158 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW APRIL, 1929
HAIL IN LOWER OHIO VALLEY
A hailstorm of wide extent 0ccurre.d on Sunday aft,er- noon, April 21, 1929, in connection wit,h a series of
depressions that a t morning observation covered t,he
Ohio and lowe,r Mississippi Valleys with the lowst pres-
sure a t Cairo, Ill., 29.69 inches, re.duced t,o sea level. The hail area in this vicinity covered most of Alesander ancl
Pulaski Count,ies and parts of Union and Johnson Counties in Illinois, parts of Mississippi and Scot’t Counties of Mis-
souri, and most of Ballard and McCraclren Count,ie,s, with
part,s of Carlisle and Graves Counties in Kentuclry. There was no ha.il a t Cairo, tthe neare,st being about 5 miles north
and 5 niiles east and sout,heast of station.
Hailstones over the area varied in size from one-fourt,h inc,h to 2); inches in diameter, over niuch of the area more
than one-half inch. The area of heavy hail (1 inch or
more in diameter) w-as apparently about 4 miles wide ancl
30 miles long, stret,ching from near Olive Branch and
Miller City eastward across Alexander and Pulaslii Coon- ties, t,hence southeastward across Balla.rd Counby, Icy., diagonally to Lovelaceville. Hailst,oiies tha.t fell a t Roth
Station, 2 miles west of Cac.he, Alexander County,, Ill.,
brought t,o Cairo, in a glass jm, were disk shaped and measured 2 h h e s in diameter 2 hours after falling. The
time when t,he storin broke ranged from 2:30 p. m. at, blie western end of the path to 4:30 p. in. a t the east,ern end.
At some places the fall is reported t.0 have last,ed 30
minutes. Damage t,o property was confined mostly to composi-
tion roofs, automobile t80ps, and hotbeds; very lit,t’le to windows, as the wind was not sbrong ; approsimat,e, loss,
$30,000; $20,000 in Illinois and $10,000 in Kentucky. Damages to t,ruck crops, berries, and t,ree fruits can not be
determined accurately, but will probably equal t,he amounts of propert>y damage in the t8wo St8ates. No
appreciable damage was reported in the Missouri area .-
TY. E. B.
HAIL IN NORTHEAST LOUISIANA
During the aft,ernoon of April 31, 1939, t,he east,ward
movement of a trough of low pressure was attended by
thunde,rshowers in nort,hern Louisiana a i d violent, con-
vectional act,ion acconipaniecl bhe shifting of the wind from southerly to west,erly, a tornado occ.urring in one
1oc.ality and a remarkable^ fall of hail in mobher. At, about 3:45 p. m., a t,ornaclo, moving east,ward or
slightly south of east, over a pat.11 18 t,o 50 y:trds \vide
and 8 miles long, passe.d near Oak Ridge, in Morehouse
Parish. A disti1ic.t funne,l cloud, described as “very sniall a t bott,om and not spreading out unt,il very high,’’
was observed. The tornado demolished a few houses about, 2 niiles south and southwest of Oak Ridge, killing
two persons and severely bruising a few others. The property damage is estimated a t $7,550. As the squall line moved fart,her east,ward R hailstorm occurred in the vicinity of Tallulah, about 3s niiles south-
east of Oak Ridge, betwe,en 4:30 and 5 p. m. The hail- st,ones, falling over an area about 20 niiles wide (length
not, given), were, scat,t.ering but remarkably large. Mr. G. L. Smit,h, of Tall~lah, reports: “Authentic repork have been received of a few stones
measuring 4 by 4 by 6 inches. A few very large pieces of ice fell before the main st,orin be,gan. The falling of large st,ones last,ed less than 10 minutes and was followed by a lit,tle rain for about 30 minutes. Most of t,he stones
were, round and very compact’. They remained on the ground for a good while after tlie storni had passed. The small miount of damage was no doubt due to the fact that
t,he 1iailst)ones were not, nearly so numerous as in the usud hailst,orm. A littde damage occurred to roofs,
car tops, and glass structures. The ac,coriipanying photo- graph (see plate facing page 155) illustmt,es the size of
t,he Iiailst,ones.”--R. 8. D.
DISCUSSION
On the morning of the 31st the pressure distribution was about as follon s : An anticyclone of considerable intensity
:ind geographic extent was cent ered along the west shore
of Hudson Bay, the true center being a small distance
inland from the mouth of Nelson River. A trough of low pressure stretched from Cape Cod to eastern Kansas and a second trough oriented nortliu,est/southeast covered
the region between southern dlberta and northern Wyo- ming. These two troughs were in the proper position to
give shoa ers and thunderstorms in the same 24 hours
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A single thunderstorm
was occurring OII the morning of the 31st in Massachusetts,
thelice westward there WIS a break in their continuity,
none occurring until the Ohio Valley was reached.
Here they were quite general and the area covered by them reachecl to eastern Kansas on the west. As the day
wore on they became much more general and of greater severity in spots. In the Ohio Valley a house was blown
clown and the inmates suflered injury. Hail was also of general occurrence along the line of the trough from the Ohio Valley to the At lan t ic.-Ed.
SQUALLS WITH RISING BAROMETER AT ROSEBURG, OREGON
55/. ~-/s 55/. 5-q ( 79s) By EDGAR H. FLETCHER
[Weather Bureau Office, Roseburg, Oreg., April 15, 19291
It frequently has been observed here in the late winter and early spring that with rising barometer and clearing
weather tlie advancing cold air mass with the resultant
steep vertical temperature gradient, causes a succession of light squalls from the west or northwest accompanied by precipitation in the form of showers (rain or snow),
and usually by light hail, but without thunder and light-
ning. Thus there is during the greater part of the day under such conditions, a frequent alternation of sunshine and storin, with decidedly cool weather prevailing. The small ice pellets accompanying these extremely local
showers should be classified aa hail, rather than sleet; for
an inversion of temperature is necessary for the forination of true sleet, which usually occurs \nth the approach of a
warm front during the colder season of the year.
These intermittent showers, occurring every hour
or two during the warmer part of the day, are of short
duration, usually lasting less than 30 minutes. A steep vertical temperature gradient no doubt exists a t the time, and it is probable that the convectional activity
i s confined to a comparatively shallow lager of the air.
If the masimiini temperature for the day is below 50°, it is not unusual to obesrve rain, hail, snow, and probably sleet within an interval of 5 or 10 iliinutes, but the
precipitation is always light. Often the fine ice pellets resemble sleet so closely that they are recorded as
such.
I t is evident that the Coast Range plays an important part in the forination of these local disturbances, since
the air is forced upward to about the 2,000-foot level in
APRIL, 1929 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 159
passing over the mountains. The first indication of
rather strong convectional activity is seen over the Coast Range in the form of cumulus and curnulo-nimbus
clouds which are associated later with a light local storm that eventually reaches the vicinity of Roseburg, 10 miles east of the main range. The whole region in this vicinity
between the Coast Range and the Cascades consists of
broken hills of considerable elevation and narrow, irregu- lar valleys along the winding water courses. During the passage of some of these storiiis, visibility
and ceiling are reduced to a minimum, and especially if
snow predominates, as it often does on the iiiountains and higher hills, if the day is unusually cool. It occasion-
ally happens that an airplane is forced to land in this
vicinity on account of one or more of these local “snow
showers” prevailing in or near this region; but usually the
chief menace from local snow storms occurs in the trans- verse ranges of mountains and hdls marking the northern
and southern limits of the Uinpqua basin in which Rose- burg is situated. Weak squall conditions are likely to prevail for a day
or more a t a time of slowly rising barometer, or the short
transition period of upward pressure tendency between
the passages of successive cyclonic areas. In fact a large percentage of the rainfall during the spring se:tson
occurs under such pressure conditions, very little rain occurring while the barometer is falling, except for slight
subsequent falls, or when the center of the storm passes
near the station. However, there usually is a period of maximum rainfall that oc,curs during the first part of the
pressure rise, before the squall stage is reached. The
abnormally cold and dry season that has prevailed this
spring, 1929, seemed to be unusually favorable for squall formation.
NOTES, ABSTRACTS, AND REVIEWS
The secod conjere,iice on. cycles.‘-The first conference was held in December, 1922, and was reported on in
Geographical Revie,w, Special Supplement, vol. 13, 1923,
pp. 657-676. The purpose of the sec.ond conferenc.e was
the discussion of new material ac,cumulated since the first
conference. A reading of the abstract of the work of the second
conference leaves the impression that beyond methocls of refinement in observational methods, t8he status of the
problem of cycles, whether in solar radiat’ion, tree rings, clay varves, or whatnot, has not risen above. t’he position
t.hat it has occupied for t’he last quarter .of a century. The suggestion was niade that a point had be.en reached
where some or all of the observations should be cluplic.at,ed
in the Southern Hemisphere. The meeting was held in Washington, D. C., on De,cein-
ber 15, 1928, under the direction of President h/Ierriam,
of the Carnegie Inst,itution of Washington, with Dr. D.
T. McDougal, of the inst.itution’s division of plant, biology, in the chair; present also 35 other sc.ientists
representing a number of the physic.al scie.nces.
High lake levels.-Meteorologist J. H. Spencer, in charge of the Weather Bureau station at Buffalo, N. Y., sends
the editor an acc.ount of the severe wind storm that prevailed on April 1, 1929, a t that station. The speed
of the wind on this occasion reached a t 3 :10 p. in. a veloc- ity of 78 miles per hour, for a 5-minute period, and this
is the greatest velocihy of record for any niont>h. N8,tur-
ally, considerable damage was caused by the high winds;
trees 1 to 2 feet in diameter were blown down, frail houses and garages were unroofed, and in some cases overturned.
Several steamers in the harbor were torn loose from their nioorings and the water in the harbor rose 7.8 feet above its normal level. Mr. Spencer also furnished a copy of
tmhe drawing made by the United States engineers a t
Buffalo from which Figure 1 is reproduced.
FIGURE l.-Winds nud Lake leveis, April 1, 1929
The heaping up of the water of Lake Erie in Buffalo harbor due to strong westerly winds is a well-known
feature of that harbor. The figure shows the rapid rise of the water alniost c.oncurrently wit,h t,he increase in wind
velocity; i t also shows a lowering of the water in the early part of the day due to the preva1e.nc.e of east winds.
On April 12, 1929, the New York Times printed dis- patches from a number of places in the lake region all
but one of which reported dangerously high water in the
Lakes. On looking up the weather chart for the day in
question it was found t’hat east to northeast winds had prevailed for more than 34 hours. Inasmuch as the places reporting high water were on the we.stern shore of
Lake Michigan the conclusion is unavoidable that the
high water was the result of wind act,ion.-A. J . H . Kalitin on illurninintion by diffused light during the
solar eclipse, June 69, 192’7.2--Malniberget, Sweden, is a t latitude 67” 20’ N., longitude 20: 54’ E. Continuous
records of the intensity of the illuniination by diffused light were obtained by means of a potassium photocell covered with n horizontally adjusted milk-white glass
with a feeble yellow light screen, selected so as to render
the spectral sensitiveness of the photocell approximately
1 Qeographical Review XIX: 296-306, April, 19%.
55468-29-3
Qeograflska Annaler. 1828. H. 3.