Shade Temperature Research Articles

Scientific Serials

Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, December 1893.—In an article entitled “March to October, 1893,” Mr. Symons deals with the temperature of the last eleven years in the northwest of London, with instruments identical in themselves and in exposure, with especial reference to the exceptional summer of the year 1893. The first two tables give the average monthly maximum in the shade, and the average maximum in the sun for 1883–92, compared with the mean values for 1893. In both cases the means of 1893 exceeded the average in each month, the excess of the shade maximum ranging from 1°˙2 in September to 9°˙7 in April, while the sun maximum shows an average excess of 7°˙1, ranging from 1°˙8 in July to 10°˙8 in May. The tables showing the extreme maxima in shade and sun for each month of 1893, with the average of the highest reading in the ten corresponding months, again have plus signs in every instance in 1893, tne greatest excess of the former being 10°˙5 in April, while the mean of the eight months (March to October) shows an excess of 6°. The severe test of comparing the highest reading for each month of 1893 with the absolute highest reading in the corresponding month during the preceding ten years, shows that the season as a whole was unprecedented. The shade maxima wete unequalled in April, June, July and August, the excess in April amounting to 5°˙4, whereas in no other year of the ten have unequalled shade maxima occurred in more than two months. In some particulars August 1893 is unparalleled in thirty-six years. The shade temperature at 9h. a.m. on the 18th, viz. 84° 3, was 3°˙5 higher than any other 9h. a.m. reading, and the shade maximum on the 16th to 19th all exceeded 90°, the only instance of this temperature being reached on three consecutive days.

Meteorological Notes

Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine for October contains a fifth annual table of the climate of the British Empire, giving a summary of the daily observations at sixteen stations, distributed over the globe, for the year 1886. The extremes show some very interesting facts, from which we select the following:—Adelaide has the highest maximum temperature in the shade, viz. 112°·4; the highest temperature in the sun, 174°·5; the least rainfall, 14·42 inches; and the lowest humidity, 56 per cent. Winnipeg has the lowest shade temperature, –44°·6; the greatest annual range, 147°·6; and the lowest mean daily temperature, 33°·2. Colombo (Ceylon) has the highest mean daily temperature, 81°·0. Bombay has the greatest rainfall, 99·74 inches. London occupies the unenviable position of the dampest station, 80 per cent. The same magazine contains a discussion of the severe thunderstorm which visited London on August 17. The greatest rainfall on this occasion was 2·08 inches at Wimbledon, and the least at Hackney, 0·27 inch. In connection with the climatology of the British Empire, it may not be generally known that the Annual Reports of the Army Medical Department contain meteorological summaries for a number of stations mostly in the northern hemisphere, e.g. the Mediterranean, Africa (including Egypt), and the East and West Indies. The last Report published is for the year 1885, and contains the results of observations and the extremes from nineteen stations.

The Naturalist's Diary

THIS book may be described as a most excellent vade mecum and guide to any person who not only wishes to keep a phenological diary, but who wishes to know whit to enter therein. The preface and introduc tion show forth the principles which have guided the author in making this compilation, and the important services it may be made to render to biologists and to men of science, as well as to practical gardener-, agriculturists, sportsmen, and residents in the country generally. It is also recommended to the notice of tourists, and especially to those who find themselves perchance perforce anchored in some one of our numerous health resorts, cut off from their usual avocations. Mr. Roberts's observations have been made on the breezy downs of Marlborough in con nection with the Marlborough College Natural History Society, 1864-84. They include registration of mean, maximum, and minimum temperature in sun and shade, “accumulated temperature” above 42° day-degrees, baro metrical observations, rainfall, and direction of wind. The Naturalist's Diary. Arranged and Edited by Charles Roberts, &c. (Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas, and Lowry, Paternoster Square).

II. On measuring the relative thermal intensity of the Sun, and on a self-registering instrument for that purpose

The thermometric estimation of relative solar intensity, according to the best known means, requires first the determination of the temperature of the air—so-called shade temperature—and secondly, and simultaneously, that of a thermometer with a blackened bulb placed in vacuo in the sunshine—sun temperature: the difference between the two temperatures being taken as a measure of the sun’s radiant heat operating at the time and place of the two observations. The chief sources of error in this method are the difficulty of ascertaining the temperature of the air immediately surrounding the vacuous globe containing the blackened bulb, and the placing of this thermometer under exactly similar conditions at different meteorological stations.

On the temperature in sun and shade. An account of experiments made at Harpenden, Herts

On the temperature in sun and shade. An account of experiments made at Harpenden, Herts

I. An account of the weather in various localities during the 15th of March, 1858 (the day of the great solar eclipse); together with observations of the effect pro­duced by the diminution of light upon the animal and vegetable kingdoms

By the author’s request, observations were made at 9 a. m., 11 a. m., and from noon every fifteen minutes up to 2 h 16 m , at 3 p. m. 4 p. m., 5 p. m., and 9 p. m., and these observations, consisting of the “ Temperature in shade,” “ Wet-Bulb Thermometer in shade,” “Temperature on grass in sunshine,” “ Temperature in sunshine,” “ Amount of cloud and direction of wind,” have been arranged in Tables according to their distance from the annular path. The observations were made at the following stations;—