The Great Storm of March 11-U, 1888. 51 



the retardation of the center of the line, in its eastward motion, 

 hy the area of high barometer about Newfoundland ; thus this 

 storm center delayed between Block Island and Nantucket while 

 the northern and southei'n flanks of the line swung around to the 

 eastward, the advance of the lower one gradually cutting off the 

 supply of warm moist air rushing up from lower latitudes into 

 contact with the cold northwesterly gale sweeping down from off 

 the coast between Hatteras and Montauk point. So far as the 

 ocean is concerned, the 12th of March saw the great storm at its 

 maximum, and its wide extent and terrific violence make it one of 

 the most severe ever experienced off our coast. 



The deepening of the depression is well illustrated by the fact 

 that the lowest reading of the barometer at 7 A. m. was 29.88, at 

 Augusta, Ga. ; at 3 p. m., 29.68, at Wilmington, N. C. ; at 11 p. m., 

 on board the "Andes," 29.35; and at 7 a. m., the following morn- 

 ing it was as low as 29.20, — an average rate of decrease of pressure 

 at the center of very nearly .23 in eight hours, and a maximum, 

 from reliable observations, of .33. 



March 12th, 13th, and 14th. 



The Weather Chart for 7 a. m., March 12th, shows the line, or 

 trough, with isobars closely crowded together southward of Block 

 Island, but still of a general elliptical shape, the lower portion of 

 the line swinging eastward toward Bermuda, and carrying with 

 it violent squalls of rain and hail far below the 35th parallel. 

 The high land of Cuba and Santo Domingo prevented its effects 

 from reaching the Caribbean Sea, although it was distinctly 

 noticed by a vessel south of Cape Maysi, in the Windward chan- 

 nel, where there v\^ere three hours of very heavy rain, and a shift 

 of wind to N W by N. The isotherm of 32° F. reaches from Cen- 

 tral Georgia to the coast below Norfolk, and thence out over the 

 Atlantic to a point about one hundred miles south of Block Island, 

 and thence due north, inshore of Cape Cod, explaining the fact 

 that so little snow, comparatively, fell in Rhode Island and south- 

 eastern Massachusetts ; from about Cape Ann it runs eastward to 

 Cape Sable, and farther east it is carried southward again by the 

 northeasterly winds off the Grand banks. These northeasterly 

 winds are part of the cyclonic system shown to the eastward of 

 this and the preceding chart ; farther south they become north- 

 erly and northwesterly, and it will be noticed that they have now 

 carried the isotherm of 70° below the limits of the chart. Thus 



