36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



period, and no storms * are recorded till late in the evening of the 

 21st. 



Auw. 22. A low pressure area moved eastward north of Lake 

 Huron on the afternoon of the 21st, and crossed over Canada in the 

 nio-ht, its centre passing well to the north of the St. Lawrence. Sev- 

 eral interesting storms occurred in connection with it. The first was 

 the outgrowth of showers that began in the evening of the 21st, with 

 southerly winds. At a number of stations, the rain began some time 

 before thunder was heard, but increased greatly in amount when the 

 thunder-storm was passing. Our first records are at 22'' on the even- 

 ing of the 21st, from Burlington, Vt. ; then come a number of midnight 

 or early morning records from southern Vermont, New Hampshire, 

 and western Maine ; at 3^ to 4**, the storm had reached central Mas- 

 sachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire ; about b^, it extended 

 along the coast from Boston towards Cape Ann, and lightning was re- 

 ported in the north from Provincetown at 6''. Southern New Eng- 

 land did not feel this storm. It may therefore be concluded that its 

 motion was easterly, and at a rate of about 35 miles an hour, while its 

 front stretched obliquely from southwest to northeast. Although oc- 

 currino' at hours inconvenient for observation, it attracted much atten- 

 tion from the loud and frequent peals of thunder accompanying its 

 vivid lightning flashes, from its heavy rain, and in several places from 

 the violent wind-squall from the northwest that accompanied it. A 

 remarkable number of destructive lightning strokes appear on the 

 records, and hail was reported from Lowell and Magnolia, Mass. The 

 observer at Longmeadow, Mass., reported " low clouds flying up from 

 the south" just before the rain began, while the body of the storm 

 passed eastward to the north of him. 



The rest of the 22d was showery and sultry ; several showers passed 

 without thunder, but there were three distinct small thunder-storms 

 among them. The first began somewhere east of the Connecticut 

 Eiver, and moved eastward along the northern boundary of Massachu- 

 setts over Newburyport between 7^ and 1 0'', with a velocity roughly 

 estimated at 30 miles an hour. It was of short duration and covered 

 a narrow path, but the times of rain beginning imply an oblique atti- 

 tude of the rain-front, like that of the previous larger storm. Its rain 

 was heavy, though brief, and its lightning struck in several places ; 



* Two reports for the 20th are almost certainly misdated for the 19th, with 

 whose storms they agree very well ; and one report, dated 1 a. m. Aug. 21, pretty 

 surely belongs twenty-four hours later. 



