1240 



RECORDS OF METEOROLOGY. 



(Continued from. Prtge SG.J 



BY MR. HENRY SOUTHALL, F.M.S. 



GALES AND ELECTRICAL DISTURBANCES. 



These meteorological occurrences are usually so marked in character as to 

 ensure their being recorded, and amongst these numerous records the difficulty 

 consists in distinguishing what is really remarkable from that which is of more 

 frequent occurrence. One thing is well attested, that for many centuries the 

 British Islands have been subject to the occurrence of fierce gales and storms, 

 principally from the S.W. or W., coming apparently pretty directly from the 

 Atlantic ocean and called by many, equatorial or tropical gales. More rarely, 

 however, but still not unfrequently, we are visited by north-easterly storms 

 bringing with them a polar rigour, yet, from the cyclonic character which appears 

 to be a feature of almost all severe gales, it by no means follows that these have 

 come to us from the Arctic regions. Time will not permit us to enter into the 

 origin, progress, and subsidence or disappearance of these cyclones. They 

 sometimes attain the extreme pressure of nearly 401bs. to the square foot, whereas 

 251bs. pressure per foot is a very violent gale, and their rate of progress (not 

 the velocity of the wind) being probably about fifteen miles an hour. The subject 

 has of late received much more careful attention than had previously been 

 bestowed upon it, and there are not wanting, signs of such an increase of know- 

 ledge of the laws and proximate causes of these phenomena as to lead us to hope 

 that before long it will be possible to forecast storms with something of the same 

 certainty as the astronomers are now able to foretell eclipses and other astronomical 

 wonders. And when we consider the vast amount of property annually lost in 

 shipwreck, the importance of this subject cannot well be overrated. 



We will now proceed to give instances which have been recorded from time 

 to time, the earliest, probably, by the Saxon chroniclers, afterwards collected and 

 noted by such historians and antiquarians as Stow, Camden, and Leland, as well 

 as a century later by «T. Goad ; still later, by Gilbert White, Luke Howard, and 

 Dr. Dalton, to say nothing of the many more recent observers. Local details of 

 disasters produced by the storms in this district during the last 100 years are to 

 be found in the columns of the Hereford Journal, and possess considerable 

 interest. 



55 B.C. The first record of any violent gale was that of the 30th August, 

 55 B.C., at the landing of Julius Cesar with his army on these shores. Most 

 of you are so familiar with his description of it that it will not be necessary 

 to recall it. 



