Practical Hints in Regard to West Indian Hurricanes

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U.S. Government Printing Office, 1885 - Hurricanes - 15 pages
 

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Page 3 - Apuntes relatives a los huracanes de las Antillas en setiembre y octubre de 1875 y 1876; por Benito Vines. Habana, 1877. 8".
Page 6 - ... at different times and during different phases of the hurricane. The following indications deduced from the appearance and disposition of the clouds and from the direction of the air currents will be of great utility : (1) As soon as the upper region commences to cloud over, the cirrus veil appears most dense in a particular part of the horizon where a whitish arc is formed which, when the sun rises and sets, changes to an intense dark red. This cirrus arc forms part of a misty aureole which...
Page 12 - S. and SW. (2) Navigation to the northward is also very dangerous in this case, as a sad experience has demonstrated. No sailing ship should try it; a steamer can undertake this voyage if she is sure to have time to get out of the Strait of Florida and away from the coast before the storm can reach her. If the captain resolves to do this he should go at full speed, to get clear of the Strait and as far away as possible from the coast of Florida and the Gulf Stream in order to have plenty of sea-room.
Page 11 - DIFFERENT MONTHS. At the beginning of the season some of the hurricanes of June and July keep well to the south and cross the Caribbean Sea, and at times also the island of Cuba, in a W. by N. direction approximately. From the beginning of August to the end of September the tropical cyclones of the northern hemisphere in the first part of their track take generally a WNW. direction or a course between WNW. and NW., and all of them cufve outside of the tropics, generally between 27° and 33° latitude.
Page 12 - ... out by lying-to with the ship's head to the NE., E., or SE., as the occasion demands, while in the manageable, semicircle the ship is squeezed between the track and the coast without space to run. Innumerable are the ships which in the last few years have been wrecked on this coast. If the steamer is going to Spain, by making an easterly course south of the Bermudas after leaving the Strait she soon leaves the zone where the storms occur.
Page 6 - It is of the greatest importance to be able to determine with truth how far a disease is, or is not, contagious.
Page 6 - The peculiar cirro-stratus clouds,* the invariable precursors of the hurricane, soon appear ; the weather becomes heavy, the heat oppressive and sticky, causing profuse perspiration, and the humidity of the air increases. In a short time the cloud-bank of the hurricane appears on the horizon, the wind freshens every moment, and the first nimbus and broken cumulus clouds commence to disintegrate and fly about with gusts, light rains, and passing squalls. These increase in number and intensity with...
Page 12 - Stream in order to have plenty of sea-room. He should do this from the moment he observes the first indications of the hurricane, which may possibly be close upon him. This is without doubt one of the regions of greatest danger, not only on account of the many storms which cross it with various directions and velocities, but also because in the bight between Cape Canaveral and Cape Fear there is scarcely a maneuver possible which is not dangerous.
Page 7 - Very soon appears the base of the cloud forming above the horizon the dark band characteristic of the squall. With this cloud comes the rain, when the wind freshens and veers immediately to the right, blowing sometimes almost directly from the cloud-bank, which, when the squall has passed, is seen in the same point of the horizon as before.
Page 15 - Knowing that occasions may again arise when these observations will be of use, they are recorded here in the hope that they may prove of benefit in some emergency. The danger of navigating these waters is great, the difficulties many and often insuperable, the losses and shipwrecks all too frequent. If by means of these incomplete notes a single disaster should be averted they will not have been written in vain.

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