Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1880 — Trees as Weather Prophets. [ARTICLE]

Trees as Weather Prophets.

It is a matter of common observance that trees and their branches fall during the prevalence of storms, and from perfectly obvious reasons. But close observers among those familiar with the woods will tell you that often times these things occur just before a severe storm, and are the sign and forerunner of its approach. The phenomenon was witnessed by a farmer of Oswego town, while on his wry last Sunday to attend divine service in the Thompson school house, who observed a large limb break and fall off from a tree by the roadside. There was no wind stirring at the time, and no apparent cause for the phenomenon. He says that he made up his mind that a severe storm was close at hand. He recalled the circumstance a t Hannibal a year ago, during the camp meeting service, when a large beech tree fell upon the camp meeting tent, at a time when, happily, the congregation was outside, and only a small child was in the tent asleep. The child was not only not injured, but not even awakened. There was no wind at the time, in fact, the atmosphere was unusually still. There was no apparent cause for the fall of the tree; but a heavy storm followed shortly after, as Monday's storm succeeded the intense heat and quiet of the day before. The falling of the tree and the apparent almost miraculous escape of the congregation were the occasion of much speculation, and the incident was quickly seized and forcibly used by the exliorter to illustrate the protecting care of heaven. The farmer of whom we speak also says that for many years he has observed similar incidents of falling linbs and trees in the stillness which so generally precedes great storms of rain or wind. The relator is more than ordinarily a close observer of things. —Oswego Times.