THE CLIMATOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 21 



world ; they are called cyclones on account of their form, 

 though many people improperly restrict the term cyclone 

 to a tornado or a very severe cyclonic storm, whereas a 

 cyclone may be of very slight energy and may only man- 

 ifest itself to ordinary observers as a slight shower. 



Having now noticed the formation of storms the next 

 question would be, Where do they come from? In an- 

 swering this question we may suppose two lines to be 

 drawn, ne just north of the United States running east 

 and west, and another running south from the eastern 

 point of the United States. From some point within these 

 lines all our storms come ; that is, all the storms in the 

 north temperate regions travel in an easterly or north- 

 easterly direction, therefore every storm which passes 

 orer New England comes from a westerly or southwest- 

 erly point. No storm ever comes from the northeast or 

 east ; the majority come from the region extending from 

 the Gulf States to the northwest states. A few come 

 from west of the Rocky mountains, but whether they 

 come up the great Mississippi valley or across the centre 

 of the country, or from the northwest, they almost always 

 pass to the lake region and thence down the St. Lawrence 

 valley. Besides these, there are what are known as the 

 West India cyclones which come from a southwestern or 

 sometimes nearly a southern point, following the coast to 

 Cape Hatteras or Cape Cod and then passing off to the 

 eastward over the gulf stream. These occur most fre- 

 quently from August to December and are very apt to be 

 severe. By bringing to mind the horizontal section of a 

 cyclonic storm before described, it will be readily seen 

 that as these storms approach New England and pass off 

 ,to sea that the northern side is usually the only one felt, 

 therefore as it passes away and the weather clears, the 

 winds will back from northeast to north and northwest 



