CLOUDS AS WEATHER SIGNALS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1340, 30 March 1883, Page 2

CLOUDS AS WEATHER SIGNALS.

; Mr Clement Ley, tho English meterologist, reports a "recent incident of British

weather, which most strikingly illustrates the. value of clouds as storm aignnla. Ho Estates in Nature that recently a storm centre passed over Scotland with a progressive velocity of forty-five miles per hour, and "indications of its progress were afforded by-cloud observations at a distance of more than 800 miles in adyanco of ihe centre, the velocity of its propagation beiriej supposed uniform," The significance of this fact in its bearing upon the Biit'sh weathe facialis is enhanced by the recent signal failure of the London Meteorological Office'lo'obtain a timely intimation by means of its barometric and other .instrumental observations of tho disastrous Athmtio cyclone which visited England recently. This atocm extended over a wide area, sweeping away a bridge on the Great Western Railway and damaged many buildings. 'So that the London Times two days afterwards, said:. —"Tho deluge which has overwhelmed the British Isles, and has sent the Thames surcing over its banks causes the curious to consult more critically than usual the descriptions or vaticinations of tho weather which we publish daily." If the British' meteforologist can got the barometers to give timely warnings of the hurricanes which sometimes rush upou their coasts from tho Central Atlantio with a progressive velocity of more than sixty milos an hour they can do, more with that invetemtely sluggish monitur than has ever been done before.. Though its .monitionsare invaluable they;can never be relied onfor promptness anditimoliness. But the clouds which invariably precede acyclonio depression, and often precede the vortex by sev.oraL.hundred miles, aro timely aud trustworthy monitors, as in the case reported this;month.by Mr Ley. During tho-slow passage of last September's hurricane over tho West Indies its approach was indicated at 'Cardenas, according to a report published in the Signal Service Review, by "small cloudsmoving rapidly along tlie horapu" over thirty hours before its centre crossed the meridian of this place,-and, the Havana records, evidently shows'that the cloud and rain indications ..announced the hurricane's advance at least sixteen hours before its arrival on the meridian of Havana. Had these places'been in the storm's central track, and hence exposed to its greatest force, they would probably have had still earlier and more omphatio cloud indications'of its. approach. ■ The [timidity with which meteorologists make , stormpredictious.ba'jed.solely!on cloud and rain indications is excusable in the present very defeclive.systein of observing and reporting these aqueous mbteors. But if they were properly observod telegraphically reported they would - generally afford;the data neccessary for reliable ; forecasts, even when; the!!barometrio and other instrument data taken alone were inconclusive.-' '/'•■■{: ; 'V!'■!«! !.

The foreign missionary Rorietiea of the woild pained over 3C0,000 communicants in the past year. A coirespondent of the Auckland Heiald complains that the pioperty tax notices aro issued in a veiy earless way. He has received a notice to pay taxes on three properties, two of 800 aud 400 acres respectively, and the third a valuable property m the city. Before receiving notice that ho owned the nlove pioperty, .heVaslaboiing under the dcluiion that his properties consisted of" a stale of sin and miaery, handed down by put common father Adam," J .' * •>'