Minimum Climatic Temperature

Abstract

A RECENT note by C. F. Talman of the United States Weather Bureau, one of the “Why the Weather?” series issued by Science Service, Washington, D.C., describes an observation of some interest for those who attach importance to climatic extremes. The note states that when Archdeacon Stuck climbed Mount McKinley, Alasksa, in 1913, he placed a minimum thermometer in a small wooden case and fastened it securely in a cleft of rock at a height of 15,000 feet above sea level. When the thermometer was recovered last May, it was found that the index was down in the bulb, and indicated a minimum at least as low as —100° F. Mr. Talman finds it difficult to say how much confidence can be placed in the observation; one possibility suggested is that vibration due to strong wind caused the index to fall below what should have been its lowest position. According to the 1930 edition of the “Meteorological Glossary” of the Meteorological Office, Air Ministry, the lowest temperature recorded at the earth's surface is —93–6° F. at Verkhoiansk, Siberia, on January 3, 1885. There is now at least one colder place in Siberia than Verkhoiansk equipped as a climatological station; such a place would probably have yielded a lower reading than —93.6° had it been in operation in 1885. In the free air, much lower readings have been recorded at greater heights in low latitudes, where the normal fall of temperature with height is maintained to such high levels that in spite of the relative warmth near the ground a lower temperature is recorded than at any height in temperate or high latitudes. The “Meteorological Glossary”, for example, refers to a reading of —131.6° F. obtained at a height of about 54,000 feet above Batavia, Java.