Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1889 — Cyclone Warnings. [ARTICLE]

Cyclone Warnings.

The Picayune has constantty’ roiternted the importance of having a com- ( plete and thorough systom of storm, warnings and meteorological observa-, fions to give advance information ofj the cyclonal hurricanes which originate in the tropical archipelagoes of the Caribbean and West Indian seas. For 1 several years past this journal maintained, at its own cost at Key West, special communication with Rev. Father Vines, the eminent meteorologist at Havana, by which means was receive! and published, in advance of any other agency, intelligence of the movements of the tropical cyclones towards the Gulf of Mqxjco. This service has been undertaken by the United States weather bureau within about' a year past, obviating the necessity for private enterprise, and the beneficial results which have come from these storm warnings ought to stimulate the government to provide, on a more extensive scale, for observing the meteorology of that region which may be called the cradle of the cycl<^ie. These storms originate in the south-eastern-limits of the Carribean Sea, and are first observed off the Windward Islands, which extend in a great semicircular curve, with the convex side to

the eastward, making a sort of broken but well denned chain from the coast of Guianna, South America, to Porto Rico, the most easterly of the great West India islands. These islands are connected with Guiannese ports and with each other by telegraph cables, and thence with the United States by way of Key West. There is also another cable from Cuba, by way of Jamaica, to Colon. There is in addition a cable from Coatzacoalcos, on the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, to Galveston, and another from Vera Cruz, by way of Tampico, to Galveston. By means of interior and coast lines the principal gulf ports of Central America are attainable by telegraph.It Is thus possible to obtain telegraphic reports-of the weather from every principal station around the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and if there were some proper international arrangement intelligence of the meteorological conditions at all important points could be obtained by wire in the United States. When storms start in those tropical seas they first move to the westward as long as they remain in tropical latitudes. Should they become diverted to the northward by the mountain wall of ; eThto~ tho Gulf of Mexico or they sweep up along the Atlantic coast, generally following the Gulf stream. These storms operate according to general laws with a very considerable degree of regularity, and if we can only have information of their positions at several successive stations it is possible to forecast their future movements with some degree of reliability. At any rate by means of existing telegraph facilities it is possible to get such warning oS the approach of cyclones that great benefits may inure not only to the seafaring classes, but to the people on shore.

It is certainly worth while for the government to undertake at considerable outlay of expense to establish a proper system of observation to get this information. No nation is as much interested in the matter as is ours. The benefits to be secured are so great that no reasonable expense should be spared to insure information on which the most important consequences depend. We must hero express acknowledgements to the Hydrographic Bureau of the Navy for a carefully prepared chart in which the various telegraphic communications between the United States and the various islands and countries to the south of us are given, with a yiew of urging on the attention of the publiq the facilities which exist for seourlng the establishment of a system of cyclone warning. Congress should embrace the opportunity offered.—New Orleans Picayune. •” ■ • '