Monthly Weather Review/Volume 1/Issue 5

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The temperatures for the last month were generally lower than for May, 1872, the chief' exceptions being Key West, Oswego, and Grand Haven. As compared with the mean May temperatures of a series of years, the thermometric figures for May, 1873, show excess of warmth over northern Lake Michigan, northern Michigan, Lake Huron, southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and eastern Massachusetts, but a deficiency of temperature in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and the Gulf States, Florida, and southeastern Georgia, and generally throughout the Atlantic states and the lower lake region. The regions of minimum rainfall and thermometric maxima nearly correspond.

As compared with the mean May rainfalls, the rainfall returns of last May show deficiencies in the northern and western parts of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and the entire country stretching from the Saint Lawrence Valley to Maine, and thence over the lower lakes, western New York, and Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, central Indiana, and southeastern Illinois. Excess of rain occurred in Iowa, Missouri, eastern Kansas, east Tennessee, and also along the Atlantic seaboard, except near Portland, Me., and Savannah, Ga., and a very great excess, from 2.00 to 14.58 inches, over the Gulf States.

The river reports for the month show a slight decline in the Red and Missouri rivers from the beginning to the middle of the month, after which a decided rise occurs until the end. The Arkansas rose slowly at Little Rock until the 23d, after which it subsided slowly. The Mississippi has alternately risen and fallen; at Saint Paul the water was 7 feet lower on the 19th than on the 31st, at which dates, respectively, it was lowest and highest; at Saint Louis the lowest and highest extremes occurred, respectively, on the 3d and 31st, the difference being 6 feet and 3 inches. At Cairo the river was lowest on the 28th and highest on the 16th, the extremes being about 13 feet. At Memphis the difference between the highest and lowest water for the month has been about 9 feet, having been highest on the 22d and lowest on the 28th. A very rapid rise occurred on the Cumberland, at Nashville, from the 1st to the 4th, after which the water gradually subsided until the 21st, rising again until the 27th, and then again falling until the 31st.

The Ohio was affected by a great swell which traveled from Pittsburg on the 4th to Evansville on the 14th; since then it has fallen almost uninterruptedly. The difference between the highest and lowest water has been 15 feet at Pittsburg, 19 feet at Marietta, 23 at Cincinnati, 7 at Louisville, and 16 at Evansville.

The indications are that the Missouri and its tributaries will continue to rise.