. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. CLIMATE OF KANSAS. 473 wliii'led by us a very short time before. If we reject the cyclone theory we must suppose parallel but opposite currents, in streaks, thus:. On loth July last I witnessed a fine example of this sudden chauge of direction and temperature in the wind. A storm arose, with light- ning in the west, the southwest, and the northwest. The railways train was going eastward at the distance of about three hundred and twenty- fiv
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. CLIMATE OF KANSAS. 473 wliii'led by us a very short time before. If we reject the cyclone theory we must suppose parallel but opposite currents, in streaks, thus:. On loth July last I witnessed a fine example of this sudden chauge of direction and temperature in the wind. A storm arose, with light- ning in the west, the southwest, and the northwest. The railways train was going eastward at the distance of about three hundred and twenty- five miles west from Kansas City. We were soon enveloped in the storm, rain, and wind so strong from the north that the wheels of the coaches could be felt grating their flanges on the south rail, aud the rain, striking the end windows of the car, ran across in a true horizon- tal line. In a few minutes the temperature had fallen so low as to be uncomfortable; but in a run of not, I think, over ten miles, we were again in the loarm winds usual at that season, and these, by contrast, seemed to be the hot winds sometimes experienced. These hot winds are not, so far as I have observed, apt to be constant in one place for any considerable length of time; they strike your face suddenly, and in perhaps a minute are gone. They seem to run along in streaks, or ovenfulls, with the winds of ordinary (but rather high) temperature. They do not begin, I believe, till in July, as a general rule, and are over by September 1, or perhaps by August 15. Their origin I take to be, of course, in heated regions south or southwest of us; but their peculiar occurrence, so capricious and often so brief, I cannot explain to myself satisfactorily. I have no rain-gauge record at hand for this and past seasons; but I may remark that this season, since about 15th of July, in these distant plains, has given us rain enough to make beautifully verdant the spots in the prairie burned off during the " heated t
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