'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎27] (46/258)

ON THE CYCLONE AT BOMBAY.
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them all in the subjoined examples and given those of the other portions of
the year instead. It must be observed, that a disturbed, troubled, and
cloudy sky, an unusual condition of the wind, and an uneasy aspect in the air
altogether, is held to bean atmospheric disturbance, though no actual outburst
of thunder, wind, or rain may have occurred, such as may have been experi
enced before at the corresponding dates or may be occurring simultan-
ously with those in other quarters of the country.
[Hie Extracts from the journals have been curtailed to save space-*“What are
here given will suffice as specimens.]
CRISIS OF 15X11 JANUARY, 1849.
“ The weather at Bombay had little more than steadied itself from the slight
disturbance of the 8th, and the instruments recovered their usual course, when on
the 15th January a very notable crisis occurred,—a storm having burst out over
the whole of India. On the 14th the barometer, which for the previous five days
had stood unusually high, suddenly began to fall.
On Saturday the 13th Jan., the whole sky as evening advanced was covered
with a film of cloud. Throughout Sunday 14th, showers fell over the southern
half of the island ; and irom 4 to 6 a. m. on Monday it rained heavily all around
—upwards oi halfauinch having fallen. The wind blewstrongon Sunday till past
3 p. M. from S. E. : it then shifted round to S. W. and lulled. On Monday ('15th)
lorenoon it was strong from N. Ely., and the sky troubled and clouded all over.
The tliertnometer had meanwhile dropped from 35 to 68°, and the air felt chill,
damp, and uncomfortable. On Monday night the sky towards the zenith cleared
up, and the stars shone out with the utmost brilliancy. Clouds continued idlied
all around the horizon. The thermometer unprotected sunk in the course of the
night to 58 ° -—that in the verandah to 65 ° ; the barometer springing up, almost
as rapidly as it had fallen, nearly to its ordinary altitude. The general direc
tion of the wind was northerly; it blew chill, damp, and disagreeable. On the
16th a thin film of vapour continued to veil the sky throughout the day. The
disturbance seems to have occurred exactly at the same time all over India,
from the base of the Sooleiman mountains to Madras. It rained violently at
Mooltan, on the Jhelum, and at Lahore, on the 13th, 14th, and 15th. At Umbal-
lah it blew hard on the I4th, and a smart fall occurred on the day following. On.
the 13tb, 14th 15th, and 16th, it rained violently at Delhi, Agra, Gwalior, and
Allyghur, and all over the North Western Provinces, giving fine promise of a
noble rubbee crop. In the Jetch Doab violent rain fell on the 14th. A severe
hail and thunder-storm occurred at Jaulnah on the 14th, where five people, with,
many animals, were killed by the electric fluid. The pieces of hail were mostly
flattened spheres, or lens-formed i they were from two to two and a half inches
in diametre, some of them filling the mouth of a claret glass : they weighed from
one to twoounces each. Branches of trees were broken, the roofs ofhouses pene
trated by them, and many men, oxen, and sheep, killed by them, in the field.
The same thing to a less extent was experienced at Aurungabad. It spread over
all Candeish. AtDeesa a violent thunder-storm occurred betwixt two and four
o’clock on the afternoon of the 14th, with hail, and a heavy fall of rain. Here as
at most other places, it was followed by intensely cold clear weather : the wind
during the storm was south-easterly. At Kurrachee there were some smart show
er on the afternoon af the 14th,—thick unnatural-looking weather having been
felt all over Scinde. The centre of the storm, so far as we can discover,
was somewhere not far from Jaulnah, where it was experienced in its greatest
violence. There was thick weather [with some rain at Surat, Poona, and the
Mahabuleshwar Hills. At Belgaum there had been a smart shower on the 8th ;
and at Madras, at Trevandrum, and at Cochin, where there is scarcely any rain
in Jan,, heavy showers with stormy whether had prevailed from the 8th tol4th.