STORMS
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
—Revelation 7:1
6053 Killer Storms
The killer storms are tornadoes, which kill on the average about 100 people per year. Hurricanes kill on the average about 65 people per year—this is a long-term average, of course.
Winter storms—mainly blizzards—don’t kill nearly so many people. The big casualty-causing winter storms are quite rare. We’ve had only about four in this century.
6054 Number Of Tornadoes
One of the most remarkable weather anomalies of 1976 was the tornado season in the US Southeast. There were approximately 900 tornadoes in that year—a record number.
6055 A Hurricane Is Born
A hurricane is created at sea. The water temperature must be at least 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees), which means that Northern latitudes are normally spared. The warm sea creates a funnel of air which rises to perhaps 50,000 ft., producing vast cumulus clouds. High air currents are distributed, and more air from below is drawn into the funnel. Earth’s rotation gives it a twist, and the hurricane is born—a mass of storm winds about 400 miles in diameter, swirling round at up to 200 mph.
6056 Power Of Hurricanes
A hurricane lifts sixty million, or more, tons of water and generates more power every ten seconds than all the electrical power used in the United States in a year.
The hurricane that struck Bangladesh in 1970 produced a tidal wave which killed at least 500,000 people. In 1900 at Galveston, Texas, a hurricane created storm tides that swept 6000 people to their deaths. Another 1000 people were drowned in 1954, when a large ferryboat was sunk by a hurricane in Hakodate Bay, in Japan’s north island.
6057 Other Side Of Hurricanes
Without an occasional hurricane, the world’s weather might be even worse. Fierce tropical storms play a vital part in maintaining the heat balance between the tropics and polar regions. The tropics and subtropics receive more heat from the sun than they lose by radiation; other to prevent gradual cooling of the poles and scorching of the equatorial regions. Hurricanes help keep the balance.
“If hurricane control were successful and none were allowed to go through their full life cycle,” says Gordon E. Dunn, former director of the National Hurricane Center at Miami, “nature would undoubtedly find some other method of maintaining the heat balance, and who can say that this new method might not be even more disastrous than the hurricane?”
—National Geographic News
6058 Thanks For Storm
A violent thunderstorm once preserved the town of Basle from the shells of the Russians and Hungarians who were besieging the place. The pious people in gratitude to God, as a thank-offering, founded a school for the training of Christian missionaries. This was the origin of the great Basle Missionary Society which sends out hundreds of missionaries. They made their thanksgiving practical.
—Current Anecdotes
6059 Mopping Up The Ocean
I am reminded of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion.
In the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood upon that town—the tide rose to an incredible height—the waves rushed in upon the houses—and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and patterns, trundling her mop, and squeezing out the seawater, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest.
—Selected
6060 Sea Wall Was Built To Stand
George W. Boschke was the famous engineer who built the gigantic sea wall to protect Galveston, Texas, from the horrible floods which had brought disaster to the city. He built his sea wall with a sure confidence of a thoroughgoing engineer and master workman. From Galveston he went to Oregon to build railroads in an undeveloped section of the state. Boschke was in a camp forty miles away from the nearest railroad when an exhausted messenger rode in and handed a telegram to his assistant. The message said that the Galveston sea wall had been washed away by a second furious hurricane. The assistant was in consternation and dreaded to hand the telegram to his chief. Boschke read the telegram, smiled, handed it back and said, “This telegram is a black lie. I built that wall to stand.”
He turned away and went about his work. It turned out that the message was based on a false report. True, there had been a hurricane as severe as that which had flooded the city before, but Boschke’s sea wall had not been moved. It stood firm. “I built that wall to stand,” said Boschke and went smiling about his work amid rumors of disaster.
—Benjamin P. Browne
6061 Not Minding Weather
A friend once visited Liszt at his home in Weimar. When it was time to leave, the kindly composer offered to accompany his friend to the station, and they set off although the skies looked threatening. Halfway to their destination, the heavens opened up and a veritable downpour descended. Liszt continued to talk about a new composition he was working on.
Finally the friend said, “You do not seem to mind the weather.” “No,” said Liszt, “I never take notice of that which takes no notice of me.”
6062 Legend Of The Winds
When Ulysses departed from the Oelian Islands, he was given by Oelus—the god of the winds—all the adverse and stormy tempests and winds which might otherwise be sent upon him and his fleet. They were tied up in a bag which Ulysses very carefully guarded every moment.
This manifest care attracted the attention of the sailors who imagined that it must be some great treasure, and so, while he was asleep, one day, took the bag from under his head and opened it. Immediately all the winds rushed forth and became mighty tempests, which beat them back to the port just as they had come in sight of Ithaca and home.
—Current Anecdotes
6063 To Rain Cats And Dogs
In northern mythology the cat is supposed to have great influence on the weather, and English sailors still say, “The cat has a gale of wind in her tail,” when she is unusually frisky. Witches that rode upon the storms were said to assume the form of cats; and the stormy north-west wind is called the cat’s-nose in the Harz even at the present day.
The dog is a signal of wind, like the wolf, both of which animals were attendants of Odin, the storm-god. In old German pictures, the “head of a dog or wolf,” is used of that from which blasts issue.
The cat therefore symbolizes the downpouring rain, and the dog the strong gusts of wind which accompany a rainstorm; and a “rain of cats and dogs” is a heavy rain with wind.
—E. Cobham Brewer
6064 Epigram On Storms
• A woman was seated next to a minister on an airplane during a storm.
She: “Can’t you do something about this awful storm?”
He: “Madam, I’m in sales, not management.”
—Gospel Herald
• As William Dean Howells and Mark Twain were coming out of church one morning, it commenced to rain heavily.
“Do you think it will stop?” asked Howells.
“It always has,” answered Twain.
• A new storm added another ten inches of snow to what Pittsburgh already had. Buses and trains were running hours late, cars were stalled and abandoned, and people had to find shelter wherever possible. One storm refugee sent this telegram to his offlce: “WILL NOT BE AT WORK TODAY—NOT HOME YESTERDAY YET.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
See also: Waves and Tides ; Weather Prediction ; Luke 21:25.