Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/503

Rh that if a little condensation could be started in one place it would at once spread out in all directions, like the benign influence of the little homœopathic pill. How a rainfall started in this way is ever to stop as long as any aqueous vapor remains in the air, they have not condescended to tell us. This question has not, so far as I know, ever been raised by the results of their incantations.

As a matter of fact, every drop of water taken from the air decreases the number of vapor molecules remaining, and, consequently, lowers the temperature of the dew point. Likewise, every free molecule which is brought to rest by striking against a solid body, gives up its energy of motion to that body and increases the total energy of its molecular vibration, so that a body upon which water molecules are condensing is having its temperature continually raised, and it must be continually giving off heat to surrounding bodies, or it will soon be warmed above the temperature of condensation. In the case of the dust particles of the atmosphere, they must give off this acquired heat to the molecules of the air which come in contact with them; hence the condensation of moisture from the air raises the temperature of the air. There are, accordingly, two reasons why heat must be continually taken from the air in order to keep up condensation. The temperature of the dew point is being continually lowered by the loss of vapor molecules, and the temperature of the air is being continually raised by the amount of heat which these molecules lose when their motion is stopped.

In the formation of rain by natural causes this continuous decrease of temperature is provided by ascending currents of air which carry the water molecules upward into continually cooler and cooler regions. These ascending currents of air may be caused by mountain ranges which deflect upward the winds that blow against them, by the expansion of the air over a heated area of the earth's surface, and possibly by other agencies not yet understood. In the case of our California storms, these ascending currents are usually persistent for several days, frequently moving across the whole continent. They are marked upon our weather maps as areas of low barometric pressure. Whenever there is an area over which the barometric pressure is less than the normal, it is an indication of an ascending current of air, and wherever there is an ascending current of air there is a probability of rainfall, though if the air be very dry it may not be carried to a sufficient height to be cooled below its dew point.

On the other hand, wherever there is an area of increased barometric pressure, or of high barometer, it is an indication that there is a descending current of air over that area; and since air which is settling toward the earth is continually having its temperature