WEATHER (extract)
by Anon
The Cornhill Magazine (November, 1860)
We may now consider a little more in detail the weather of the past year, which has been unusual in a very high degree, as far as the experience and recollection of most of us is concerned; but which will be found full of valuable suggestions to those who study meteorology.
On the 29th August, 1859, aurorae, or the flashes of a great magnetic storm, were observed at a number of places reaching from the highest northern to the highest southern latitudes inhabited by civilised man. Up to that time the weather in Europe had been unusually hot and dry. "All over the world, not only in the Arctic but in Antarctic regions, in Australia, South America, the West Indies, Bermudas, and elsewhere, aurorae and meteors were unusually prevalent; and they were more remarkable in their features and appearances than had been noticed for many years. There was also an extraordinary disturbance of currents along telegraph wires. Submarine wires were unusually disturbed, and these disturbances were followed within two or three days by great commotions in the atmosphere, or by some remarkable change." (Admiral Fitzroy, Phil. Transactions, vol. X p.565)
On the 1st September, about three-quarters of an hour before noon, a moderate but marked magnetic disturbance was recorded at Kew, and a storm, a great disturbance, about four hours after midnight; the latter extending to the southern hemisphere. At the very minute when the first disturbance was recorded, two well-known English astronomers, each in his own observatory, were watching the sun's disc, observing his spots, when suddenly two intensely luminous bodies burst into view on the surface. They moved side by side through a space of about 35,000 miles, first increasing in brightness, then fading away, and in five minutes they had vanished. It is considered probably that these two observers actually witnessed the process of feeding the sun by the fall of meteoric matter; but however this may be, a clear relation was thus traced between phenomena apparently so independent the one of the other, as a spot on the sun and a magnetic storm ranging through the earth.
But this is only an additional fact confirming what had before been determined by observation. The sun's face is often obscured by spots, which vary exceedingly in number and magnitude. These are known to recur in a period of about eleven years, increasing very much for five years, till they attain a maximum, and then diminishing for another six years till they are at a minimum. The magnetic disturbances of the earth follow the increase of diminution of these spots.
From the commencement of October, 1859, the winter may be dated, and towards the end of that month there occurred in our parts of the world a series of the most remarkable storms of wind on record. For a few days before the great storm of the 25th - 27th October, the thermometer and barometer were exceedingly low, extraordinary clearness was observed in the atmosphere, with lightning from the east and north-east. On the 24th a spiral storm, or cyclone, reached the Bay of Biscay from the south-south-west, and travelled northward, at the rate of about twenty miles an hour, over a comparatively narrow zone. In the centre of the zone was a space ten, fifteen, or twenty miles wide, over which a comparative lull existed, and round this the wind was rushing with a varying velocity of from sixty to one hundred miles an hour, blowing from all points of the compass. Two complete days were occupied by this remarkable storm in crossing the British Islands, or rather in traversing the Irish Channel from the northern extremity of the Bay of Biscay; and its influence was recognised by a large number of fatal wrecks, among which that of the Royal Charter was the most serious in respect to loss of human life. A few days afterwards this storm was succeeded by another, which followed nearly the same course, but ranged a little to the east, crossing the North Sea to Denmark.
The weather continued unfavourable and exceptional during the remainder of 1859. Diseases of the lungs and fever were then unusually prevalent. The range of temperature and of the barometer was unusually great, the fall of rain much in excess of the average, and the temperature of vegetation at night generally fell below the freezing point. Both solar and lunar halos were frequent; thunder, lightning, and aurorae were also frequent.
During the first three months of the present year the weather continued more unhealthy than usual at that season, the temperature remained lower than the average, and there was a constant succession of wind storms, the barometer showing constant and large changes in the pressure of the air; while occasional thunder and lightning were experienced. Aurorae were seen on an average one day in every three, halos were very frequent, snow and hail fell to a most unusual extent, and vegetation generally was very backward. This weather lasted, with little change, up to the end of June; the wind often blowing without intermission for thirty, forty, fifty, and at times sixty hours; while for more than four days and nights from the 30th March the air was incessantly in violent motion. At these times the pressure of the wind on shore sometimes reached twenty-eight pounds on the square foot.
The fall of rain in England up to the end of June was 15½ inches, more than forty per cent above the average (10¾ inches.) Out of the six months, rain had fallen on one hundred and two days, and of these twenty-three were in June. In July, almost every day of the latter half of the month was rainy, the weather was unusually cold, from whichever quarter the wind blew, and the sky was almost always cloudy. August likewise was cold, wet, and cloudy; the temperature hardly ever reaching the average, while the rainfall was nearly fifty per cent in excess of the average. The first part of September was remarkably fine, but during the latter half the weather recovered its former unfavourable condition, and some of the heaviest rains of the year then fell.
In spite, however, of the unusual quantity of rain there has been throughout the year less water in the air than usual in the shape of visible vapour, so that the dryness of the air has produced a quick evaporation after the heaviest showers. In consequence of this the corn crops were little injured, and the few fine days of the beginning of September were sufficient to save a large part of them. There has also been a marked excess of ozone, and scarcely any of the malaria and cholera fevers often common in the summer.
During the last twelve months the weather that has prevailed with us in the British Islands has not, it is true, ranged uniformly over all Europe; still less has it extended to other large tracts of land and sea. But throughout the northern hemisphere on the western side of America, it has been altogether exceptional. From information recently received, we know that the whole coast of Greenland has been subjected to a degree of cold that had not been experienced for thirty years; many of the ports usually open all the season have been altogether closed, and the seas in the latitude of Cape Farewell have been blocked with ice, rendering navigation extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. Over the whole of Europe, without exception, the weather has been cold, clouded, and stormy; even those places on the south and east coast of Spain, whose climate is quite sub-tropical, having been comparatively cool. In the east there has also been bad weather. America has had an early and large harvest, but it has not been without storm, and the summer and autumn have been extremely wet.
These marked peculiarities of weather must not, however, be assumed too hastily to indicate any change of climate. If we look back at former records of weather, we find that at all times years of favourable seasons have succeeded each other, until people begin to forget that the contrary may happen; and when the unfavourable time comes, we are by no means prepared to recognise it as part of a well-marked series of events. There is no doubt that Pharaoh's dream of the fat and lean kine is a prophecy that will last for all time, and although we may not be able to foretell the exact year of change, the general fact of periodicity of weather is clearly established. The time may come when, by a sufficient experience arising from long-recorded accurate observations, the evil day may be more nearly anticipated, and some of its most serious consequences evaded.