays of 
the sun shining through an opening, and we have the same effect whether the 
opening be in a cloud or in a wall.- The denser the cloud immediately under 
the sun and the clearer the sky elsewhere, the stronger this effect will be. 
In this paper it has been the aim of the writer, as may be readily seen, to 
bring together all the points in relation to the weather that he could think of, and 
in order to facilitate memory and to draw special attention to these points so that 
they would not be lost in the mass, he adopted the plan of numbering each item 
as it presented itself in as much order as possible, that one point might, as near as 
possible, suggest the other. He does not claim that he has discovered all, or that 
all his deductions are right. He has simply endeavored to present the subject 
from his point of view, and as the same appears to him. And now he stands like 
others interested in this beautiful study, awaiting further developments. Of 
course he would like to have future developments sustain what he has here set 
forth, yet he trusts that he will be enabled to see new facts in an impartial light, 
and if, perchance, more light should prove him in error as to conclusions, that 
nevertheless there may be found in this paper some points that may be of interest 
to those who seek to investigate the mysterious forces that go to make up our 
weather system. And he further hopes that the interest of the people at large 
will be general, and of so earnest a nature as to sustain the labors of those who 
are engaged in the duty of collecting facts pertaining to this branch of science, 
and extend to them a practical sympathy whereby they may be the better enabled 
to follow up the great work before them; and further, that this sympathy may so A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 
23 
extend that the nations of the earth may enter into fellowship with each other in 
collecting facts that bear upon this subject; for only by such cosmopolitan meas- 
ures can we hope to gain important facts from all quarters of the globe, whereby 
we may bee ime familiar with the weather system or systems of the world. For 
this purpose we should have facilities to collect facts, not only from the civilized 
countries and places easy of access, but from such places as at present are quite 
inaccessible, either from peculiar conditions of people or climate. 
PROGNOSTICATIONS. 
After reading these Statements and Comments the reader may inquire if there 
is no way for the individual, unaided by instruments, to forecast the weather. 
There are certain signs which if one will note from time to time whereby they 
may become quite expert, but then these personal prognostications must necessa- 
rily be confined to the local conditions. The individual from his local standpoint 
cannot tell what the general conditions are; and herein is where the labors of the 
signal office particularly become of value, and of greater value than it is possible 
for the prognostications of the local observer to be, even to his own locality, for 
the general always governs the local, and knowledge of what is and has been, 
gives more value to the judgment of the future. A single individual standing 
on the ground cannot command a very wide horizon, and even on the house-top 
cannot command anything like the extended region of one who is up in a balloon 
two or three miles above the earth. The single individual, even aided by instru- 
ments, can only know of the conditions of his immediate vicinity; while the 
Signal Office from its daily reports is able to see the conditions of the whole 
country; it can note the rate, direction and intensity of the storm center, and 
from these form a very accurate calculation as to the probability of its passing 
along a certain line, and in influencing the weather at a particular locality; yet, 
notwithstanding this, almanac makers and others think they have, or pretend to 
have, some system different from the natural laws of calculation whereby they 
can tell what the weather will be a year in advance; and, to make their preten- 
sions more absurd, they make no distinction between different localities, when it 
is a well-known fact, and now easily demonstrated, that two localities quite near 
each other may have, and often do have, quite different weather—one being hot 
while the other is cold, one wet while the other is dry, all depending on the rel- 
ative situation of low. 
In the past, before we had the facts of the present, this ridiculous pretension 
was, perhaps, excusable, for then very little was known of the general weather 
system—we were all ignorant of the facts that have been ascertained within the 
past few years. The best that could be done was to judge the weather of one 
year by that of another, and really the whole matter of attempted prognostication, 
instead of being a thing of calculation was, and is, really, but a mere matter of 
guess-work. In these so-called calculations much was figured from the moon, 
when the moon is a most contemptibly insignificant force in the matter and has 
about as much to do with th£ matter as it has with making people mad. Yet, 
years ago, it was so firmly believed that the moon was the cause of madness that 
this satellite of the earth gave the name to that unfortunate affliction of humanity. 
No person now, however, will hold to the absurd idea that lunacy, even though 
the name is connected with the moon, is in any way caused by the moon. As 
explained elsewhere, the sun is the great physical force that makes our weather 
system. The better we understand all the forces that go to make up the weather 
system, make ourselves familiar with all the changes that occur in and constitute 
the conditions that follow one another, the better weather prophets we will 
become. We must necessarily keep in mind as much as possible the location of 24 
A NEW VIEW OF THE WE A THEE QUESTION. 
low, for on this hangs all the information we seek, remembering that the wind 
will always be generally towards the point of low barometer; by bearing this in 
mind we can approximate the location of low in relation to our locality. Then 
we must note the extent of cloudiness and familiarize ourselves with the differ- 
ent kinds of clouds, bearing in mind that the heavier the clouds and the more 
extensive the cloudiness the more apt we are to get rain. If the wind is to the 
east it shows that the centre of low is to our west and is approaching our locality, 
although the centre of the storm may go either to the north or south of us. The 
presence of low barometer is indicated by a closeness of the atmosphere, com- 
monly called “ muggy.” If low is to the north of us we will have southerly and 
generally warm winds, while if to the south of us, it will be (relatively) cold (for 
the season); and, finally, to bear in mind the generally well-known fact that a 
storm clears off with a west wind and a clear, or quite clear, sky. 
These points, noted and studied, will much enhance the correctness of our 
individual weather prophecies, though the individual can never, for reasons 
herein explained, rival the prognostications of the Weather Bureau, or foretell the 
weather for any length of time ahead; and it is doubtful if the Weather Bureau 
itself can ever foretell the weather for any great length of time in adtance, but if 
it ever does it will only be after years of careful observations whereby it may dis- 
cover certain changes (if such a thing exists) that take place at regular periods of 
time, but these changes are so unlimited and can be of such an endless variety it 
is very much to be doubted if they can ever be discovered to follow a regular 
course that may be calculated for any great period ahead. Yet, even though 
such appears to be a hopeless task, it should not hinder our labors in this direc- 
tion nor cause us to neglect to follow up the good work so zealously begim, for 
we know not what high reward such earnest labors may meet with, and, even 
though we cannot discover any tangible law by which this is governed, there is still 
much left to acquire that will greatly repay us for our sacrifice in this behalf. If 
there be no similarity between certain periods we will still have gained a great 
point—we will have proved this as a fact and ascertained how this branch of 
nature works, for at present we are in the dark in this matter; yet, what facts we 
have tend to prove that the changes are endless and of infinite variety, and it 
would seem that the best purposes of nature were obtained from this system, for 
thereby the grateful showers are the most evenly distributed over the earth. 
By the inauguration of the present Weather Bureau more knowledge has been 
gained in this department in a few years than was ever before known. The 
work of the past, however, is not to be depreciated, because the present has 
greater facilities. All enlightened people should be interested in these greater 
facilities, and, so far as they are able, lend a hand in advancing to them a greater 
degree of perfection. What we want now is cooperation on the part of the gath- 
erers of scientific information the world over and then a combined and universal 
weather corps with facilities for extending its simultaneous labors over all impor- 
tant sections of the world, on sea as well as on land. It cannot be expected that 
so great a work as this would be accomplished in a few months, or even in a 
number of years, yet steps may be taken towards its accomplishment, and year 
by year we can advance our stations to new grounds and form combinations and 
awaken sympathy and zeal on the part of those who at present are ignorant or 
indifferent as to scientific matters. Only by such extended and united efforts can 
we fully understand the complete weather system of our planet, and it is to be 
hoped that the controlling spirits of the world will have sufficient interest and 
sympathy in the matter to arouse their zeal on behalf of so worthy a cause. 
Isaac P. Noyes. 
Washington, D. C., April, 1878. THE 
WESTERN REVIEW 
i.vdi s r i;y 
A Monthly Record of Process in Science. Mechanic Arts and Agricoltnre. 
Sixty-four pages octavo. $2.50 per annum, post paid. Single Numbers, 25 cents 
EDITED BY 
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