The Climatic Characteristics of Winds as Dependent on their Origin 1

Abstract

OF the climatic characteristics of winds the most important are, primarily, their temperature, and, secondarily, their moisture. The general occurrence of certain characteristics, especially when more strongly marked, with particular directions of the wind, experience soon forces on our attention, and much labour has been bestowed, particularly by Dove, in grouping the winds simply according to their directions, and calculating the mean atmospheric pressure, temperature humidity, cloud, and rainfall, for each of the directions! Interesting and to some extent valuable results have been obtained from these inquiries; results, it must, however be added, far from being commensurate with the enormous labour expended in arriving at them. But in extending this line of research into such regions as Western Norway, Fatö, Iceland, Newfoundland, and the Azores, its unsatisfactoriness soon becomes evident; and the further consideration that the climatic qualities of a particular wind repeatedly differ widely from its general character, makes it evident that a climatic inquiry which groups the winds merely according to their direction does not proceed from a scientific basis.