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Show I THE CITIZEN 1 Nature flashes a gleaming sunburst over Black Rock, Great Salt Lake. The brilliant light' is in delightful contrast to the ragged, somber nimbus cloud mass. late, Salt Lakers OFtreating themselves . t have been to some vivid rounds of cussing on the sub- ject of weather ' without changing it much, and without knowing a great deal about it. As a matter of fact, the phenomena of the weather, and of' the clouds which make us grouchy and at the same time give us life, are among the most interesting in nature. A little knowledge of them would enable Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen to plan golf tourneys, fishing, camping and automobile trips with reasonable security, and would make every excursion into the open one of increased pleasure. of most clouds The birth-plac- e is in the ocean, started by the rest- -' 0 lessness of the minute water molecules ; but there is an incipient cloud in every drop of moisture on your brow, or front the garden hose, or the steam from a locomotive. In the form of water, the molecules are relatively .at rest, but under the influence of pressure and heat, they become active, as do any molecules of matter. The more ac- -' tive ones force their way to the surface, where nature has provided mere room, and, as the temperature them pop away, prises, many of much as grease spatters from a hot griddle. It is estimated that in a third of a thimbleful of water there are probably more than 32 trillions of million of molecules, so it is not inconceivable that many of them never return to the water, but are permanently detached, and, in the form of invisible vapor, or gaseous matter, take to the air. These tiny molecules of vapor shoulder their way up into the atmosphere, and are moved away in great blocks of air, by the wind, and dry air is moved in, thus endlessly repeating the process of storing in the atmosphere the supply of water which is so necessary to life, and which, in the form of storms, streamlets and rivers, is carving up the face of the earth. Wind is nothing more than the atmosphere, set in motion through the action of heat, which causes the warm air to rise, displacing the colder portions of the higher atmospheres and setting the invisible sea to flowing in gignantic currents and eddies. Thus the wind takes these vapor molecules, in masses of saturated, or air, and raises them aloft to the regions of the This region towers some clouds. . semi-saturat- ed i seven miles in height over the United States, higher in the tropics and lower near the poles. Beyond this variable point, the moisture is frozen out by the intense cold. Vapor molecules are ligher than the air, and are consequently forced upward rapidly, but the cooler the air, the less moisture it can contain in. the form of vapor molecules, and as a result, as the vapor is forced upward, it condenses that is, the tiny- molecules are stilled in their violent activity, and attach themselves to each other in a more quiet stage, thus forming floating seas of water of their own. As more and more of them gather together, a - cloud is formed. course, not all clouds which OFthus come into being actually precipitate their moisture in the form of rain or snow. The majority of the fleecy forms which make up the are the reserves, or munitions trains of the cloud armies. They may be held at an unvarying temperature 'and moved into drier air, or they may be dissolved by the heat of the sun and pass many weeks in this cycle before precipitation sends them back to earth. In order to form into droplets sky-sca- pe |