212 A. G. Hoicard.— The Winter Storms of S. Africa, [Sept. 28,. 



thermometer at Cape Point had risen 2° and the barometer read "09^ 

 of an inch too high. The general wind was north, being fresh at 

 Cape Point. On the 16th the storm was on us in all its fury. On 

 the 17th this depression was passing away to the east and an anti- 

 cyclone forming over the Colony. 



The first of these two was a dry depression, as far as Cape Town 

 was concerned, no rain falling. The first rain that fell was on the ■ 

 night of the 14th in advance of the second depression. 



This second storm shcAved itself to Cape Town observers by means 

 of the upper currents while the first one was advancing on us, for 

 on the 11th cirro-filum was developed all over the sky radiating from 

 north-west to south-east, remaining there all that day and a part 

 ii the 12th, after which the sky remained clear till the 14th, when it 

 became overcast. On the loth at (S a.m. my gauge registered '055 

 of an inch of rain, but on each of the following mornings three-tenths 

 of an inch was measured, while on the 18th as the storm had passed, 

 only '16 of an inch was gauged. The self-recording anemometer at 

 tbe Royal Observatory bears out the foregoing description of the 

 tracks of these two storms, as also do my own daily charts. 



The next example I shall give will be that of a storm which I 

 predicted two days before, merely by noticing the direction of the 

 clouds, in the lower stratum of the upper current. 



On the morning of the 21st of August last, a well-defined depression 

 of the summer type lay over the Colony. The wind over Cape Towii 

 was south. Heavy low damp stratus clouds were driving from the 

 south, while above Table Mountain some heavy cumulo-strati were 

 moving at a moderate speed from the west. What made these clouds 

 move from the west when the general direction was south ? Nothing 

 could do so but the advance wedge of an approaching cyclonic cone, 

 and that cyclone must have been to the south. Hence 1 noted down 

 the prediction that a depression was to the south of us and Avould 

 strike the Colony in about two days. On the 22nd the barometer had 

 fallen considerablj^, but this was due to the near approach of the 

 northern cyclonic centre. The thermometer at Cape Point had risen 

 7° from the morning before, the wind there being east : at that time, 

 (that is 8 a.m.) it ivas veering to the north. During the afternoon 

 the barometer at Cape Town reached its mimimum, and a nor- westerly 

 wind sprang up. As the barometer began to rise slight showers fell 

 which continued during the night, the wind freshening. On the 

 morning of the 2ord the centre of the depression was off East 



