Meteorology; or, Weather Explained

To foretell with any degree of certainty the state of the weather for twenty-four hours is of immense advantage to business men, tourists, fishermen, and many others. The weathe...

Several large and very important volumes of the Royal Society of Edinburgh are devoted to statistics connected with the meteorology of Ben Nevis. Most of the abstracts have been...

Though by familiarity made commonplace, the "weather" is one of the most important topics of conversation, and has constant bearings upon the work and prospects of business-men...

The writer of the Book of Job gravely asked the important question, "Who hath begotten the drops of dew?" We repeat the question in another form, "Whence comes the real dew? Doe...

One is not far up in years, in Scotland at any rate, without practically realising what climate means. He may not be able to put it in words, but easterly haars, chilling rimes,...

The soft rain on a genial evening, or the heavy thunder-showers on a broiling day, are too well known to be written about. Sometimes rain is earnestly wished for, at other times...

What is haze? The dictionary says, "a fog." Well, haze is _not_ a fog. In a fog, the dust-particles in the air have been fully clothed with water-vapour; in a haze, the process...

Once was the remark pointedly made: "The wind bloweth where it listeth." And that is nearly true still. The leading winds are under the calculation of the meteorologist, but the...

A glorious sunset has always had a charm for the lover of nature's beauties. The zenith spreads its canopy of sapphire, and not a breath creeps through the rosy air. A magnifice...

The phrase "thunder clears the air" is familiar to all. It contains a very vital truth, yet even scientific men did not know its full meaning until just the other day. It came b...

After the sun's broad beams have tired the sight, the moon with more sober light charms us to descry her beauty, as she shines sublimely in her virgin modesty. There is always a...

If we look at the sky overhead, when cloudless in the sunshine, we wonder what gives the air such a deep-blue colour. We are not looking, as children seem to do, into vacancy, a...

All in this country are familiar with the beauty of hoar-frost. The children are delighted with the funny figures on the glass of the bedroom window on a cold winter morning. Fr...

He must be a very careless observer who has not been struck with the appearance of the streamers which occasionally light up the northern heavens, and which farmers consider to...

The criticism of the weather in the meteorological column of our daily newspapers invariably speaks of "cyclones." It is, therefore, advisable to give as plain an explanation of...

All are familiar with the answer given by the native of Skye to the irate tourist on that island, who, for the sixth day drenched, asked the question: "Does it always rain here?...

If the shutters be all but closed in a room, when the sun is shining in, myriads of floating particles can be seen glistening in the stream of light. Their number seems inexhaus...

In our ordinary atmosphere there can be no clouds without dust. A dust-particle is the nucleus that at a certain humidity becomes the centre of condensation of the water-vapour...

Some mysterious physical phenomena can be clearly explained by the aid of science. The mountain giants that at times haunt the lonely valleys, and strike with fear the superstit...

To many nothing is more troublesome than a dense fog in a large town. It paralyses traffic, it is dangerous to pedestrians, it encourages theft, it chokes the asthmatic, and chi...

And old and young have always been enchanted with the beautiful phenomenon. How glorious is the parti-coloured girdle which, on an April morning or September evening, is cast o'...

Some remarkable facts have been deduced by the late Dr. L. Gillespie, Medical Registrar, from the records of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He considered that it might lead t...

For weakness of body and fatigue of mind a very common and essentially serviceable recommendation is "a change of air." Of course, the change of scene from coast to country, or...

The transparency of the atmosphere is very much destroyed by the impurities communicated to it while passing over the inhabited areas of the country. Dr. Aitken devoted eighteen...

One night a most interesting paper by Dr. Aitken, on "Radiation from Snow," was read by Professor Tait to the Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I remember that Dr. Alex...

Next to the enumeration of the dust-particles in the atmosphere is the marvellous accuracy of counting the number of particles in a fog. The same ingenious inventor has construc...

Ever since men could observe and think, they have admired the diamond globules sparkling in the rising sun. These "dew-drops" were considered to be shed from the bosom of the mo...

A good deal of scientific work is being done in the way of clearing away fog and smoke; and this, through time, may have some practical results in removing a great source of ann...

Just two hundred and forty years ago, Mr. John Evelyn, F.R.S., a well-known writer on meteorology, sent a curious tract to King Charles II., which was ordered to be printed by h...

Little attention has been paid to foreglows compared with afterglows, either with regard to their natural beauty or their weather forecasting. But either the ordinary red-cloud...

The gay motes that dance in the sunbeams are not all harmless. All are annoying to the tidy housekeeper; but some are dangerous. There are living particles that float in the air...

From the earliest ages clouds have attracted the attention of observers. Varied are their forms and colours, yet in our atmosphere there is one law in their formation. Cloud-par...

The _Challenger_ Expedition, commenced by Sir Wyville Thomson, and after his death continued by Sir John Murray, with an able staff of assistants for the several departments, wa...

The impure state of the air in the rooms of a house can now be determined by means of colour alone. Dr. Aitken has invented a very simple instrument for that purpose; and this o...

Dr. Aitken has devoted a vast amount of attention to the enumeration of dust-particles in the air, on the Continent as well as in Scotland, to determine the effects of their var...