30 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



that makes the sensation and effect of cold so much more severe 

 there than here. It is owing to this fact also that a temperature 

 which is fatal to fruit buds in the east has no effect on them here. 



The Winds of Nebraska. 



The atmosphere is rarely quiescent in Nebraska. While hur- 

 ricanes are very rare, storms are more frequent in winter, and 

 gentle zephyrs and winds are almost constant. These great- 

 ly modify the heat of summer and the cold of winter. When 

 the thermometer is up among the nineties, even a south or 

 southwest wind makes the weather endurable. At this high 

 temperature the atmosphere is almost certain to be in per- 

 ceptible motion from some direction. By reference to table D of 

 Dr. Childs' and the report of the U. S. Signal Office on winds, it 

 will be seen that the prevailing winds in the winter are from the 

 north and northwest. With the coming of Spring there is a great 

 change in this respect. The winds veer around and a strong cur- 

 rent sets in from the south, blowing from the Gulf of Mexico, but 

 entering the interior is deflected by the earth's motion and becomes 

 a southwest wind. This remains the prevailing wind during the 

 whole of summer, and often until late in autumn. It sometimes 

 happens that this southwest wind commences to blow during the 

 coldest days of winter, when the curious phenomenon is observed 

 of snow melting when the thermometer is at, a little above, or 

 even below zero. This of course is caused by the temperature of 

 the coming current of air being much higher than that of the place. 

 This character of north and northwest winds in winter, and south 

 and southwest winds in summer, with some local exceptions is the 

 dominant character of the atmospheric movements between the 

 Mississippi and the mountains, and the gulf to an unknown dis- 

 tance north. 



The Storms of Winter. 



From no cause has Nebraska, in company with Iowa and 

 Kansas suffered more in popular estimation than from the re- 

 puted severity and frequency of its storms. And yet they 

 occur at comparatively long intervals. During one-half the 

 years none 'are experienced of any severity, and when they do 

 come the laws that govern their occurrence are so well understood 

 by at least the older citizens of the State that little damage is 

 suffered from them. One of the laws of their occurrence is their 

 periodicity. When the first one of the season comes whether it is 



