BIG BATTLES AND RAINFALL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8037, 9 January 1905, Page 5

BIG BATTLES AND RAINFALL.

How the Present Wet Season May Possibly be Accounted For.

An esteemed correspondent sends us the following interesting item :—

The United States War and Navy Departments are close observers of events at the front, and among other points which attract their particular attention is, according io the Neio York Tribune, that of the weather conditions accompanying the operations of the two forces. Official records show that almost every important action since gun, cannon and mortar have become factors in warfare waa.accompanied or .followed by thunderstorms or heavy rainfalls. In fact, the continuous discharge of firearms and heavy ordnance is said to be the direct cause; of this natural phenomenon.

In the last war between France and Germany the occurrence of storms or rain after battles was specially noticeable, and the accounts from the battlefields contained many allusions to the subject. An article in a German newspaper,- dated Frankfort-on-the-Main, September 14th, 1870, says:—

.'' Since the commencement of actual BdaiiUities between Germany and France —that is. from about the first week in August-to the present time—we have had in. this part of Germany scarcely a daywitbout rain, generally continuous, and often accompanied by thunderstorms. . . . There is little doubt that the. many storms and rains which we have had in Germany for ,the last six weeks —a" most unusual thing at this season here—have been brought on by the cannonading and firing of small arms in Alsace and Lorraine."

The same phenomenon has been observed in many parts of the world.