

WEATHER ALMANACS. 



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the alphabet, from the Astronomical to the Zoological, the letter N alone ex- 

 cepted. 



After all, the name of Patrick Murphy may be unwarrantably assumed. 

 Francis Moore, physician, has long been so ; and a table, miscalled Herschel's 

 weather-table, obtained confidence from its unauthorized adoption of the name 

 of that eminent astronomer. Perhaps the weather almanac has as little rela- 

 tion to the veritable Patrick Murphy as Herschel's weather-table had to the 

 great telescopic observer ; and as it was beneath the dignity of Sir William 

 even to disavow such trash as the weather-table, so Sir Patrick may possibly 

 rely on the dignity of his station, and his reputation among the numerous mem- 

 bers of the N Society, as a sufficient refutation of this imposture. 



Until the appearance of the weather almanac, the pretenders to prediction 

 confined their forebodings to the general character of the weather at particular 

 epochs. In the weather almanac there was, however, a distinct prediction for 

 every successive day of the year. Every possible variety of weather was re- 

 duced under one or other of three denominations -fair, rain, and changeable ; 

 one or other of these words being affixed to each day of the year. For some 

 days there was added one or other of the words frost, wind, storm, or thunder. 



A precaution was taken in the preface to explain the meaning in which these 

 several terms are intended to be received. 



Fair, means a day in which drought is expected to predominate. 



Rain, a day in which rain is expected to predominate. 



Changeable, a day in which it is uncertain whether drought or rain will pre- 

 dominate. 



To be enabled fairly to compare the predictions with the facts, it is necessary 

 that these explanations of the terms fair, rain, and changeable, be clearly un- 

 derstood. 



Does rain, we would ask, include snow, hail, and sleet 1 We must presume 

 that it does, since these vicissitudes are not otherwise expressed in the al- 

 manac. 



Does drought signify anything more than the absence of rain, snow, or sleet ? 

 We shall presume that it does, because otherwise this very common state of 

 the weather would have no designation in the nomenclature of the weather 

 almanac, and we should have a prediction of a severe frost in January, without 

 any prediction of the thaw which follows it. 



The term " predominate," used in these explanations, we take to refer to 

 duration. Thus, if in twenty-fours, rain fall for less than twelve hours, the 

 day is to be designated fair, since drought predominates ; and if rain fall for 

 more than twelve hours, then the day is to be designated rain, since rain pre- 

 dominates. 



The causes which govern the phenomena of weather being physical agen- 

 cies independent of the will or interference of any being save of Him " who 

 rules the storm," are as fixed and as certain in their operation, and as regular 

 in the production of their effects, as those which maintain and regulate the 

 motions of the solar system. The moment of the rising or setting of the sun 

 on any given day of the ensuing year is therefore, in the nature of things, not 

 more certain than the atmospheric phenomena which will take place on that 

 day. The doubt and uncertainty which attend these events belong altogether 

 to our anticipations of them, and not to the things themselves. If our knowl- 

 edge of meteorology were as advanced as our knowledge of astronomy, we 

 should be in a condition to declare the time, duration, and intensity, of every 

 shower which shall fall during the ensuing year, with as much certainty and 

 precision as we are able to foretell the rising, setting, and southing, of the sun 

 and moon, or the rise and fall of the tides of the ocean. When it is said, there- 



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