The Hurricane Guide - Being An Attempt To Connect The Rotary Gale Or Revolving - Storm With Atmospheric Waves. by William Radcliff Birt
page 40 of 61 (65%)
page 40 of 61 (65%)
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The foregoing remarks relate especially to the central and western portions of the North Atlantic; they will however equally apply to the remaining localities of storms. Under any circumstances, and in any locality, a _high_ barometer not less than a low one should demand particular attention, and if possible, _hourly_ readings taken some time before and after the passage of the maximum: this will be referred to more particularly under the next head. _Preceding and Succeeding Accumulations of Pressure._--Mr. Redfield has shown in his Memoir of the Cuba Hurricane of October, 1844, that two associated storms were immediately preceded by a barometric wave, or accumulation of pressure, the barometer rising above the usual or annual mean. We have just referred to the importance of _hourly_ observations on occasions of the readings being _high_ as capable of illustrating the marginal phænomena of storms, and in connexion with these accumulations of pressure in advance of storms we would reiterate the suggestion. These strips of accumulated pressure are doubtless crests of atmospheric waves rolling forwards. In some cases a ship in its progress may cut them transversely in a direction at right angles to their _length_, in others very obliquely; but in all cases, whatever section may be given by the curve representing the observations, too much attention cannot be bestowed on the barometer, the wet and dry bulb thermometer, the direction and force of the wind, the state of the sky, and the appearance of the ocean during the ship's passage _through_ such an accumulation of pressure. When the barometer attains its mean altitude, and is rapidly rising above it in any locality, then _hourly_ observations of the instruments and phænomena above noticed should be commenced and continued until after the mercury had attained its highest point and had sunk again to its mean state. In such observations |
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