2. On the Motion of a Storm in an Easterly Direction being only possible as a Circular Atmospheric Wave

Abstract

It is here intended to show how a storm with a diameter of several hundred miles, and with a comparatively low vertical height, can move and only in contact with the resisting surface of the ground, but not on a frictionless surface. Exceptional cases are all here received owing to the complexity of the subject, and also to the comparatively few conclusions which have been arrived at in the millions of observations which have taken place. Let this storm be supposed to be inaugurated in the United States, and be described as being a vast mass of rarefied air enclosed within its surrounding isobarics. In this form, as is well known, it does not cross the Atlantic and to the British Isles; it only alters its position in the form of a circular-atmospheric wave, and by the “Curve of Outward Propagation” in front, described in the paper of 1877–78, page 574, and which is accepted by a well-known continental meteorologist. As shown by the Eev. W. Clement Ley, cirrus clouds aloft move in front and from low to high pressure. This also takes place with the Curve, which, by the alteration of the position of the atmosphere aloft, may thus probably produce these clouds. Opening out of a storm in this way in front, of course fills up in the rear.