Why has the world's weather become so VIOLENT and CHAOTIC?
Read the little-known facts how the weather has
affected history and how it will affect your nation's future.
Hurricanes, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, and hailstorms — reports from all over the world reveal surprising CHAOTIC WEATHER PATTERNS! While some areas suffer from drought, others at the same moment are devastated by hurricanes and tornadoes.
Why?
The hurricane which hit America's Gulf Coast recently, was called the most fierce of the century! When "Carla" hit Port Lavaca with winds up to 173 miles an hour and ten-foot tidal waves, all but a thousand of its 10,000 residents had fled in one of the greatest evacuations in the face of a national calamity during modern times.
Killer tornadoes erupted in the backwash of dying "Hurricane Carla" and smashed residential areas of Galveston to rubble. The property damage due to the hurricane and tornadoes was fantastic and amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars!
And this is not all that has occurred in just the past few months. In the drought-stricken Los Angeles area, fires broke out and destroyed 456 homes valued at $24,000,000, including several film stars' and business executives' homes valued as high as $250,000 each.
And so it goes throughout the nation and around the world. But WHY is the weather in such turmoil? Will the weather become better or worse in the future? It's time you knew the facts behind it all!
Weather in History
Few people realize that the weather has played a vital role in shaping world events all down through history. First, there was the Flood during the time of Noah which totally changed the world of that time. Plagues of hail and fire were sent by God on the Egyptians in order to free the Israelites from slavery.
In more recent times, the weather has played an important part in determining the outcome of wars. The first example we have took place during the attempted conquest of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Philip II of Spain was determined to conquer England and assembled what he thought to be the "Invincible Armada." The Spanish Armada comprised 149 ships compared to the 80 vessels of the English fleet. Despite these odds, the English decided to force an engagement when the Armada dropped anchor near Calais in the English Channel.
Lighting eight fire-ships, the British sent them down with the tide toward the Spanish line. The Spanish galleons immediately cut their cables and sailed in panic out to sea. Captain Drake resolved at all costs to prevent their return, and at dawn the English ships closed in and used almost their last shot before the sun went down. Three great galleons had sunk, three had drifted helplessly on to the Flemish coast-but the bulk of the Spanish vessels remained.
The work of destruction had been left to a mightier foe than Drake. Supplies fell short and the English vessels were forced to give up the chase, but the Spanish were unable to re-form their last chance to do so being destroyed by a GALE. The wind was so violently against them that they were forced to steer in a circuit around the British Isles in order to return to their home port. And so failed Philip's plan for the invasion of England and with it his dream of world domination.
French Invasion Twice Foiled
The weather foiled two invasions of England attempted by the French. In 1759, when the French fleet at Brest attempted to join the troop transports assembled to carry on the projected invasion of England, the British pursued it to Quiberon Bay where it was attacked and destroyed in a heavy gale. A similar event happened once when God "breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind" (Psa. 48:7).
Napoleon also resolved to conquer England. But Nelson gained the victory at Trafalgar which finally shattered Napoleon's schemes for invasion.
Ten years later, it was through the power of British Arms, fighting with their Allies and helped by TIMELY RAIN, that Napoleon's career was ended at Waterloo. "If it had not rained the night between the 17th and 18th of June," wrote Victor Hugo, "the future of Europe would have been changed."
The Weather during World War I
During the 1914-18 War, the Germans planned to extend their air offensive by using Zeppelins which were to drift silently with the wind across the target. The first raid of this kind was made in 1917. Here is the account of that raid given in a London newspaper:
"Towards moonset on the evening of October 19, 1917, a fleet of eleven Zeppelins left Germany in what were thought to be ideal conditions for an attack on London — light westerly breezes, clear skies, and a low-lying mist. Guided by the then novel method of radio direction-finding, nine of the aircraft reached the Metropolis, one passing over the West End and dropping a bomb in Piccadilly Circus.
"Meantime, an unforeseen cyclonic disturbance was forming off our southwest coast. While the ground mist thickened into fog, obliterating landmarks, the upper wind veered northward, and rapidly freshened from twenty to over fifty miles an hour at the invaders' height of 15,000 to 20,000 feet. The Zeppelins' directional radio apparatus failed, owing, it was believed, to the sudden intense cold, and, as a result, the raiders completely lost their bearings. All unawares, they were driven southward far off their homeward course" (The Observer, October 17, 1937).
Lt. Col. Sir Alfred Rawlinson, who was actively connected with the defense of London, declared: "On that night London was once more defended by 'Powers' which were beyond the control of defense . . . Our faithful and invaluable ally the wind continued to 'freshen' with most persistent and truly gratifying regularity" (The Defense of London, 1915-18, p. 218).
The weather brought about another victory for the Allies in 1918. On August 10th, the leading article in The Times reported: "The new offensive initiated under the command of Sir Douglas Haig is one of the greatest and most gratifying surprises of the war. Even the weather favored the Allies, for the assault was launched under cover of a thick mist. No offensive in which the British Army has participated has ever made so much progress on the opening day."
Reports received from German sources confirmed the significance of this remarkable and surprising change of events in the complaint that "the Allies were favored by thick fog."
The Miracle of Dunkirk
Many of the victories during World War II were due to favorable weather conditions. The weather made it possible for 335,000 men to be evacuated from Dunkirk. This evacuation would have been impossible had it not been for unusual weather conditions-a violent storm over France and a calm sea in the Channel.
The story of what happened at Dunkirk was reported in the London Daily Telegraph: "As the story is told, two great wonders stand forth; and on them have turned the fortune of the troops.
"I have talked to officers and men who have gotten safely back to England, and all of them tell of these two phenomena. The first was the GREAT STORM which broke over Flanders on Tuesday, May 28, and the other was the GREAT CALM which settled on the English Channel during the days following . . .
"The story of the strange armada which took the men from the beaches of Dunkirk is already familiar in 'outline. In its complete fullness it will probably never be known, but it is undoubted that there was such a calmness over the whole of the waters of the English Channel for that vital period of days as has rarely been experienced. Those who are accustomed to the Channel testify to the strangeness of this calm; they are deeply impressed by the phenomenon of Nature by which it became possible for tiny craft to go back and forth in safety.
"So the two miracles made possible what seemed impossible. In the darkness of the storm and the violence of the rain, formations which were eight to twelve miles from Dunkirk were able to move up on foot to the coast with scarcely any interruption from aircraft, for aircraft were unable to operate in such turbulent conditions" (July 8, 1940).
In his memoirs, Mr. Churchill reveals that Hitler undoubtedly believed "that his air superiority would be sufficient to prevent a large-scale evacuation by sea" (World War II, vol. ii, p. 68). But the Fuehrer did not take the weather into his reckoning, for on May 30, General Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, complained in his diary: "Bad weather has grounded the Luftwaffe and now we must stand by and watch countless thousands of the enemy getting away to England right under our noses." But that is not all!
After the episode at Dunkirk, Hitler made plans for invading England with his "Operation Sea Lion." UNFAVORABLE WEATHER again greatly added to the German difficulties.
In the German Naval War Diary, there is a laconic entry for September 17: "The weather situation as a whole does not permit us to expect a period of calm . . . The Fuehrer therefore decides to postpone 'Sea Lion' indefinitely"
(The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer, p. 773).