Passage of Storms across the North Atlantic.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 42, 1 January 1880, Page 4

Passage of Storms across the North Atlantic.

From the London Times.

With the aid of a complete series of Hofftpeyer’s (daily) charts for two years (1874-5), Professor Loomis, of Yale College, has lately made a careful examination of Atlantic storms (American Journal of Science and Art.) He finds that in one year there are on an average only eighteen different storms, which can be traced by means of those charts from the coasts of the United States across the Atlantic, pearly all these storms pursued a course north' of east, and passed, considerably to the north of Scotland. In only four cases out of 3G did the low centre cross the Paris meridian in a latitude as low as the northern boundary of England. Since the storm centres generally passed 800 miles north of London, most of them did not exhibit nine!} violence on the English coast. Professor Loomis concludes that when a centre of low pressure (below 99.5 inches) leaves the coasts of the United States, the probability that it will pass over any part of England is only one in njne ; the probability that it will give rise to a gale anywhere near the English coast is only ope in ; and the probability that it will cause a very fresh breeze is one in two, A potable point connected with Atlantic storms is their slow rate of progress. This is due partly to the erratic course of the centre of low area, partly to the frequent blending of two low areas int.q one, so that the eastern centre seems to be pushed backwards towards the west. Storms are also often held nearly stationary in position from day to day by reason of'the abundant warm vapour

rising from the Gu’f Stream, close by the cold air from the neighboring coast of North, Amenca. Thus, when American storms are predicted to appear on the European coast, and it is assumed that they will cross the ocean at the same rate as they have crossed the 'Juiced Stares, such predictions are seldom verified. About half of the thirty-six storms traced across the Atlantic in those two years seem to have originated in the region of the Kooky Mountains, and four can be distinctly traced to the Pacific coast, the others originating from regions to the east. Professor Loomis’ observations on West Indian cyclones seem to prove that those phenomena, however violent in the tropics, expand and lose much of their violence when they reach the middle latitudes, and after a few days are usually merged in some of the larger depressions which generally prevail in some part of the North Atlantic.