Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT
Newspaper Page Text
vCwHUHiec from page î ti has many AmHik af w h ich ae are ae srr. and no doubt «hers not yet isw'wd by avw. Subs pots Among the impoit&at phenomena w hich x ftiXisb our eavirowmrm an? Use stmspocs The eruptions rust in small cycles within larger cycles of mxxxxnum and minimum fot activity. In addi tion h playing havoc with radio com mumcafions. sunspots appear to change the compos*!»» of the upper ; That sa rant affects weather patterns layer wsunUjr making k easier to get goon: ra:as over the Imemxwmtair and Great Plains states. lateau Of the many technical points about w «other which could be discussed ! am getog to take up the two which 1 think are most fascinating—air currents and the jet stream They are complicated hut a»:erestsng enough to justify the necessary detail Air patterns play a very importa« pan in weather and their prevailing tendencies must be coi*sider rocecascirg High altitude winds ed exert strong aflatacc on weather con A drastic shift In wind direc- j tJ* aloft car: tip off the forecaster of impending change long before the sur face weather changes I pper Winds la this region the upper winds attain fs^gfe speeds .usd almost always move from west to east. They tend to steer the storms and high-pressure systems off to the east. The result is a variety of weather rather than a prolonged diet of one kind. Bui even so. there are times when the surface weather refuses to move along in an orderly sequence. That usually means excessive rains on the Pacific Coast. In the Midwest stagnant storm systems have been known to actually retreat westward for a few days. With high speed winds aloft seriously affecting weather, air travel and other phases of our daily life, it seems ap propriate that we pause here to con sider their origin. We can think of the earth as a large, nearly round bail spinning rapidly east ward. with the air warming and rising at the cqpoÉar mat mowing slowly away cm* ans the polies at high altitudes in ramimiuus streams. On the way to tire Mtfs he Mr coots, comes down to the sanaes auf ignm moves towards the warmed complete -snuanr *h te ae ey e»«* Motion Beoee tse warm, tropical air at the be considered the origin of aloft. This seems simple eqaator our waads enough until we consider the fact that the earth and all its atmosphere are in motion. At the equator the earth is nearly 25,ooo miles in circumference and spins with an eastward motion of about 1,038 1 miles per hour (24,902 miles in 24 hours) with respect to space. Therefore i still air or any stationary object at the equator will have an eastward motion of more than 1,000 miles per hour. Ah a column of heated air rises at the equator and moves northward to the Canadian border, for example, its inertia tends to maintain the original 1.000 plus miles per hour of eastward velocity except for loss due to friction. LTiatij'lnj' Speeds However, at the Canadian border the circumference of the earth is only about 16,000 miles or two-thirds that at the equator, That means the air columns which began with a speed of more than 1,000 miles per hour at I he equat or will then he overrunning surface areas with an eastward motion of less than 700 miles per hour. Naturally this disparity in speeds causes air turbulence between layers and siows down the faster winds aloft to varying degrees by friction. But despite this the regular high altitude winds easily attain eastward velocities of 1A 1 to ÄV miles per hour greater than surface winds over Washington, northern Idaho and Montana. Oir eastward motion in 24 hours is equal to the earth's circumference at a given latitude. Hence the disparities bet wee r. surface speeds and the winds aloft increase rapidly between the tem perature rones and the poles. For in stance. at St north near the southern edge of Alaska the earth's circumfer ence and eastward motion shrink to half that at the equator. Friction Losses Thus, in theory, equatorial winds aloft reaching southern Alaska would have an eastward speed of 500 miles an hour more than the surface winds below if it were not for substantial losses due to friction and other factors. The slow down forces vary, so the winds also vary from time to time and place to place. How in the world did we improve - - f* äjß ** ' '|S|i|r " : Terramycin Crumbles for shipping fever? Simple... „ if&SîêSSi&s'.. NOW mm fillip i § * mH I il it Hi I r __ Htm NOW MOftC THAN 50% RICHER IN VITAMINS m rr v r . % FORTIHED WITH vmiHINSA&D! 250,000 units of A...25,000 units of D in every pound! AT NO INCREASE PRICE! ; m Still another accelerating phenomena occurs when equatorial air currents aloft move into the temperate zones where the earth's diameter begins to taper down sharply. The resultant winds also vary from time to time and place to place. Still another accelerating phenomena occurs when equatorial air currents aloft move into the temperate zones where the earth's diameter begins to taper down sharply. The resultant winds are squeezed into a smaller circle in which to orbit the globe. This in creases the forces of gravity and the eastward speed of upper winds. Without friction to interfere, this ad ditional acceleration could increase the velocity of westerly winds by about 20 per cent at the Canadian border ami about 40 per cent over southern Alaska. Kepler's Second Law This is an effective, fascinating factor in upper air movemnts known as Kep ler's Second Law, which also figures in other phases of our daily life. For example, space ships, planets and satellites accelerate in that part of their orbit closest to the central body such as earth or sun, and slow down when farthest away. Ever wonder how figure skaters are able to spin so fast at the end of act? They utilize Kepler's Second Law of motion by slowly drawing in their arms and knees at the proper time, A wood chopper sinks his ax deeper by drawing It towards him near the end of his swing. Most every farm boy has whirled a weight at the end of a rop**. By pulling the weight in closer it speeds up but when the rope is lengthened it slows down again. That it called "equable description of areas'* similar to varying the orbit in a space ship or a wind belt around Ihr earth. an NEXT ISHUK In the second installment of his nr tie le on weather Moldenhauer will dlfteuMN the jet stream, cycles test« and explosions have affected the weather. weather and whether nuclear bomb