84 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



The committee desire these remarks to be viewed as they 

 are intended, to be confirmed or rejected as future observa- 

 tions, and a more extensive induction, shall warrant. They 

 merely propose the queries 



Are rains caused by an upward motion of the air, com- 

 mencing- where (he dew point is highest, or where the barom- 

 eter is lowest ? 



Do storms in the temperate zones generally travel from 

 some ivesterly point ? And are those storms which so travel 

 preceded by an easterly wind, and also followed by a westerly, 

 unless another stonn is soon to come on in the same direc- 

 tion ? In the torrid zone, do the storms on the north side of 

 the line travel towards the north west, and on the south side of 

 the line towards the south west ? 



On the 29th of January, from eight o'clock, A. M., till 

 four o'clock, P. M., there fell at Nashville, Tenn.. 1.47 

 inches of rain. This storm travelled east, and it began to 

 rain at Cincinnati at half past twelve o'clock, and at Phila- 

 delphia at four o'clock next morning, the 30th ; it rained 

 hard all day, terminating at seven o'clock, P. M. During 

 this whole day, the wind at Nashville and Cincinnati blew 

 towards Philadelphia, and at Flushing, Middletown, Prov- 

 idence, and Portsmouth, directly towards Philadelphia 

 also. This storm lasted eight hours at Nashville, fifteen 

 hours at Philadelphia, twenty-four hours at Flushing, and 

 twenty-seven hours at Portsmouth. The wind set in at all 

 these places some hours before the rain from the north east, 

 and at the termination of the rain, changed to the south 

 west ; and before it ceased raining at Portsmouth, the wind 

 had changed round by south to west at Flushing and Phi- 

 ladelphia, and to the south west at Middletown. 



Even one well authenticated case of this kind goes far to 

 establish the fact that the wind below blows towards the 

 centre of a great rain. From the time of the middle of the 

 storm at Nashville, until the middle of the storm at Phila- 

 delphia, was twenty-three and a half hours, and this cor- 



