STORM 



STORMS 



751 



in the removal of offal from the streets of 

 towns, in which they stalk about with perfect 

 confidence, even in the midst of throngs of people. 

 They have been celebrated from ancient times 

 for the affection which they display towards their 

 young, and have also had the reputation not 

 so well founded of showing great regard to 

 their aged parents. Before they take their depar- 

 ture from their summer haunts they congregate 

 in large flocks, which make a great noise oy the 

 clattering of their mandibles, and are popularly 

 regarded as holding consultation. The stork has 

 no voice. It is a very rare bird in Britain, and 

 was so even when the fens of England were 

 undrained. Bower says that in 1416 storks came 

 and built their nests on the roof of St Giles' 

 Church in Edinburgh ; there they remained a year 

 and departed to return no more ; ' and whither they 

 flew, 'adds the chronicler, 'no man knoweth. ' The 

 flesh of the stork is rank and not fit for food. The 

 Umbrette ( Scopus umbretta ), an African and Mada- 

 gascar bird, remarkable for the enormous domed 

 nest which it builds, is nearly allied to the storks 

 and seems to be a link connecting them with the 

 herons. The Balseniceps (q.v.) or Shoe-bill is also 

 a stork. 



Storm, THEODOR WOLDSEN, German poet and 

 writer of short stories ; a native of Sleswick, he 

 was born at Husum on 14th September 1817. He 

 spent most of his life (1842-80) as magistrate and 

 judge in the service of Sleswick-Holstein and 

 Prussia, and died at Hademarschen in Holstein on 

 3d July 1888. His poetic reputation rests upon his 

 Gedichte (1852; 8th ed. 1890). Of his stories, 

 mostly short, the best are Immensee ( 1852 ; 33d ed. 

 1890), a poetic idyll in prose; Zerstreute Kapitd 

 (1873); Aquit Submersus (1877); Psyche (1877); 

 Carsten Curator (1878); Hans und Heinz Kirsch 

 (1883); John Biew (1886); and Der Schimmel- 

 reiter (1888). The charm of these little tales lies 

 in the poetic and idyllic atmosphere in which the 

 action is placed, the unobtrusive skill with which 

 they are told, and their deep feeling. See Lives 

 of Storm by Schiitze ( 1887 ) and Wehl ( 1888). 



SI ornion I lirll. See PISCICULTURE. 



Storms are violent commotions of the atmo- 

 sphere occurring in all climates, particularly in 

 the tropics, and differing from other atmospheric 

 disturbances in the extent over which they spread 

 and the sudden changes which take place in the 

 direction of the wind over wide areas. There is, 

 perhaps, no question in science in which there was 

 long so large an admixture of speculation with 

 fact as in the attempts made to reduce the pheno- 

 mena of storms under general laws ; the reason 

 being that meteorological observatories were too 

 few in number and too wide apart to represent 

 the barometer pressure, the general course of the 

 winds, and the rainfall, without drawing largely 

 on conjecture. Since about 1860, however, suffi- 

 cient data have been available for a fuller and 

 more satisfactory statement of the facts. 



Form ami Extent of Storm Areas. The circular 

 isobaric lines on the charts represent very fairly 

 the form storms usually assume in Europe, where 

 the area of almost every storm is either circular or 

 elliptical, the major axis of the ellipse being gener- 

 ally less than twice the minor axis. Rarely in 

 Europe, but in America less rarely, is the form 

 of storms much more elongated. The outline 

 is occasionally very irregular, but in such cases 

 the storm will be found to have parted into two or 

 more distinct storms, or it comprises within the 

 low-pressure area several satellite storms. The 

 approximate circular form of storms is their general 

 characteristic. This is a most important feature, 

 whether as determining the practical rules for the 



guidance of sailors in storms, or for the forecasting 

 of storms at particular seaports, in respect of the 

 direction from which they may be expected to come, 

 and the veerings of the winds during their continu- 

 ance. The extent over which storms spread is 

 very variable, being seldom less than 600 miles in 

 diameter, but often two or three times greater, and 

 more rarely even five times that amount. More 

 than the whole of Europe is sometimes overspread by 

 a single storm at one time. The prime difference 

 between storms or cyclones and tornados is that the 

 breadth of the space traversed by the latter is, as 

 compared with that of storms, always quite insig- 

 nificant. The area of storms is not constant from 

 day to day, but varies in size, sometimes expand- 

 ing and sometimes contracting ; and it is worthy 

 of remark that when a storm contracts in area the 

 central depression gives signs of filling up, and the 

 storm of dying out. On the other hand, when it 

 increases in extent the central depression becomes 

 deeper, the storm increases in violence, and occasion- 

 ally is broken up into two or even more depres- 

 sions, which become separate storms, with the 

 wind circling round each. This occurs frequently 

 with summer thunderstorms. 



We subjoin two charts of Europe showing from 

 observations made at upwards of 100 stations 

 scattered over the continent the barometric pres- 

 sure, and direction and force of the wind, at 8 A.M. 

 of the 1st ( A) and 2d ( B) of November 1863, during 

 part of the course of two storms which passed 

 over Europe. The isobaric lines, or lines show- 

 ing where, at the above hour, the barometer was 

 the same, are given for every two-tenths of an 

 inch in the difference of the pressure. Hence, 

 where these lines crowd together, the difference of 

 pressure, or the atmospheric disturbance, was the 

 greatest, and the least where 'they are most apart 

 a distinction of the utmost importance in deter- 

 mining where the wind raged in greatest fury. 

 The arrows show the direction of the wind, being 

 represented flying with it. The force of the wind 

 is shown ( 1 ) by plain arrows, , which repre- 

 sent light and moderate winds; (2) by arrows 

 feathered on one side only, ,,, > , which repre- 

 sent high winds ; (3) by arrows feathered on both 

 sides, ) > , which represent strong gales, storms, 

 or hurricanes. 



Direction in which Storms advance. The direc- 

 tion in which their progressive motion takes place 

 differs in different parts of the world being per- 

 haps determined by the prevailing winds (see 

 WIND). Thus, about half of the storms of middle 

 and northern Europe travel from the south-west 

 toward the north-east, and about nineteen out of 

 every twenty travel toward some point in the 

 quadrant lying between the north-east and the 

 south-east. Storms rarely travel towards a 

 westerly point ; in some of the instances which 

 have been noted the western course has been 

 arrested at Norway, Denmark, the North Sea, 

 or the British Islands, but such westerly course 

 is temporary, the easterly course being afterwards 

 resumed. Some of the most violent easterly storms 

 fall under this head. Storms do not always pro- 

 ceed in the same uniform direction from day to 

 day, and, though the change which occurs in the 

 direction of their progressive motion is gener- 

 ally small, yet occasionally it is very great. 

 Thus, of the many interesting features peculiar 

 to the storm which passed over Europe in the 

 beginning of December 1863 none were more 

 remarkable than the sudden changes of its pro- 

 gressive motion. It was first observed on the west 

 of Ireland, from which it advanced east to Liver- 

 pool, then turned south through Worcester and 

 Oxford to Cherbourg in France ; it thence retreated 

 north through Oxford to Shields, from which it 



