Mr. John West, the American aeronaut, in his observations made during
his numerous ascents, describes a storm viewed from above the clouds
to have the appearance of ebullition. The bulging upper surface of the
cloud resembles a vast sea of boiling and upheaving snow; the noise
of the falling rain is like that of a waterfall over a precipice; the
thunder above the cloud is not loud, and the flashes of lightning
appear like streaks of intensely white fire on a surface of white
vapour. He thus describes a side view of a storm which he witnessed
June 3, 1852, in his balloon excursion from Portsmouth, Ohio:
Although the sun was shining on me, the rain and small hail were
rattling on the balloon. A rainbow, or prismatically-coloured arch
or horse-shoe, was reflected against the sun; and as the point of
observation changed laterally and perpendicularly, the perspective
of this golden grotto changed its hues and forms. Above and behind
this arch was going on the most terrific thunder; but no zigzag
lightning was perceptible, only bright flashes, like explosions
of “Roman candles” in fireworks. Occasionally there was a zigzag
explosion in the cloud immediately below, the thunder sounding like
a _feu-de-joie_ of a rifle-corps. Then an orange-coloured wave of
light seemed to fall from the upper to the lower cloud; this was
“still-lightning.” Meanwhile intense electrical action was going
on _in the balloon_, such as expansion, tremulous tension, lifting
papers ten feet out of the car below the balloon and then dropping
them, &c. The close view of this Ohio storm was truly sublime; its
rushing noise almost appalling.
Ascending from the earth with a balloon, in the rear of a storm, and
mounted up a thousand feet above it, the balloon will soon override the
storm, and may descend in advance of it. Mr. West has experienced this
several times.