Chapter 7

The Baltic, three days out from Liverpool, encountered the vortex on the night of the 23d. On the morning of the 25th, very early, the gale commenced at Liverpool, and did much damage. On the 26th, the vortex attained its northern limit; but we have not been able to procure any account of its effects to the northward of Liverpool, although there can be but little doubt that it was violent on the coast of Scotland on the 26th; for the next day (27th) the vortex having made the turn, was near the latitude of Liverpool, and caused a _tremendous_ storm, thus showing a continued state of activity for several days, or a peculiarly favorable local atmosphere in those parts. It is very probable, also, that there was a conjunction of the central and inner vortex on the 27th. The inner vortex precedes the central in passing latitude 41d; but as the mean radius of its orbit is less than that of the central, it attains to a higher latitude, and has, consequently, to cross the path of the central, in order again to precede it descending in latitude 41d. As a very trifling change in the elements of the problem will cause great changes in the positions of the vortices on the surface of the earth, it cannot now be asserted that such a conjunction did positively occur at that time; but, it maybe suspected, that a double disturbance would produce a greater commotion, or, in other words, a more violent, storm.

It is on this account, combined with other auxiliary causes, that the vicinity of Cape Horn is so proverbially stormy, as well as for the low standard of the barometer in that latitude, it is the stationary point of the vortices in ordinary positions of the nodes and perigee of the moon. We have already alluded to the fact, that none of the vortices scarcely ever pass much beyond latitude 80d, and then only under favorable circumstances, so that we ought to infer, that gales in high latitudes should set from the poles towards the storms in lower latitudes. This is, no doubt, the fact, but, nevertheless, a hard southerly blow _may possibly_ occur in high northern latitudes, if a storm should be raging very violently in a lower latitude on the opposite side of the pole, the distance across the circle of 80d being only about 1,400 miles. As the different vortices have a different limit in latitude every year, the determination of this turning point is obviously of great practical utility, as the fact may yet be connected with other phenomena, so as to give us the probable character of the polar ice at any assigned time. On this point we have more to say.

PASSAGES OF ALL THE VORTICES.

Our remarks have hitherto been confined to the central vortex. We shall now show from the record, that the other vortices are as effective in deranging the equilibrium of our atmosphere. In the following table we have given the passages of the different vortices, which will serve as their true positions within moderate limits, to calculate from, for all future time.

PASSAGES OF THE CENTRAL AND LATERAL VORTICES, OBSERVED IN JUNE AND JULY, 1853, IN LATITUDE 41d 20' NORTH.

I signifying Inner; O, outer; C, central; A, ascending; D, descending.

____________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | Order.|Vortex.| Date. | Meridian |Passage.| Calculated latitude | | | | | Passage. | | and Remarks. | |_______|_______|_________|__________|________|______________________| | | | | | | | | 1st | I. A. | June 22 | 7 A.M. | south | Centre. About 40d. | | | | 23 | 8 A.M. | north | Warsaw. Storm. | | 2d | O. D. | 27 | 0 noon | north | | | | | 28 | 1 A.M. | south | See record. | | 3d | C. A. | July 1 | 9 A.M. | south | | | | | 2 | 10 A.M. | north | Lat. 43d. Storm. | | 4th | I. D. | 7 | 5 P.M. | north | | | | | 8 | 6 P.M. | south | Lat. New York. Storm.| | 5th | C. D. | 12 | 5 P.M. | north | Aurora. | | | | 13 | 6 P.M. | south | Stormy, very. | | 6th | O. A. | 14 | 10 A.M. | south | | | | | 15 | 11 A.M. | north | See Record. | |_______|_______|_________|__________|________|______________________|

The intervals between the ascending and descending passages of the different vortices, are

Between I. A. and I. D. from 11 to 14 days. " O. A. " O. D. " 10 " 12 " " C. A. " C. D. " 9 " 11 "

and the effect is greatest when the vortex comes to the meridian before the sun, and least when after the sun; in which case the full effect is not developed, sometimes until the following day.

A brief abstract from a journal of the weather for one sidereal period of the moon, in 1853.

_June_ 21st. Fine clear morning (S. fresh)[15]: noon very warm 88d; 4 P.M. plumous _cirri in south_; ends clear.

22d. Hazy morning (S. very fresh) arch of cirrus in west; 2 P.M., black in W.-N.-W.; 3 P.M., overcast and rainy; 4 P.M., a heavy gust from south; 4.30 P.M., blowing furiously (S. by W.); 5 P.M., tremendous squall, uprooting trees and scattering chimneys; 6 P.M., more moderate (W.)

23d. Clearing up (N.-W.); 8 A.M., quite clear; 11 A.M., bands of mottled cirri pointing N.-E. and S.-W.; ends cold (W. N.-W.); the cirri seem to rotate from left to right, or with the sun.

24th. Fine clear cool day, begins and ends (N.-W.)

25th. Clear morning (N.-W, light); 2 P.M. (E.) calm; tufts of tangled cirri in north intermixed with radiating streaks, all passing eastward; ends clear.

26th. Hazy morning (S.-E) cloudy; noon, a heavy windy looking bank in north (S. fresh), with dense cirrus fringe above on its upper edge; clear in S.

27th. Clear, warm, (W.); bank in north; noon bank covered all the northern sky, and fresh breeze; 10 P.M., a few flashes to the northward.

28th. Uniform dense cirro-stratus, (S. fresh); noon showers all round; 2 P.M., a heavy squall of wind, with thunder and rain (S.-W. to N.-W.); 8 P.M., a line of heavy cumuli in south; 8.30 P.M., a very bright and high cumulus in S.-W., protruding through a layer of dark stratus; 8.50 P.M., the cloud bearing E. by S., with three rays of electric light.[16]

_June_ 29th. A stationary stratus over all, (S.-W. light); clear at night, but distant lightning in S.

30th. Stratus clouds (N.-E. almost calm); 8 A.M., raining gently; 3 P.M., stratus passing off to S; 8 P.M., clear, pleasant.

_July_ 1st. Fine and clear; 8 A.M., cirrus in sheets, curls, wisps, and gauzy wreathes, with patches beneath of darker shade, all nearly motionless; close and warm (N.-E.); a long, low bank of haze in S., with one large cumulus in S.-W., but very distant.

_July_ 2d. At 5 A.M., overcast generally with hazy clouds and fog of prismatic shades, chiefly greenish-yellow; 7 A.M., (S.-S.-E. freshening,) thick in W; 8 A.M., (S. fresh) much cirrus, thick and gloomy; 9 A.M., a clap of thunder, and clouds hurrying to N.; a reddish haze all around; at noon the margin of a line of yellowish-red cumuli just visible above a gloomy-looking bank of haze in N.-N.-W., (S. very fresh;) warm, 86d; more cumuli in N.-W.--the whole line of cumuli N. are separated from the clouds south by a clear space. These clouds are borne rapidly past the zenith, but never get into the clear space--they seem to melt or to be turned off N.-E. The cumuli in N. and N.-W., slowly spreading E. and S.; 3 P.M., the bank hidden by small cumuli; 4 P.M., very thick in north, magnificent cumuli visible sometimes through the breaks, and beyond them a dark, watery back-ground, (S. strong); 4.30 P.M., wind round to N.-W. in a severe squall; 5 P.M., heavy rain, with thunder, &c.--all this time there is a bright sky in the south visible through the rain 15d high; 7 P.M., clearing, (S.-W. mod.)

_July_ 3d. Very fine and clear, (N.-W.); noon, a line of large cumuli in N., and dark lines of stratus below, the cumuli moving eastward; 6 P.M., their altitude 2d 40'. Velocity 1d per minute; 9 P.M., much lightning in the bank north.[17]

_July_ 4th. 6 A.M., a line of small cumulo-stratus, extending east and west, with a clear horizon north and south 10d high. This band[18] seems to have been thrown off by the central yesterday, as it moves slowly south, preserving its parallelism, although the clouds composing it move eastward. Fine and cool all day--(N.-W. mod.)--Lightning in N.

_July_ 5th. Cloudy (N. almost calm), thick in E., clear in W.; same all day.

6th. Fine and clear (E. light); small cumuli at noon; clear night.

7th. Warm (S. E. light); cirrus bank N. W.; noon (S.) thickening in N.; 6 P.M., hazy but fine; 8 P.M., lightning in N.; 10 P.M., the lightning shows a heavy line of cumuli along the northern horizon; calm and very dark and incessant lightning in N.

8th. Last night after midnight commencing raining, slowly and steadily, but leaving a line of lighter sky south; much lightning all night, but little thunder.

8th. 6 A.M. Very low scud (500 feet high) driving south, still calm below, (N. light); 10 A.M., clearing a little; a bank north with cirrus spreading south; same all day; 9 P.M., wind freshening (N. stormy); heavy cumuli visible in S.; 10.30 P.M., quite clear, but a dense watery haze obscuring the stars; 12 P.M., again overcast: much lightning in S. and N.-W.

9th. Last night (2 A.M. of 9th) squall from N.-W. very black; 4 A.M., still raining and blowing hard, the sky a perfect blaze, but very few flashes reach the ground; 7 A.M., raining hard; 8 A.M. (N.-W. strong); a constant roll of thunder; noon (N.-E.); 2 P.M. (N.); 4 P.M. clearing; 8 P.M., a line of heavy cumuli in S., but clear in N-W., N., and N.-E.[19]

NEW YORK STORM, JULY 8, 1853.

"At 5 o'clock Friday afternoon, a terrible storm of rain, hail, and lightning, rose suddenly from the north-west, and passed over the upper part of the city and neighborhood. It was quite moderate in the lower part of the town, and probably scarcely felt on Staten Island. The whole affair lasted not more than a quarter of an hour, yet the results were most disastrous, as will be seen by the following accounts from our reporters:

"Happening to be in the neighborhood of the Palace about 5 o'clock Friday evening, we sought shelter under its ample roof from an impending thunder storm, of very threatening appearance, rapidly approaching from the west. We had scarcely passed the northern entrance, and reached the gallery by the nearest flight of steps, when the torrent--it was not rain, but an avalanche of water--struck the building; the gutters were filled on the windward side in a moment, and poured over an almost unbroken sheet of water, which was driven through the Venetian blind ventilators, into and half way across the north-west gallery, and also through the upper ventilators, falling upon the main floor of the north transept. Workmen hastened to close the blinds, but that did not prevent the deluge. The tinning of the dome being unfinished, the water, of course, came down in showers all over the centre. Many workmen were engaged on the dome when the shower struck it; several of them, in their haste to escape such dangerous proximity to the terrific lightning, came down single ropes, hand over hand. Large number of workmen were engaged all over the exterior, and such a scampering will rarely be witnessed but once in a lifetime. It was found impossible to close a north window, used for ingress and egress of workmen upon the rod, and the water came in, in almost solid columns. For a time the water was nearly two inches deep on the gallery floor, and poured down the stairs in miniature cascades.

"A great number of boxes, bales, and packages of goods lay upon the main floor, among which the water poured down from the edge of the gallery floor in destructive quantities; Fortunately but few goods were opened, and were upon the tables, or the damage would have been irreparable. As it is, we fear some of the goods are injured. In the height of the storm, the centre portion of the fanlight over the western entrance burst in, and several single lights were broken, by staging or otherwise.

"About ten minutes after the storm burst, the most terrific hailstorm we ever saw began to rattle, like discharges of musketry, upon the tin roof and glass sides. Some of the masses of ice were as large as hen's eggs. There were probably a thousand excited workmen in the building, and a good many exhibitors and visitors, among whom there were some twenty ladies, some of whom appeared a good deal alarmed at the awful din. A portion of the frame-work of the addition next to 42d street, went down with a terrible crash, and a part of the brick wall of the engine-house on the opposite side of the street, was blown over, crushing two or three shanties, fortunately without any other injury than driving the occupants out into the storm. But an awful scene occurred on the north side of 43d street, directly opposite the Latting Tower. Here two large unfinished frame buildings were blown, or rather, we should judge from appearances, were crushed down into a mass of ruins, such as may be imagined by supposing a great weight had fallen, with a circular, grinding motion, upon the first fine fabrics. One of them was partly sided, and had the rafters up, but no roof; the other was sided and rooted with tin, and was being plastered. We were told it was three stories high, 50 by 98 feet.

"We reached the ruins among the first, after the burst of the storm subsided a little. The scene was such as we pray God we may never witness again. A small portion of the roof and upper part of the front of the building stood or rather partly hung over the side-walk. The chamber and lower floor of the front rooms lay flat together. The sides were standing. In the rear all were down. In this building, besides the workmen, there were numerous laborers who had taken shelter under its roof when the storm drove them hurriedly from their work. How so many persons escaped death is truly wonderful. It can only be accounted for by supposing that they had a moment's warning, and rushed into the street. The first alarm was from the tearing off a portion of the tin roof, which was carried high over another building, and fell in the street. A horse and cart barely escaped being buried under this. It seems the frame of the other building came down with a deafening crash at the same time, confusing instead of warning those in danger. At any rate, before they could escape, they were buried in a mass of timber, and three of them instantly killed, and four or five dangerously wounded; and others slightly bruised and badly frightened. Several would have perished but for timely assistance to extricate them. In this they were greatly assisted by Jacob Steinant, boss carpenter of the Tower, who with his men rushed to the rescue, notwithstanding the pouring down torrents.

"In Williamsburgh, the storm lasted about fifteen minutes, doing an incalculable amount of damage to dwellings, foliage, &c. Hailstones came down in sizes from that of a hickory-nut to a large apple, some with such force as to drive them through the cloth awnings.

"The storm passed over Brooklyn lightly, in comparison with the effects across the Williamsburgh line. On Flushing avenue, beyond the Naval Hospital, a number of trees were uprooted, and the window-panes of the houses shattered. On the corner of Fulton and Portland avenues, three buildings were unroofed, and the walls of the houses were sprung to the foundation.

"On Spencer street, a new frame building was levelled with the ground. Along Myrtle, Classon, and other streets and avenues of East Brooklyn, many of the shade trees were uprooted, and the windows smashed. In Jay street, two trees were struck by lightning, but no other damage ensued.

"Several schooners at the foot of Jay street were forced from their moorings, but were soon after secured. A small frame house in Spencer street, just put under roof, was prostrated to the ground.

"We understand that a large barn filled with hay, situated on the road between Bushwick and Flushing, was struck by lightning and destroyed with its contents, embracing several head of live stock."[20]

_July_ 10th, 3 A.M. Overcast and much lightning in south (N. mod.); 7 A.M., clear except in south; 6 P.M. (E.); 10 P.M., lightning south; 11 P.M., auroral rays long but faint, converging to a point between Epsilon Virginis and Denebola, in west; low down in west thick with haze; on the north the rays converged to a point still lower; lightning still visible in south. This is an aurora in the west.

11th. Fine clear morning (N.-E.); same all day; no lightning visible to-night, but a bank of clouds low down in south, 2d high, and streaks of dark stratus below the upper margin.

12th. Fine and clear (N.-E.); noon, a well defined arch in S.-W., rising slowly; the bank yellowish, with prismatic shades of greenish yellow on its borders. This is the O. A. At 6 P.M., the bank spreading to the northward. At 9 P.M., thick bank of haze in north, with bright auroral margin; one heavy pyramid of light passed through Cassiopaea, travelling _westward_ 1 1/2d per minute. This moves to the other side of the pole, but not more inclined towards it than is due to prospective, if the shaft is very long; 11.10 P.M., saw a mass of light more diffuse due east, reaching to _Markab_, then on the prime vertical. It appears evident this is seen in profile, as it inclines downwards at an angle of 10d or 12d from the perpendicular. It does not seem very distant. 12 P.M., the aurora still bright, but the brightest part is now west of the pole, before it was east.

13th, 6 A.M. Clear, east and north; bank of cirrus in N.-W., _i.e._, from N.-N.-E. to W. by S.; irregular branches of cirrus clouds, reaching almost to south-eastern horizon; wind changed (S.-E. fresh); 8 A.M., the sky a perfect picture; heavy regular shafts of dense cirrus radiating all around, and diverging from a thick nucleus in north-west, the spaces between being of clear blue sky. The shafts are rotating from north to south, the nucleus advancing eastward.

Appearance of the central vortex descending at 8 A.M., July 13th, 1853:

In Fig. 18, the circle represents the whole sky from the zenith to the horizon, yet it can convey but a very faint idea of the regularity and vividness of this display. The reflected image of the sky was received from a vessel of turbid water, which will be found better than a mirror, when the wind will permit.

At noon (same day) getting thicker (S.-E. very fresh); 6 P.M., moon on meridian, a prismatic gloom in south, and very thick stratus of all shades; 9 P.M., very gloomy; wind stronger (S.-E.): 10 P.M., very black in south, and overcast generally.

14th. Last night about 12 P.M. commenced raining; 3 A.M., rained steadily; 7 A.M., same weather; 8.20 A.M., a line of low storm-cloud, or seud, showing very sharp and white on the dark back ground all along the southern sky. This line continues until noon about 10d at the highest, showing the northern boundary of the storm to the southward; 8 P.M., same bank visible, although in rapid motion eastward; same time clear overhead, with cirrus fringe pointing north from the bank; much lightning in south (W. fresh); so ends.

15th. Last night a black squall from N.-W. passed south without rain; at 3 A.M. clear above, but very black in south (calm below all the time); 9 A.M., the bank in south again throwing off rays of cirri in a well-defined arch, whose vortex is south: these pass east, but continue to form and preserve their linear direction to the north; no lightning in south to-night.

16th. Clear all day, without a stain, and calm.

17th. Fine and clear (N.-E. light); 6 P.M., calm.

18th. Fair and cloudy (N.-E. light); 6 P.M., calm.

19th. Fine and clear (N. fresh); I. V. visible in S.-W.

20th. 8 A.M., bank in N.-W. with beautiful cirrus radiations; 10 A.M., getting thick with dense plates of cream-colored cirrus visible through the breaks; gloomy looking all day (N.-E. light).[21]

Appearance of the Inner Vortex at 8 A.M., July 20th, 1853, including the whole sky. (See Fig. 19.)

This was a different passage of the Inner Vortex ascending as compared with the same 28 days before. At that date (June 22) it did great damage in the central parts of Illinois. Still this last passage was very palpable--the clouds were very irregularly assorted--plates of cirrus above and beneath cumulus--various kinds of cirrus clouds, and that peculiar prismatic haze which is a common sign of the passage of a vortex. The appearance depicted above is a very common, although a very evanescent appearance. When the sky appears of a clear blue through the cirri, there will be generally fresh gales without any great electrical derangement; but if the clear spaces are hazy, gradually thickening towards the nucleus, a storm may be expected. Any one who wishes to understand the indications of the clouds, must watch them closely for many years, before he can place much reliance upon them. But we shall again advert to this point.

We have now passed through one sidereal period of the moon. We might continue the record, but it would be tedious. The passages of these vortices vary in violence at different times, as we might expect; but they never cease to circulate, and never will as long as the moon remains a satellite to the earth; and if we take the passage of any of these vortices, and add thereto the time of one sidereal period of the moon, we get approximately the time of the next passage. When the elements of the lunar orbit tend to accelerate the passages, they may come in 26 days; and when to retard, in 28 days; and these are about the limits of the theory.

Having begun and ended this record of the weather with the passage of the Inner vortex ascending, it may not be amiss to notice one more, (the August passage,) as it offers a peculiarity not often so distinctly marked. We have alluded to the greater force of the storms when the passage of the vortex corresponds to the passage of the line of low barometer or the depression point of a great atmospheric wave, which is also due to the action of the ether. In consequence of these waves passing from west to east, the storm will only be violent when formed a little to the westward. If the storm forms to the eastward, we neither see it nor feel it, as it requires time to develop its strength, and always in this latitude travels eastward; so that storms may generally be said to come from the west, although the exciting cause travels from east to west. In the case now alluded to, the weather indicated a high barometer, and the storm formed immediately to the eastward, even showing a distinct circular outline. We subjoin a description.

_August_ 15th. Clear morning (N.-E.), a bank of cumuli in south: noon quite cloudy in S. and clear in north. (N.-E.)

16th. Clear morning (N.-E.); 3 P.M., getting very black in E. and S.-E., very _clear_ to the _westward_; 4 P.M., much thunder and lightning in east, and evidently raining hard; 5 P.M., a violent squall from _east_ for 10 minutes; tore up several trees; 6 P.M., the storm passing eastward, clear in west all this time; 6.30 P.M., the storm forming a regular arch, the vertex being in _S.-E._; the arch of hazy cirrus and heavy cumulus much lower in S.-E., wind still moderate from east; 10 P.M., clear all around, but lightning in S.-E. and E.