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462
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW.
SEPTEMI
northeast, and twice low, distant thunder was heard, but after that time and during the passage of the hurricane the total absence of lightning was commented on in the office. About 9:30 p. m., September 29, four hours after the center of the hurricane had passed, Mr. A. V. Hall, of the Times-Picayune, reported he had observed a
Seculiar lightning in the southwest a few times. Mr. [all described it as a light flaring up in sheets not unlike the fire coming out of the mouths of serpent® as represented in imaginary illustrations.
Note.—In the hurricane of September 8, 1900, at Galveston, Tex.,
I do not remember to what ex teat lightning wag visible during the day, but, certain incidents were revealed by lightning at night which I can never forget. It was oheet lightning to the Bcuthjast that revealed to me. out of the darkness after the wrecking of ray home my brother and my two oldest children floating on wreckage. The lightning enabled me to pick up a ttrangB child about 4 years old floating cu tho debris cl a •wrecked house, and. occasional flares of lightning enabled us to see buildings which we would soon hear being ground dow. and destroyed by the wave3 and -wreckage on which f;e wers floating. This lightning occurred while the wind was from the; southeast and ceased quite a while before we landed at i 1:30 p. m In my report cn the hurricane cf September 8, 1900. I did not go into details relative to meteorological conditions, and I give thi? here in order tc put it cf r303rd.
TEMPERATURE.
As the hurricane approached during the night of the 28th, the temperature fell suddenly about 8:40 a. m. of the 29th from 81°F. to 75°, but this occurred with the first heavy shower of rain preceding the hurricane, and the temperature always shows a sudden and decided drop with a heavy shower cf rain. After 3:40 a. m. the temperature fell gradually 1 or 2 decrees until noon of the 29th, fluctuating considerably. During the afternoon cf the 29th, the sudden fluctuations disappeared, and there were gradual rises or falls of 2 or 3 degrees, the falls occurring with sudden downpours of precipitation and the rises when these would slacken. Temperature conditions during the hurricane were not unlike those found in ordinary heavy rainstorms,
PATH AND MOVEMENT OF HUE.F.IGANE CENTER.
The pressure and wind records at New Orleans, Burr-wood, and. Morgan City, La., Bay St. Louis, Miss., and other olaces, especially the fact that the barometer remained nearly stationery at Burrwood from 9:45 a. m., the time of the occurrence of the lowest barometer, until 2 p. m. cf the 29th, more than four hours, taken along with the wind reports from surrounding stations, indicates that the storm center struck the. Louisiana coast about, halfway hp'-wspr tho mouth of the Mississippi River ana Atchafalftvs. Ray. t.Vp. ranter being then about 50 mJe3 west of Burrwood and recurving slowly toward the northeast. Tho slight change in pressure conditions at Mobile and Pensacola from 8 p. m. of the 28th to 8 a. m. of the 29th also shows that the storm recurved over southeastern Louisiana, and was probably movmg toward the northwest up to the time that its northern segment struck the marshes of southeastern Louisiana. The storm center passed near and east of La Rose and Lockport on Bayou Lafourche, where the ■wind basked suddenly without an intermediate direction from northeast to northwest during the afternoon, of the 29th. At Thibodaux, in the northwestern part cf Lafourche Parish, the wind backed more gradually from northeast to northwest and west. The prevailing wind at New Orleans being northeast from 8 a. m. until 1 p. m., five hours, east from 1 p. m. until 4 p. m., three hours, southeast from 4 p, no-
un til 7 p. m., three hours, then southerly the r of the day, indicates that the stcrm curved to t] eastward around New Orleans.
The lowest pressure at Morgan City, La., 67 n of New Orleans, was 2S.05~incnes and the Icwes St. Louis, Miss., 60 miles east of New Orleans, ^ inches. The gr^dienjt~t7gtween Bay St. Louis ; Orleans, when appbed from Morgan City eastwa pa^ToT the center of the hurricane, would brinjr: inches :suhar on tho west~~side of the centert about 25 miles of the 'cjn 1 aifioe. Weather Burt Orleans. This would place the center of the 1 about 12 miles to the west of the New Orlea This is also in harmony with the reports of cl: wind direction at the sugar experiment stai Loyola University, just 7 miles west of the loc Weather Bureau, ’where, the wind was reporter trained independent observers, 1 mile apart, a: from northeast to southeast without any into direction. Further, a complete calm, with, t shifting from northeast; to southeast without a mediate direction was reported by Mr. C. E. Hec observer, Weather Bureau, as occurring at his ] from 5:30 to 8 p. m., 1 mile farther west than t stations, indicates that the eastern limit of the ii center, or calm area of the hurricane, passed miles west of the local office, Weather Bureau, the diameter of the comparatively calm area w 8 miles. The barometer reading at New Orleans represented as low a barometer as occurred at ai even in the center of the hurricane. At Tulane U the barometer at 20 feet altitude was 28.10 ir 30 minutes and another barometer nearby read 5:4.2 p. m.
The diameter of the hurricane proper—tha tween points where the pressure was 2-9.50 inchc outer rim (this pressure is taken as the outer rirc this hurricanc occurred within an area of low pr unusually large extent)—may safely be placed at 250 and 300 miles. The time required for the at i-iew Or;eans from the front isobar of 29.f rear isobar of 29 50 inches was about 24 houi would make the progressive movement of the 1 about 12 miles per hour. Mobile, AJa., 150 milt New Orleans, was on the outer rim of the \ proper. The lowest, barometer reading report the Mobile station was 29.50 inches, and it is that a similar pressure would have been note 150 miles west of New Orleans. No observer i breaking away of clouds in the center, "the the storm.
Figure 6 (xli:i-114) gives the directions in w winds changed at several stations in southeast isiana during the progress of the hurricane, and accurately as possible, from the information a the path traversed by the center of the hurrican
tide coxnmoKS.
No extraordinary tide conditions fvppearcc September 28, the day preceding the hurricane late as the morning cf the 29th men who had vised cn the afternoon of the 2Sth to go to their on the Mississippi coast returned to New Orlcai early tram Wednesday morning and telephoned thev had left everything comparatively quiet Gulf coast anci they had noticed no extraordinar tho trip to New Orleans. On my advice they at


Historic Hurricanes (Treutel Book) Historic-Hurricanes-Of-Hancock-County-1812-2012-(070)
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