3 54 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



but on account of a new "low" starting in the northwest it did not cool much, 

 but continued hot, although the chances were that but for this southern " low" 

 it would have been much hotter throughout the country. The southern "low'' 

 neutralized the heat of the northern one. So long as "low" was on a high line 

 it continued hot up to the yth. On the 6th a " low " appeared in the southwest 

 but it was not of sufificient power to create any very great change. On the 7th 

 the extended "low" in the northwest overpowered the influence of the one in 

 the south. On the 7th however it was somewhat cooler. The southern " low" 

 neutralized the heat created by those of the north, and those of the north neutral, 

 ized the cold which would have been developed by those of the south had they 

 been the only ones present in the country. 8th, 9th and loth "low" traveled 

 on a high line again, by the loth making it quite hot, and this notwithstanding a 

 "low" in the south. By the nth the southern "low" had worked along the 

 coast up as far as Cape Hatteras, neutralizing the influence of the northern 

 "lows." But this " low " as it worked along the coast to the north took the 

 heat of the south with it and added it to the heat already present in the north, 

 the result of which was a very hot day on Saturday the 13th. Sunday the 14th 

 it was still hot and pleasant, a "high" advancing from the west kept it a little cool 

 and pleasant so the 15th of August was about as fine a summer day as one could 

 wish to see, "high" being quite extensive over the northern portions of the 

 United States. 



On the 1 6th Mr. Vennor was to have "storms throughout portions of Vir- 

 ginia." But as we cannot have storms without a storm center, and as there was 

 no storm center within a thousand miles of this locaUty there was no show for 

 storms in Virginia, nor did they have any in that neighborhood until the i8th 

 when the storm center advanced to that locality, passing it from the 19th to the 

 20th. Because of what Mr. Vennor said of the weather for the 14th — 18th inclu- 

 sive many of his friends are very ready to claim for him the cool weather in the 

 east and north from the 17th — 19th inclusive. Had the <7//7^r conditions followed 

 and the whole thing been complete with the storms in Virginia on the i6th, with 

 "hail storms and frosts probably in some sections," on the 17th and i8th, then 

 there might have been some reason in such a claim, but as it is it seems very absurd 

 to make selections in such matters — indeed, it is too foolish and too much of a 

 farce for intelligent people to heed. What must the people of the northwest 

 think of this when it was very hot in their section from the 17th to the i8th. It 

 was simply cool in the eastern sections of the country on account of the peculiar 

 relations of " high" and "low." One glance at the weather map for these days 

 explains it all. It is useless and profitless to follow up these daily records forever 

 in order to prove that "John Smith " has not proved a good prophet. Already 

 sufficient facts have been cited to show the' absurdity of the attempts at forecast- 

 ing the weather on the basis of the weather periodically repeating itself. That 

 some " prophet" may " hit it " sometimes is no wonder at all — others can do as 

 well — and one intelligent person may know as much about it as another. 



