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					362                                      MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW                                                  SEPTEMBER,

with the break-up of ice. I n both years storms have                  times alum is closely correlated with turbidity and
occurred during the &st 10 days of December. High                     plankton. In most cases the increased B. coli is coordi-
plankton count is fairly well timed with high turbidity.              nated with increased wind velocity, increased plankton,
This is expected since part of the turbidity consists of              or thaws in winter and ice flow in spring. The average
plankton. Thus both are associated with water turn-                   daily gallons of water run per filter (between washes)
over. High plankton counts extend into June each year                 shows that when turbidity and plankton are low as in
probably because of increased light and favorable grow-               winter, the filter run is high, and vice versa. Winds, ice,
mg conditions, and show a low count in July and Au ust                temperature, and precipitation are causes; turbidity,
because of the generally quiet condition of Lake St. C air.
Alum dosage shows the spring and late fall peaks to
                                                           f          plankton, bacteria, alum, B. coli amount, and length of
                                                                      filter run are usually results. Thus the filtration oper-
coincide with high plankton and turbidity rates at the                ators have a complex set of factors with which to deal-
same time. Alum application is generally low in the                   the weather factors are always present in some form or
winter when the ice cover i on Lake St. Clair. A t other
                           s                                          other.
                                                   By F. EUQENE
                                        [Weather Bureau Offlea, San Juan, P. R., September, 19301
   There was no ship in the Atlantic near enough to                   carried away. This instrument is a 4-cup Robinson, so
report the formation of this storm to the east of the                 its record must be discounted. Wind velocities, esti-
Lesser Antilles, so the first intimation obtainable was               mated by those acquainted by long experience in these
in the regular mornin reports of the Weather Bureau                   areas, vary from 80 to 100 at Dominica to 150 to 200
observers from Barba os to Dominica, each showing a                   miles per hour at Santo Domingo. Where the steamship
barometer reading only slightly below normal, but a                   Coamo was lying, offshore, the sea was not so heavy, and
wind circulation decidedly abnormal. The directions                   the direct damage, aside from water damage to interior
ranged from noith at Dominica, through northwest and                 fittings, was caused by wind pressure. This was suffi-
west, to south at Barbados. The observer at Dominica                 cient to break pilot house and cabin windows, and list
also sent, in addition to his usual code report, “evidences          the ship over to 45O from the perpendicular. Doubtless
of approaching hurricane.” Cautionary advice was                     it was only the active pumping of ballast tanks to
immediately sent out to the area from Barbados to                    the high side which kept her afloat. The steamship
St. Thomas, and special observations requested.                       Catherine suffered relatively more because of being more
   At noon communication with Dominica had already                   exposed to heavier seas.
ceased, but fortunately the steamship Lady Hawkins                       The steamship Antilles of the French Transatlantic
was a short distance to the westward, and her report,                Line entirely avoided the storm in her 48 hours of maneu-
together with those of the nearer islands, and that of               vering between Jacmel, Haiti, and Santo Domingo City.
the steamship Ina:eZZa,which was just west of Guadeloupe,            Her lowest barometer during the 2d and 3d was 29.67
definitely located the center. It was over or very near              inches, and she entirely avoided destructive winds.
Dominica at noon of the first. With this definite in-                   From available observations the trajectory of this
formation to work from, the storm track was plotted as               storm was almost a straight line from Dominica to the
passing south of Porto Rim and probably Santo Domingo                Florida Straits region. Its small diameter makes the
and Haiti, and advisory warnings issued Monday after-                assumption probable that the center passed much nearer
noon accordingly.                                                    the south coast of Porto Rico than would be indicated
   While the storm was estimated to be of relatively small           by parallel effects of a wider storm or than was first
diameter. no direct evidence was obtainable of this detail           estimated in plotting the probable path of this storm.
until it had passed over Santo Domingo City on the third.            Lowest pressures at San Germain and Guayams were
Authentic reports place the destructive diameter at less             only 29.69 and 29.59 inches, respectively. Lowest at
than 20 miles. Reference to barograph traces will show               Ponce was 29.74 inches, the difference between that and
how rapid was the fall and recovery of air pressure during           the San Germain report probably bein due to difference
the storm. Three of these traces were reconstructed from
readings taken at short intervals by officers of the steam-
                                                                     in elevation. It was learned severa days later that
                                                                     winds of sufficient force to damage plantains and other
ship Coamo, which lay just off the shore at the Dominican            minor crops prevailed in the extreme southwest of Porto
capital throughout the storm, of the steamship Catherine,            Rico, in the Cabo Rojo district, and mountainous seas
which encountered the full fury of the elements just                 ravaged the coast from Humacao to Mayaguez.
south of Saona Island on the return trip from Santo
Domingo to San Jua.n, and by the observer at Dominica.                  The forward movement in its path varied greatly, there
The fourth is a copy of an actual baro raph trace, made              being a decided slowing up after it passed Porto Rico.
by the instrument in charge of Mr. A. rtori, observer at
Santo Domingo. This record was made on a sheet
                                                                     During this part of its path it traveled at less than 8
                                                                     miles per hour. After passing into the Atlantic to the
limited to 28 inches, the copy being transferred to a                northwestward it resumed a more normal forward move-
sheet with a 27-inch limit and the record extended to the            ment, but still in the same general direction.
low limit noted by Mr. Ortori on one of his mercurial                   The chart showing this trajectory, Track No. 11, also
barometers, namely, 700 millimeters, or 27.56 inches. On             shows the other two which have been reported so far
the recovery, with the wind shift from north-northeast to            this season. No. I of late in August, which passed west
south-southwest, the rain stopped the automatic record.              of Bermuda and thence northeastward to the North At-
The roof carrying the anemometer installation was                                       1,
                                                                     lantic, and No. 1 1 which was reported but twice, first
damaged when the record had reached 100 miles per                    by a Pan American Airwa s plane on Se tember 6 near
hour, some time before the vortex passed. The Pan-
American Airways anemometer near by is reported to
                                                                     St. Lucia, and again at mic%ight of the 7t by the steam-
                                                                     ship Rhdopis. This disturbance dissipated before it
have recorded up to 180 miles per hour before it was                 reached proximity to any land station.
       1930                                                     MONTHLY WEATEZER REVIEW
   Onpthe~kland~of  Haiti-Santo Domingo the damage was                                     ously. During the next hour the pressure continued to
apparently negllgible outside of the Dominican capital                                     fall and at 11:30 a. m. reached 29.45. The wind had
and its immediate environs. The surface friction over                                      attained a velocity of 125 miles per hour, and the ship
the mountain masses west of the city damped the storm                                      became unmanageable. A t noon the barometer regis-
to such an extent that beyond that point it was barely                                     tered 28.22, havmg fallen 1.23 inches in 30 minutes.
traceable, and it finally passed to the northeast over the                                 The wind was now blowing 150 miles per hour which
Atlantic.                                                                                  carried the rain and spray in sheets cutting the visibility
   While the destructive effects of this storm in Santo                                    to a few yards. Shortly after noon the wind velocity
Domingo, where 4,000 lives were lost and property dam-                                     dropped rapidly and at 12 :25 p. m. the ship was i a calm,
age has been roughly estimated at ‘$50,000,000, would                                      with heavy confused sea pitching and seething, resembling
clasa it as a major disaster, for Porto Rico it will be listed                             a boiling cauldron. Hundreds of birds were seen flying
among the “beneficial” storms in that it caused much                                       about or resting on the ship. The barometer continued
needed moderate to heavy rains throughout the island.                                      to drop, the indicator finally passed below the graduated
The greatest amount reported was over 6 inches at Cab0                                     scale and striking the attached thermometer was pre-
Rojo; the least, strangely enough, was over the middle                                     vented from descending lower. The distance between
of the south coast, where it was under an inch. On the                                     the scale and thermometer corresponds to 0.10 inch,
north coast it varied from somewhat less than an inch                                      thereby indicating the lowest pressure as 27.70 (Captain
to more than 2 inches; in the interior from 1 to 4 inches.                                 Evans estimated the low point as 27.65). During this
                                                                                           time the aneroid pumped violently, frequently rising
                  0 ~ ~    ENCOUNTERED
APPENDIX1 . 4 3 ~ CONDITIONS            BY THE                                             0.20 inch then retu-ning to rest on the thermometer.
     STEAMSHIP “COAMO” SEPTEMBER 3, 1930                                                   A t 1:04 p. m. the wind shifted to southwest with veloci-
                              By BENJAMIN
                                        PARRY                                              ties quickly increasing until the gale raged as heavily as
                           [Wastern Bureau,New York City]                                  experienced before the center of the storm passed. At
                                                                                           1:25 p. m. a velocity of 150 miles was experienced, after
   The steamship Coamo, flagship of the Porto Rico Line,                                   which it gradually subsided, becoming moderate southerly
is a vessel of 7,000 tons displacement. She plies between                                  at 8 p. m.
New York, San Juan, and Santo Domingo during the day                                          At the height of the storm rain and spray were driven
of arrival, depending upon cargo requirements.                                             in sheets hiding from view the foremast and rails. Glass
   On September 1, the Coamo arrived at San Juan, but                                      was blown in, hatch covers, boat covers, and tarpaulins
canceled her departure for Santo Domingo, due to advices                                   tossed into the sea, the radio antenna was carried away,
that indicated a hurricane central off Dominica. The                                       skylights broken, and the interior of the ship drenched.
 ship’s barometer, 30 inches a t 4 p. m., showed a downward                                The Coamo had but 92 tons of cargo aboard. The ship
 trend during the night, and a t 8 a. m., September 2,                                     listed 20’ and occasionally rolled to 4 ’
registered 29.87. Meanwhile the wind, which had been
light east-southeast, backed to northeast, with moderate                                   Pressure readings recorded on the aleamship “Coamo,” September
 velocity. At 8 a. m., September 2, the following warning                                                             1-3,1930
 was issued by the San Juan office of the Weather Bureau:
  Center of storm is now apparently directly south of Porto Rico,
about latitude 1 O 13”, longitude 67’ OO“, moving west-northweat.                          Sept. I
Storm wl not touch Porto Rico. Advise cautlon next 12 hours
for al shipping south of Santo Domingo and Haiti.
   As the Coamo was now hours behind schedule it was
decided to sail a t 3 p. m. The ship departed with a light
eashoutheast wind which later backed to northeast,
increasing, and a slowly falling barometer. At 11 p. m.                                    Sept. 2
the vessel was 5 miles south of Saona Island, steering                                                                                            Noon
                                                                                                                                                                    _ ___
                                                                                                                                                       ____ _ _ _ _ ___ _ ____
                                                                                                                                                            ---- - --
west. She now encountered a moderate northeast gale                                                                                               12.43 p. m
                                                                                                                                                  12.45 p. m___________
and rough sea. As the vessel progressed and passed                                                                                                12.48 p. m _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _
under the lee of the land the gale moderated and light
rain began falling. By midnight the barometer had
dropped to 29.68, with moderate northeast gale, and
light rain continuing. At 4 a. m., September 3, the
barometer ceased falling and the sky appeared to be
           During the next five hours the barometer
gradua y rose and a t 9 a. m. stood at 29.72. The wind
remained moderate north-northeast and sky continued                                        Sept. 3
to brighten. At 9 : 3 0 a. m. the Coamo was 5 miles south-
east of the city of Santo Domingo. The harbor was too
rough to venture for anchorage. The ship now cruised                                         Preasure range from time of vessel’s departure from San Juan to canter of storm, 2.10
outside, headed east m t h engines slow ahead, awaiting                                      Pressurefell0.08in1minute.1p.m.to1.01p.m.;O.a0in3minutes, 12.43
further moderation of sea within the harbor. A t 10                                        p. m; 1.23 in 40 minutes 11.20 to noon.
                                                                                             Pressure increased 0.din 69 minutes, 1.01 p. m. to 2 p. m.
a. m. the pressure again started downward and a tre-
mendously high following swell and rough northeast                                           Captain Evans made a record of pressure readings
beam sea set in. The ship pitched and. rolled heavily,                                     which were read by Chief Officer Otto Berggren, as fre-
ship ing spray over hatches and decks. By 10:30 a                                          quently as ship duties permitted. The ship’s barometer
who e gale from northeast was encountered with driving
rain, making it necessary to sound fog slgnals continu-
                                                                                           was compared with standard at New York, July 16, and
                                                                                           at San Juan, September 1, and found to be correct. On
                                                                                           September 9, the instrument was 0.02 too high, comparison
  I   A more recant eatimate made by an ofici8lol the American Red Cross places the 106s
of life 3 2,000, the i 4 m d at 8,oOO. and the property loss at S16,000,000.-Ed.           being made with Dortable aneroid.
                                                                                            -  a

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