The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to Its ChangesButler, T. B. (Thomas Belden)
Science
The Philosophy of the Weather. And a Guide to Its Changes
Butler, T. B. (Thomas Belden)
Weather; Weather forecasting
Thus, we have, from the tables of Dr. Holyoke, the following annual means,
from 1786 to 1825, inclusive. I have arranged them in periods of five
years. It will be seen that there are three peculiarities observable.
First, a marked difference between the first and second periods of the
decade, corresponding, generally, with the presence or absence of the
spots. Second, a difference in the mean of the decades which may well be
supposed to correspond with the difference in the number or size of the
spots since a like difference is observable in number and size, and the
time when they reached their maxima and minima, in the table of Schwabe.
And, third, there are occasional single cold years during the warm period,
and these correspond with what the tables of Dr. Webster show for both the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In relation to this, it should be
remembered that volcanic action is a frequent and powerful disturber of
the regular action of terrestrial magnetism, and that the extremes, for
that reason, are frequently meridional or local and alternating; and to
that cause very great extremes, and marked exceptions, may be due,
notwithstanding the spots upon the sun may exert an influence in producing
hot summers and cold winters toward the close of each decade. Thus, to
select an instance to illustrate this and explain an anomaly: The coldest
season during the whole period, embraced in the following tables, is that
of 1812. This occurs during the decrease of spots, and the warm half of
the decade. Turning to the table of volcanic action, and of earthquakes,
found in the Report of the British Association for 1854, we find that year
was remarkable for earthquakes in the United States and South America. In
December, 1811, earthquakes commenced in the valley of the Mississippi,
Ohio, and Arkansas, felt also at places in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri,
Indiana, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, though
not so severely east of the Alleghanies, _which continued until 1813_.
About the same time they commenced in Caraccas, and, in March, 1812,
became severe over the greater portion of the northern section of South
America, and in the Atlantic. No such general and continued succession of
earthquakes occurred during the other periods embraced in the tables, and
the mean of the following five years was very low, embracing the memorable
cold summer of 1816.
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