222 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 



wego, heavy storm of snow, and cold 8° below zero on the 2d ; at Albany, 

 4° below zero on the 2d at 7 a.m. ; at Philadelphia, 8° below on the 2d ; at 

 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 3° below zero on the 2d, and less than 10° above 

 all day, while at Boston the same day the cold was only 3° to 10° above, 

 with westerly gale ; at New- York, 10°, and as the cold wind poured upon 

 the harbor, the rising vapor was suddenly condensed into a thick sweeping 

 fog, presenting over the waters the appearance of a vast smoking furnace. 



This storm was less severe in Ohio, and still less farther eastward. The 

 belt of greatest cold passed from north of west to south of east, so that the 

 cold was greater in Pennsylvania than in Massachusetts. The weather was 

 cold at Washington and on the Potomac. The storm moved, like all our 

 great storms, from west to east widening southwards. In some places, cattle, 

 fowls, sheep, etc. were frozen to death : some men also perished. 



If we recur to the "Cold Period" of February 7 to 16, 1861, which 

 affected New-England and this State and along the Atlantic slope, the 

 storm of 1864 was less severe as a whole, and shorter in duration, but much 

 heavier in Western New- York and in Michigan, than was the storm of the 

 former date. Then at Rochester the thermometer marked 12° below zero on 

 February 7, and 11° below next morning ; at Grrandville, Michigan, 25° 

 below ; and, to mention no more, at New- York city, 9° below zero, and the 

 Bay presented more strikingly and awfully the appearance of an immense 

 smoking furnace than in January 1864. 



The violent wind in the above-mentioned storm of January 1 & 2, 1864, 

 extended from west of the Mississippi river eastwards over this State, di- 

 minishing in force especially in New-England. Here (at Bochester) it con- 

 tinued two days, and at the west still longer, and greatly aggravated the 

 storm. It was not so terrific as in some of the tornados which will be men- 

 tioned. On the 31st December, the signs of storm were strong here : wind 

 southeast, and some snow fell ; in Ohio and over the west, rain from the 

 east prevailed, till the wind came in its fury from the west. Several instances 

 of storms, less violent, but of great extent, have occurred in the year, with 

 similar characters. They all sustain the conclusion of Espy on the course 

 and progress of the storms in the United States. 



The observations here for the twenty-eight years also show the great 

 proportion of the general winds to be from the south of west ; the storms 

 beginning with an easterly or northeasterly, or sometimes southeasterly or 

 southwesterly wind, and changing to some point between northwest and 

 southwest, and thus the direction continues mostly from the south of west 

 till another change. The direction of the clouds, and especially of the higher 

 ones, shows this conclusively. The local and changeable winds of the surface 

 are readily marked, and should be distinguished from those which even at 

 the surface have the direction of the general wind. As this is a matter of 

 great importance in observations, let it be illustrated in one or two cases'*. 



Thus in January 1864, of the 93 daily notices of the winds shown above 

 by the clouds, 79 are between northwest and southwest, and only 13 from 

 all other directions ; and of these 13, even 10 are from the northeast, a 

 general and not a local wind. In the column of surface winds, which differ 

 from the direction as shown by the clouds, there are onl}^ 30 observations ; 

 showing that the surface and the cloud winds were in the same direction at 

 63 times of recording. 



In the following February, of the 87 observations by the clouds, all but 

 5 were between northwest and southwest ; and the surface winds differing 



* "Where there are two strata of clouds, which are shown by openings in the lower 

 tier, the course of the upper is taken, and its direction is readily seen. 



