THE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY ON BEN NEVIS

Abstract

THE importance of high-level stations in any satisfactory handling of the scientific and practical problems of meteorology which have now come prominently to the front, is everywhere recognised, and accordingly in almost all civilised countries such stations have been established, and their number is steadily increasing. On the continent of Europe, many of the more salient positions available for high-level stations are already occupied in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Russia; and as regards other countries, the United States, Mexico, India, and our Australian colonies, have also established stations at great elevations, in an energetic prosecution of this important department of meteorology. Singularly enough, Great Britain alone stands aloof from participation in the general movement, and notwithstanding the heavy responsibility which her geographical position and vast pecuniary interests and resources impose upon her, none of the mountains that rear their heads in the very tracks of the storms which sweep over Europe from the Atlantic, is yet occupied by either observatory or station for systematic and Continuous observation of the weather, the highest station in these islands being Dalnaspidal, which is only 1450 feet above the level of the sea.