Wind gust

“ You have, no doubt, frequently observed a single cloud pass, from which a violent gust of wind issues, but of no great extent. I have observed such a gust make a lane through the woods, of some miles in length, by laying the trees flat to the ground, and not above eight or ten chains in breadth. Though the violence of the wind be in the same direction in which the cloud moves and precedes it, yet wind issues from all sides of it; so that supposing the cloud moves south-easterly, those on the north-east side of it feel a south-west wind, and others on the south-west side, a north-east. ”

“ A few hours beforehand the air becomes calm and dimmed by vapors which arise from the ground, and a few moments before there is a slight breeze, followed at intervals of two or three minutes by a deep rumbling noise, accompanied by a sudden gust of wind, which are the forerunners of the vibration, the latter following immediately. ”

“ The gale now rapidly increased in intensity, the gusts of wind ever growing stronger and more furious, and succeeding each other more rapidly, until at length the intervals between them became so brief as to be practically imperceptible, the strength of the wind now being equal to that of a heavy gale, and momentarily growing stronger as gust after gust swooped down upon us. ”

“ A day of terrific winds, threatening to dislodge our shelter. The wind is a succession of hurricane gusts that sweep down the glacier immediately south-southwest of us. Each gust heralds its approach by a low rumbling which increases to a thunderous roar. ”

“ Heat and cold are thus combined; the equilibrium is distributed by a shock, the wave of wind issues forth and is distended, scattered and broken up in every direction in fierce streams. The dispersion of the gusts shakes the streaming locks of the wind upon the four corners of the horizon. ”

“ Near the high pressure the sky is blue, then as we approach the low pressure feathery cirrus, or some form of windy sky, makes its appearance, while a blustery wind whirls the dust, or blows the soot down; and animals turn their tails to the wind to avoid its force on their faces:
When chimneys smoke and soot falls, bad weather is at hand. The whistling of the wind heard within doors denotes rain. ”

“ North-westerly gusts of wind raised clouds of dust, and drove it in eddying drifts across the plain, till a thunderstorm with a smart fall of rain cleared the atmosphere, and allowed the sun to shine out a while before setting for the day. ”

“ So it is that rapid changes in the surrounding air, in its degree of warmth, or its motion by wind are fertile of attacks. The east and north-easterly winds of spring account for no few examples, as likewise inadequate protection from cold or damp. ”

“ What had been a gentle ten-miles-an-hour breeze on the river above began resolving itself into a succession of fitful gusts of twenty or thirty as I approached the rock-walled bend. Even a steady head-wind makes steering awkward in going into a rapid; a gusty one is a distinct nuisance. ”

“ But for less gifted mortals there are certain effects of wind that seem to me to approach uncommonly close to actual sight, or at least to a point where one may imagine what wind ought to look like. Watch the gusts of a northwest wind as they fall in rapid succession upon a standing field of high barley, beating the surface into long curved shadows that bring to mind Shelley’s “kindling within the strings of the waved air, Aeolian modulations.” ”

“ When the wind blows violently over the sea or land, it removes and carries off with it every thing that is not firmly fixed to the general mass. The clouds must appear straggling [Pg 76] and broken, carried according to the direction and the force of the wind, and blended with clouds of dust raised from the sandy shore. Branches and leaves of trees must be represented as carried along by the violence of the storm, and, together with numberless other light substances, scattered in the air. Trees and grass must be bent to the ground, as if yielding to the course of the wind. ”

“ It is not enough that we have the evaporation of moisture that will ascend into the higher regions of the air and there be condensed into cloud and possibly rain, but we must have the means for distributing these conditions over a large area, and for this purpose we have the phenomenon of wind. Why the winds blow can be accounted for to a certain extent,—we might say to a large extent,—but there yet remain many unsolved problems relating to wind and weather. Of the phenomena of wind we will speak more fully in a future chapter. ”

“ So the hot winds, of which I have been speaking, are not felt in the degree we should be led to suppose. Like the air the spirits are buoyant and light, and it is for its disagreeableness at the time, not any after effects that a hot wind is to be dreaded. ”

“ Besides, the wind there never blows a fresh regular gale, but is commonly merely a current of light, soft breezes, which pass through the different openings of the adjoining mountains. It is also frequently difficult to determine from what part of the globe the wind really comes, as it is divided by various obstructions in its passage, which easily change the direction of the wind, and often totally destroy its effects. ”

“ Hurricane-like gusts of wind sweep all around. The air is filled with continuous froth. The water no longer falls in drops, but in cascades—walls of water pour down, lashing our faces and hands painfully. ”

“ It is from these local irregularities using the word local in a very wide sense in the distribution of atmos pheric pressure, whether the irregularities originate in the temperature or aqueous vapour, that all winds, from the lightest breeze to the most destructive hurricane, take their rise ; for, as already stated, wind is merely the flowing away of the air from where there is a surplus of it to where there is a deficiency. ”

“ See note XXV. At the place where the air is destroyed, currents both from the north and south flow in to supply the deficiency, (for it has been shewn that there are no other proper winds but these two) and the mixture of these winds produces so sudden condensation of the moisture, both by the coldness of the northern air and the expansion of both of them, that lightning is given out, and an incipient tornado takes place; whence thunder is said frequently to approach against the wind. ”

“ The wind, too, was very warm, and it came in sudden gusts and died again, and she did not know which was sweeter, the deep warm silence when the wind died and the smell of the earth came up from the ploughed fields, or the windy fragrance of the gusts. But walking thus in the silences and in the sudden winds, she felt her body strong and full and young, and a great new longing seized her for the man. ”

“ The power of the wind, especially when it comes in sudden gusts, and with a whirling motion, against timber-trees and the upper parts of buildings, is only too well known; on wide, exposed plains, its fury, in the early part of the year, sometimes brings destruction to everything within its range. ”

“ The wind, which we found so grateful, had increased steadily till it blew in strong gusts—a dense cloud spread over the west—while in the east, the sky faded to a chalky whiteness, low thunders muttered in the mountains, and faint shudders crept through the leaves ”

“ In a whirlwind of dust raised by an impetuous wind, however confused it may appear to our eyes; in the most dreadful tempest excited by opposing winds, which convulse the waves, there is not a single particle of dust or of water that is placed by chance that has not its sufficient cause for occupying the situation in which it is, and which does not rigororously act in the mode it should act. ”

“ We must look for the causes of wind in the variation of heat and cold, the position of the sun, the nature of the soil, the inflammation of meteors, the condensation of the vapors into rain, and other similar circumstances: but the most general causes are heat and cold. Fire, which expands and rarefies the air, diminishes its elasticity, and, consequently, makes it lighter in some places than in others; hence the pressure of the ambient air is greater than that of the rarefied, whence a motion arises; and thus several winds blow towards the part where the air is rarefied by the heat ”

“ The amount, taken by itself, of vapour, moisture, wet, rain, or snow, in the wind, or current of air (direction and strength remaining the same) seems to cause a change amounting, in an extreme case, to about half an inch.
3rd. The strength or force alone of wind, from any quarter (moisture and direction being unchanged) is preceded, and foretold, or accompanied by a fall or rise, according as the strength will be greater or less, ranging, in an extreme case, to more than 2 inches. ”

“ In hot weather the air is usually still until about three in the afternoon, and then a wind rises, blowing from the north, and, coming in gusts and eddies downwards, lifts up columns of dust so effectively that in a short time it is difficult to see, and this wind continues to increase in violence until about an hour after sundown, when it gradually dies away, and then, in the [55] stillness that follows, the noises of the night sound very loud. ”

“ True inspiration seems certainly born of this marriage of wind and fire. How singular⁠—have you ever thought? would be the impressions of a man to whom the motion of air, as wind, was unknown, when first he witnessed the phenomenon of a twenty-knot breeze. Imagine a people that knew not wind⁠—how they would tremble to see the treetops bend; to hear the roar, the whispers, the sweet singing of all Nature about them for the first time; to know the sounds and movements of the myriad objects that but for wind would be silent and motionless from one year’s end to another! ”

“ The power and awfulness of the wind are not to be recognised by a glance at the weather-vane or at the thistle-down floating through the air; it is the cumulative effect of a hundred different details, a hundred different things touched and changed by the wind, that makes the wind seem beyond escape; it is the suggestion of the broad spaces and unlimited stretches through which the wind can range, that must give the impression that it is everywhere ”

“ I say, some sorts: and certainly, the strongest Winds are made of the grossest Vapours. As for Smoak, it is apt to turn into some sorts of Lightning; I say, apt: for, both Vapour and Smoak can turn into many sorts of Metamorphosed Elements. As for Wind, it proceeds either from Rarified Vapour, or Contracted Air. And there are many sorts of Vapours, Smoaks, and Winds; all which sorts of Vapours and Smoaks, are apt to ascend: but, Wind is of a more level action. As for Clouds, they cannot be composed of a Natural Air; because Natural Air is too rare a Body to make Clouds. ”

“ Soon blasts of wind, heavily laden with moisture, and each more powerful than that which preceded it, came with rapidly decreasing lulls, from the west, until the breeze, having at length become continuous, had grown almost to a storm. ”

“ A. 1st—They act as screens to arrest the radiation of heat from the earth:
2ndly—They temper the heat of the sun’s rays: and
3rdly—They are the great store-houses of rain.
Q. Why is wind said to blow up the clouds?
A. When a dry wind travels over sea, and accumulates more vapour than the air can sustain, it relinquishes a part (as it flies along) in the form of clouds.
Q. Why does wind sometimes drive away the clouds?
A. When wind travels over dry climes or thirsty deserts, it becomes so dry itself, that it absorbs vapour from the clouds, and disperses them. ”

“ The wind blows in tempestuous gusts, and the seas are running higher than I have ever before seen them. The sky is covered with clouds, from which we receive frequent showers of rain, accompanied in a single instance, with thunder and lightning. ”

“ The force of the wind on a surface placed squarely across the flow of air increases roughly with the square of the wind speed. For this reason, it is a good approximation to say that an eighty-mile wind is four times as destructive as a forty-mile wind. ”

“ It is seen when the wind is in the act of changing its direction, and the clouds, arrested in their march, are thrown out of rank. That which was the side becomes the rear of the cloud, and is banked up by the sudden pressure. Clouds coming in from the sea are met with a land wind, and so diverted. ”

“ One of the causes that have been assigned for this singular phenomenon has been—the greater exposure in elevated situations of the rain to dispersive action of the wind, a surmise which derives some support from the circumstance, that when a rain-gauge is placed on a building, the roof of which is flat, of large area, and with few, if any, chimneys to disturb the air currents, an amount of rain is collected equalling that obtained on the surface of the ground. ”

“ They are so hot and dry that green leaves and grass are rendered as dry as powder in a few minutes. These winds are probably caused by the fact that at this season of the year, when the prevailing wind is southwesterly, the air becomes heated to a great height, and are the resulting effect of certain combinations of air currents in the higher regions of the atmosphere that force the already heated air toward the earth. ”

“ Between the N. E. and S. E. the wind may blow from any point, before and during storms, and in a clear day in the morning, as a light variable breeze, or, after mid-day, toward approaching showers. I have known it blow all day during a storm from due east; to change back and forth between south-east and north-east, and to blow for hours from any intermediate point—as different portions of the storm were of different intensity, and exerted a more or less powerful inducing influence; and doubtless this often takes place at sea. ”