Pilot Charts of the Meteorological Office

Abstract

IN addition to the usual information, the Meteorological Office pilot chart of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean for the month of January deals with some new features, necessitating the use of the back of the chart as well as the front. There is an account of the destructive cyclone which visited our coasts on October 15-16 last, and also of the slow-moving disturbance and its accorrrpanying gales which wandered about the Tyrrhenian Sea from October 22-29. A summary is given uf the characteristics of the surface temperature of the Atlantic for each of the ten months from January to October last, the most striking feature being the evidence of a distinct tendency for the water in the immediate vicinity of western Europe to remain cooler than the normal during the first nine months, a fact which may be associated with the persistent low air temperature over the adjacent land during the spring and summer. On the Newfoundland banks, there was a marked excess of warmth through the first six months, little or no ice being found in the locality. In October, an excess was shown on the eastern side of the ocean for the first time, and simultaneously the air temperature over the British Isles passed above the average in all districts. With the object of discovering what connection, if any, there is between the movements of weather systems and the distribution of the temperature of the surface water, observations are being collected for obtaining the mean barometric pressure month by month over the region from 300 to 60° N., 0° to 700 W., and the tracks of the centres of storm areas. For October, the mean isobars are superimposed on the sea temperature results, while the storm tracks are given on a separate chart.