CLIMATE.--CONTINUED.
The atmosphere of Minnesota.--Its dryness.--Falling snow.--Equability of
temperature.--Rain-fall for spring.--The constitutional character of the
climate.--The lakes and rivers of the State.--The northeast
winds.--Where the northeasters begin.--Their general direction and
limit.--The atmospheric basin of Iowa.--Neglect of meteorology.--Its
importance to the country.
The atmosphere in Minnesota in the winter is like a wine, so
exhilarating is its effects on the system; while its extreme dryness and
elasticity prevents any discomfort from the cold which is such a bugbear
to many. The extreme cold does not last but for a few days, and should
the invalid choose to be domiciled during this brief interval, no great
harm would come; but we apprehend that, once there, they could not be
kept in-doors in consequence of it. Why, laboring men in the lumber
districts to the north of St. Paul perform their work without overcoats,
and frequently, and indeed commonly, without a coat of any kind, simply
in their shirt-sleeves; nor need this seem incredible, as in a dry, cold
climate the body maintains a much greater amount of animal heat, and if
exercise is had, a profuse perspiration may be easily induced, and a
fine glow of health inspired; with the extremities warm, sensitive, and
throbbing with life.
We once spent the winter on the island of Prince Edward, lying in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. This island is quite narrow, and between one and
two hundred miles in length; all the northerly winds having a tremendous
sweep over it, and the mercury in winter creeps down for a few days to a
point where it is frozen stiff. On such occasions we found it far less
inconvenient to go out, indeed, it was not an inconvenience at all, but
rather a positive pleasure; daily walks and fishing through the ice gave
constant amusement. But when the mercury was above zero, with the wind
from any quarter, coming damp and chilling, a feeling of discomfort
would drive you to shelter. The raw, damp wind off of the surrounding
seas being a natural conductor of both animal and electrical heat
rapidly carries of the vital warmth of the body to the destruction of
life. In illustration of this, and as giving greater force to the
practical experience of men everywhere, we are induced to quote the
statement made by Dr. Kane, that often when the mercury was congealed,
both he and his men found it not at all unpleasant, and by moderate
walking were able to keep entirely comfortable; while, at and above
zero, with a brisk wind blowing they suffered greatly.
Let us look fairly in the face this winter temperature in Minnesota,
and see how it compares with that of Central New York. The tabular
statement below is from official records.[C]
_The Mean Winter Temperature at St. Paul and Utica_.
PLACES. WINTER. SPRING. SUMMER. AUTUMN. YEAR.
St. Paul 16° 1' 45° 6' 70° 6' 45° 9' 44° 6'
Utica 24° 5' 44° 5' 66° 5' 47° 3' 45° 7'
The difference in range for the winter between the two points, is a
fraction over eight degrees in favor of Utica, while the mean annual
range is but one degree and a fraction higher than the yearly average at
St. Paul. There can be no doubt in our minds, that the cold of winter is
more trying to all classes at Utica than it is at St. Paul; and, that a
greater amount of warm clothing is necessary to maintain an equal
feeling of comfort, at the former, than is required at the latter place,
notwithstanding the mercury ranges through the three months of winter at
an average of eight degrees less at St. Paul. The reason is found in the
fact of a more humid atmosphere existing at Utica, and, indeed, at all
points in the variable-climatic district, whether north or south of
either the thermal lines or latitudes in which Minnesota rests.
"There is no rain falling during the winter months in the State as a
rule, the temperature being too cold, while the snow accumulates
gradually, falling in the finest of flakes, and light as down itself.
The average monthly snow-fall of the three winter months reduced to
water, is but a little over half an inch, or about six inches of snow
per month. A uniform line of low temperature--averaging near sixteen
degrees, unbroken by thaws except under the occasional warm glare of a
noonday sun--usually keeps this thin covering on the ground all winter
so dry, that the deerskin moccasins, which many persons habitually wear,
are scarcely moistened the season through. There are occasional upward
oscillations of temperature; and, once in a series of years, a thaw in
January or February; but these are rare occurrences. Rain has not fallen
in winter but once in many years. The whole winter is a radiant and
joyous band of sunny days and starlight nights. This inaugurates the
carnival season when sleighing and merrymaking parties in both town and
country form one unbroken round of pleasure."
The advantages of this winter season is that, while a cold climate, it
still admits of the invalid taking constant daily exercise with an
entire freedom from liability to "catch cold," the system freed from
sudden shocks incident to the coquetting climate of the East; the lungs
and whole body strengthened and braced by the tonic effect of this
continental climate.
"It is the most normal climate on the continent. No other is so
exquisitely symmetrical in its entire annual development. In no other
are the transitions of temperature and moisture so completely in harmony
with nature, so accommodated to the laws of organic life and growth.
Thus the entire physical organism of Minnesota is, so to speak,
emblematical of the * * * relations which attach to its geographical
position."
The advance of spring does not, here, bring those unending floods and
winds which drown men out and blow the universe to tatters, as is the
case in New England and other areas lying eastward.
The months of March and April rack very low in their rain-fall in
comparison with any point situated along the same thermal lines; while
May is scarce up to the average, but yet sufficient to supply the seeds
and grasses with all the moisture required.
For the purpose of exactness the following table is annexed, giving a
view of the question and illustrating it far better than any discussion
can hope to do.
_Mean Water Precipitation For Spring (in inches)_
PLACES. MARCH. APRIL. MAY. TOTAL
St. Paul 1.30 2.14 3.17 6.61
Utica 2.75 3.17 3.34 9.26
Providence 3.26 3.66 3.53 10.45
This furnishes a most striking commentary on this particular season for
the localities named, and warrants the statement that the first
two-thirds of it can be considered a continuation of the dry climate
which we have now traced from about the middle of September to the first
of May, a period of seven and one-half months, in which the rain-fall is
but a third of the entire quantity precipitated throughout the whole
year; while that of the entire year, even, is seen to be but a trifle
over the half of that falling over any portion of the variable district,
occupying so large a portion of the whole United States.
It is an astonishing development, and would be scarcely credible, but
for the array of actual facts and figures, through a long series of
years, by persons entirely unbiased, and who in the employment of the
general government had no other ends to serve but that of accuracy.
Previous favorable reports had gained much reputation for the State, but
it seemed to lack official backing, until the searching in the published
files of the War Department set the topic at rest, and proved the
climate of this State out of that division to which the great valley of
the Mississippi had been assigned, and to which the State of Minnesota
had been thought, heretofore, to belong.
The great isothermal lines, beginning along the Atlantic coast at the
fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second latitudes--with their initial
points between Long Island and the northern boundary line of
Massachusetts--sweep westward with an upward tendency, striking
Minnesota at the forty-fifth parallel (St. Paul), when a sharp curve to
the north distinguishes their course, thence bearing away gradually
westward along the valleys of the Red and Saskatchawan Rivers to the
Pacific Ocean.
If there are any doubts by our readers as to the continental character
of the climate of Minnesota, let them answer how it is that this sharp
curve of the thermal line happens in its westward course just on the
frontier of that State. And likewise the reason of the arid climate
prevailing for nearly three-fourths of the year, so unlike that for a
thousand miles eastward or southward of it.
Two-thirds of the entire fall of water for the year (whether snow or
rain) descends during the summer, with the addition of a part of May and
September. The quantity is a trifle over that in parts of Michigan,
while much less than the average of all points east or south. With
regard to that of Central New York at Utica, a type of the eastern area,
and previously referred to--it is two inches less. Thus the summer,
while not a dry one, fortunately, is below the mean of the variable
district.
It would be a wrong conclusion should any one decide that the summer was
lacking in those qualities of atmosphere which so happily characterizes
other portions of the year. True, there is a diminution of aridity, but
no disappearance, and the effect on the invalid is beneficial and
decided.
The humidity of the atmosphere is not always determined by the
rain-fall. There may be considerable water precipitated during a single
season, and the air of the locality be, before and after the rains, dry
and elastic, as the case at Santa Fé, in New Mexico, and at other points
which might be mentioned. Among these is that of Minnesota. Its
geographical position and physical structure is such as to insure these
elements in large measure, even for the climate of her summers.
If the quantity of rain and snow falling at all seasons in a given
district depended on itself for the supply, then the amount of water
precipitated would, were the winds out of consideration, be determined
by the amount of lake, river, and ocean surface within its own
boundaries. In this event Minnesota would among the States occupy the
very highest place on the scale,--with, perhaps, a single
exception,--since the whole face of the commonwealth is dotted all over
with lakes, sliced with rivers, and skirted in addition by a great
inland sea.
To many who travel over the State it seems a marvel that the atmosphere
should have any elasticity or any tonic properties.
It is, however, known that countries are usually dependent, for the
beneficent rains falling over them, on oceans quite remote, where the
sun, in its tropical splendor and power, lifts high in air immense
volumes of water in a state of evaporation, which, borne on the "wings
of the wind," speeds rapidly away to supply the drying rivers and
fountains of the globe. This aerial pathway supplies the link in the
great circuit by which all the waters of all the oceans pass over our
heads, returning again under our feet to their natural home.
Of course the water area of all sections of the temperate latitudes
contribute something to the precipitation; yet it is but a fractional
part of the whole, and quite inconsiderable. Still its influence is
sufficient to make it observable near large seas like our own inland
system, where the quantity falling is, in the cooler portions of the
year, increased in consequence of the then higher temperature of the
water of the lakes over that of the adjacent land districts. In summer,
the only effect is to increase the humidity of the atmosphere and
frequency of rains, without adding to the quantity. This phenomenon is
seen on the shores of all the lakes, and especially in the Lake Superior
region. But this influence does not extend westward to exceed the
distance of, we should say, fifty miles, and does not consequently
effect to any important degree the climate of Minnesota, except the
outlying rim described. The small lakes and rivers do not contribute
much to the precipitation of rain within the State boundaries. They may
add slightly to that of the lake district to the eastward, whither their
moisture is borne by the southwesterly and westerly currents. They do
undoubtedly have an influence on the temperature, modifying that of the
winter very much, and in this respect are valuable as well as beautiful.
The southerly winds, and those having a slight westerly tendency,
prevailing a portion of the summer, do not bring hither much of
moisture, though at their outset they are heavily ladened with it, as it
is borne across the Gulf, in a southwesterly direction, to the open
valley of the Mississippi, where, coming in contact with the edge of the
great westerly winds, and broken probably somewhat by the elevated
district of Mexico and by the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, which
extend to the northern boundaries of Texas, this humid wind drives,
unresisted by any vertical obstruction, up the valley of the "Great
River," shedding on either hand its waters profusely; but their force
and character, in this long march, become spent, and they add only their
proportionate amount of rain to the Minnesota annual fall, while the
intermediate districts are chiefly dependent on them.
The northeast winds of spring and autumn, which sweep at times half
across the continent, usually begin at a low point along the Atlantic
coast--driving sometimes furiously, and always persistently, its
hurried, chilling current inland,--is baffled by this southwesterly
current of the Gulf, and always, sooner or later, turned, as it moves up
the coast and interior by the overpowering and underlying continental
winds which drive it back, bringing these northeasterly storms to us,
nearly always from a southwest quarter. We enlarge upon this class of
rain-storms for the purpose of showing, though imperfectly, their
non-prevalence over the State of Minnesota. This is important if it can
be, even but partially, established; since it is this particular class
of storms and winds, last referred to, that are to be so much avoided
and to which can be traced the initial point of most pulmonic troubles.
These storms from the northeast may begin in Texas, their course being
north and eastward; as that by the time they reach so northerly a point
as New York, their westward limit may not exceed St. Louis; and, in
further illustration, when Quebec feels the force of the storm, Chicago
is at its extreme western limit. This supposed course will convey the
general idea of the track of a northeaster when it envelops the whole
variable-climatic district of the Union. There is a singular eddy known
to all climatologists to exist in Iowa, where the annual precipitation
of water is great, exceeding that of all the surrounding States. There
has been no positive theory advanced, to our knowledge, explaining this
circumstance, but the mystery is solved, to our minds, quite clearly.
This eddy makes the key-point of contact of the humid Gulf winds with
the cool winds of the westerly current, and likewise being the
northwestern terminal point of the course of the great northeasters,
the contact being the cause of the excess in precipitation. We were
fortunate, while visiting last autumn this special wet district of Iowa,
to experience one of these triangular storms. We were at Dubuque while
the wind was blowing gently from the south-southwest, with low
scattering clouds, and before night it began to thicken and rain, while,
in the night, the wind shifted to the east, blowing the rain briskly
before it. This continued a part of the following forenoon, when, taking
the train west to Rockford, northwest of Dubuque, we reached nearly the
edge of the easterly storm, which had been here simply a drizzling rain.
The next day the rain had ceased, the wind had shifted to the northwest,
rapidly drying the earth, and the clouds, both of the upper and lower
strata, were all driving hurriedly east-southeast. We left the following
day for Fort Dodge and Sioux City. At the former place they had had a
slight shower only, with shifting winds; while at Sioux City not a
particle of rain had fallen, the roads being not only dry but quite
dusty. This was not a merely local storm, but was the only great
easterly one covering any extent of territory and time, answering to the
equinoctial, which visited the United States during last autumn.
This special limit of storms, this eddy of the winds in Iowa, deviates
more or less in the district assigned to it, and, at times, some of
these northeasters undoubtedly blow over Minnesota, but they are few,
and much modified in kind and character. The elevation of the State over
other portions of the great valley south of it adds something probably
in determining the outline of the Iowa basin of precipitation.
The range of the thermometer in the hot season is, in Minnesota, above
that of places occupying the same lines of latitude; this is caused, in
part, by the arid continental winds and by a less cloud-obstructed
sunshine, but the heat is not correspondingly oppressive with that of
other localities, since the atmosphere is not as humid. The evaporation
under this heat of summer rises out of the immediate region of the
surface, and is borne away on the prevailing winds to the lake district
and eastward. It is unfortunate that there have been no tests of a
hygrometic character maintained through any great period, whereby
reliable data could be adduced, since it would have seemed as easy for
the government to have undertaken that branch of meteorology as any
other, it only requiring a more careful and accurate hand than do the
other observations. The delicacy of these experiments have proved too
wearisome for private parties, and there is over the whole country a
lack of this scientific evidence. The last report of one of the cabinet
ministers at Washington calls attention to the need, and benefit
arising from reliable testimony, under this head, and asks an
appropriation, which it is hoped may be granted, in the interests of
both health, agriculture, and science generally.
The question of climatic treatment and cure for certain ills is
receiving yearly increased attention, and this will continue until a
specific climate is found for many of the most destructive diseases
afflicting the race.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] The various tables are chiefly from Blodgett's _Climatology_, to
which we are otherwise much indebted.