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
Again, it is estimated, and on reliable data, that twelve perpendicular
feet of water are annually evaporated from the surface of the Red Sea,
between Nubia on one side, and Arabia on the other; yet they are both
rainless countries, except so far as the inter-tropical belt of rains
extends up on to a small portion of them. The moisture of evaporation,
floated up from a surface covered by the surface-trade is invariably so
combined as to remain uncondensed till it has passed south into the
equatorial rainy belt, and over to the opposite hemisphere, and been
exposed to the currents of an opposite magnetism.
Again, the N. E. trades extended up in summer over the Mediterranean Sea,
an evaporating surface, blow over the Barbary States in June and July, but
furnish no rain. And so of the S. E. or N. E. trades which blow over
Brazil and other countries in the absence north or south of the tropical
belt of rains.
It is obvious from these facts--and more like them might be cited--that
mere evaporation, however copious or long continued, does not make the
storm or shower in the locality where it takes place, and _without the
existence and influential agency_ of a counter-trade; and that _reciprocal
action_, whatever it may be, that takes place _between it and the earth_.
Again, our own experience is conclusive of this. We have no surface-trade
north of 30 deg., and yet a long drought and great evaporation may follow a
wet spring. Belts of droughts and frequent rains occur every year in
different portions of the country side by side, and _the dividing line
follows the course of the counter-trade_, and is sometimes distinctly
marked for weeks. When a change occurs in the counter-trade, whether from
causes existing there or the influence of terrestrial magnetism (in
relation to which we shall inquire hereafter), showers form or storms come
on: until it does they will not. Efforts at condensation will occasionally
appear, but they will be feeble and ineffectual, and occasion a repetition
of the axiom that "all signs fail in a drought." And we may know it from
direct observation.
The first indications of a storm, and of most if not all showers, are
observable in the counter-trade. These indications, so far as they are
visible, are of course to be looked for in the west; although the
direction and character of the surface-winds are often indicative of these
changes when not visible at the west as we shall see.
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