[14]Dec. 21st, 1852. Wind N.-E., fine weather.
Dec. 22d. Thick, hazy morning, wind east, much lighter in S.-E. than in N.-W.; 8 A. M., a clear arch in S.-E. getting more to south; noon, very black in W. N.-W.; above, a broken layer of cir. cumulus, the sun visible sometimes through the waves; wind round to S.-E., and fresher; getting thicker all day; 10 P. M., wind south, strong; thunder, lightning, and heavy rain all night, with strong squalls from south.
Dec. 23d. Wind S.-W., moderate, drizzly day; 10 P. M., wind west, and getting clearer.
The next day the vortex passed the latitude of Montreal (the moon being on the meridian about 10 P. M.)
MAGNETIC STORM, DECEMBER 23, 1852.
In the July number of Vol. XVI. of Silliman’s Journal, we find certain notices of the weather in 1852, by Charles Smallwood, of St. Martins, nine miles east of Montreal. He mentions “two remarkable electrical storms (which) occurred on the 23d and 31st of December, (in which) sparks 5 ⁄ 40 of an inch were constantly passing from the conductor to the discharger for several hours each day.” At 10 P. M. (23d) the vortex passed over Montreal, and again descending on the 31st North, and was visible at Ottowa on the morning of the 1st of January, with southerly wind setting towards it. On the 29th of December, Mr. Smallwood records “a low auroral arch, sky clear.” On the 20th, the vortex was 5° to the northward of Montreal, and the aurora was consequently low—the brightest auroras being when the vortex is immediately north without storm, or one day to the northward, although we have seen it very low when the vortex was three days to the north, and no other vortex near.
LIVERPOOL STORM.
On the night of the 24th of December, the same central vortex ascending passed between Cape Clear and Liverpool.
On the 25th, at midnight, the vortex passed to the north of Liverpool: its northerly progress being very slow, being confined for three days between the parallel of Liverpool and its extreme northern limit in latitude about 57°. The accompanying account of the weather will show the result of a long-continued disturbance near the same latitude:
The Baltic, three days out from Liverpool, encountered the vortex on the night of the 23d. On the morning of the 25th, very early, the gale commenced at Liverpool, and did much damage. On the 26th, the vortex attained its northern limit; but we have not been able to procure any account of its effects to the northward of Liverpool, although there can be but little doubt that it was violent on the coast of Scotland on the 26th; for the next day (27th) the vortex having made the turn, was near the latitude of Liverpool, and caused a tremendous storm, thus showing a continued state of activity for several days, or a peculiarly favorable local atmosphere in those parts. It is very probable, also, that there was a conjunction of the central and inner vortex on the 27th. The inner vortex precedes the central in passing latitude 41°; but as the mean radius of its orbit is less than that of the central, it attains to a higher latitude, and has, consequently, to cross the path of the central, in order again to precede it descending in latitude 41°. As a very trifling change in the elements of the problem will cause great changes in the positions of the vortices on the surface of the earth, it cannot now be asserted that such a conjunction did positively occur at that time; but, it maybe suspected, that a double disturbance would produce a greater commotion, or, in other words, a more violent, storm.