Weather Review Research Articles

The expanded program of the united states weather bureau in snow‐work

The Weather Bureau is entering its fortieth year of mountain‐snowfall reporting for the benefit of the water‐users in the Rocky Mountain States. Publication of the reports of Climatological Data was begun in the winter of 1898–99; and in the winter of 1899–1900 separate snowfall‐bulletins were published at the close of each winter month.According to the files of the Engineering News‐Record, the Monthly Weather Review, ana other national periodicals, J. Cecil Alter, now Official in Charge of the Weather Bureau Office at Salt Lake City, first suggested the mountain snow‐survey tor the benefit of irrigators in 1909–10, and made the first systematic mountain‐watershed snow‐surveys in the country, on Maple Creek Watershed, Utah, beginning in March 1911. This work was done under the supervision of A. H. Thiessen, then the Section Director, at Salt Lake City. Detailed reports of these surveys were made in 1911, 1912, and 1913. From that time, snow‐surveys were made annually by the Bureau, on an increasing number of watersheds, the service being done cooperatively with the Utah State Experiment Station in the last several years.

The structure and maintenance of dry‐type moisture discontinuities not developed by subsidence. By Jerome Namias. Washington, U.S. Dept. Agric, Monthly Weather Review, 64, 1936, pp. 351‐358

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological SocietyVolume 63, Issue 272 p. 512-513 Review The structure and maintenance of dry-type moisture discontinuities not developed by subsidence. By Jerome Namias. Washington, U.S. Dept. Agric, Monthly Weather Review, 64, 1936, pp. 351-358 First published: October 1937 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49706327214AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume63, Issue272October 1937Pages 512-513 RelatedInformation

Severe Tornado at Nashville, Tennessee

IN the Monthly Weather Review for March 1933 there is an account dated April 5, 1933, by R. M. Williamson, of the Weather Bureau Office at Nashville, Tennessee, of a severe tornado that visited that city, on March 14, 1933. Although the storm has in Mr. Williamsons opinion been exceeded in violence by others, even within the state of Tennessee, the account is of more than usual interest in that it has been written by a meteorologist, who was extremely near to the centre of the storms path. He was so near in fact that common prudence prevented him from making what would probably have proved fatal to him direct observation of the storms near approach. One of his assistants, F. V. Jones, gives a graphic account of the phenomenon as it appeared from a point about three-quarters of a mile north of the track of the funnel cloud, describing the latter as moving rapidly across a light-coloured background of rain, looking very much like a shadow moving across a motion-picture screen. The right hand side of the path of destruction passed within about 400 ft. (to the north-north-west) of the Weather Bureau Station, where the wind after veering suddenly from south-east to south-west rose to a maximum of 65 miles an hour for about a minute, a speed which must not of course be confused for a moment with that probably reached in the vortex itself. A thunderstorm, with unusually large hailstones, preceded the tornado by several minutes, and the more permanent veer of the wind to north-west, the direction of the main wind-current of the rear of the V-shaped trough with which the storm was associated, did not take place until about an hour later. Material damage amounted to nearly half a million pounds, but the loss of life in Nashville, in spite of the eight-mile track through a densely populated city, was eleven only. The writer described a number of cases that seem to be a common feature in tornadoes, where comparatively fragile objects have penetrated or severed much more solid wooden objects, making clean holes or cuts without any splintering.

More Funds for Monthly Weather Review

More Funds for Monthly Weather Review

Rainfall‐ and runoff‐characteristics of the Delaware River basin

Rainfall within the Delaware Basin—The lower Delaware River valley has an average annual rainfall slightly above the mean for the known surface of the globe, or about 42 inches. It ranges during a century to less than 30 inches and to more than 60 inches; or in a decade from about 36 to 50 inches. On restricted areas among the highest headwaters along the Cat skill Mountains, at elevations of 3,000 feet or more, the precipitation exceeds 55 inches during an average year, while to the leeward at slightly reduced elevations the mean annual rainfall may be 35 inches or less, with proportional ranges from maximum to minimum. As early as March, 1907, this notable deficiency of rainfall on high plateaus in New York and adjoining states was described In the United States Monthly Weather Review by Mr. Thaddeus Merriman, now Chief Engineer of the New York City Board of Water‐Supply, whose present duty includes a development and diversion of water from the Delaware headwaters for the metropolitan district. It is remarkable how thoroughly the additional years of record since 1907 have confirmed those published conclusions as to the depressed isohyetals among the sheltered uplands.

Tornadoes in the United States

IN the Monthly Weather Review for last December there is a preliminary report on the frequency of tornadoes in the United States during 1931, on the number of deaths caused by them, and on the material damage. This report shows that in the past year tornadoes were notably scarce compared with other recent years, and did less damage than usual; also that, what is even more satisfactory, they caused less than half the number of deaths recorded in any of the previous fifteen years. Even so, the death roll, resulting from about ninety of these visitations, reached 34, of which no fewer than 14 occurred last December. The unit in which material damage is expressed is the sum of a thousand dollars, and in five months the total damage thus expressed ran into three figures; September was outstanding with 828,000 dollars' worth of damage caused by twelve or thirteen tornadoes. The figures for monthly frequency of occurrence of the storms show a characteristic early summer maximum, with a total of 32 storms in May and June, that is, of more than a third of the year's total. It may be noted that although the tornado and the commonest type of summer thunderstorm are probably both caused by local instability due to the juxtaposition of air masses of different temperature, of which the warmer generally carries a great quantity of water vapour, they must be regarded as in some way essentially different in their modes of origin.

Rainfall of the United States

SUPPLEMENT Number 34 of the Monthly Weather Review of the United States Department of Agriculture is a summary giving the main results of fifty years of organised rainfall measurement, in the form of daily, fortnightly, monthly, and annual normals of precipitation for the regular first order stations of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

The rate at which solar radiation penetrates the surface of lakes and oceans, and the rate at which the surface loses heat as deduced from serial temperature‐observations

This paper is published in the Monthly Weather Review (56; 398–399, October, 1928).

AN EXAMINATION BY MEANS OF SCHUSTER'S PERIODOGRAM OF RAINFALL DATA FROM LONG RECORDS IN TYPICAL SECTIONS OF THE WORLD

Abstract SYNOPSIS This is the ninth of a series of papers on the rainfall of the world, and the second on the application of Schuster's Periodogram. In the last application of this method, published in the Monthly Weather Review of October, 1924, periods longer than nine years were investigated. In this one, periods are examined between nine and two and one-sixth years. In the next paper, which is already mostly computed, still shorter periods will be considered. The aim of these investigations is to examine typical sections systematically, so that all facts concerning rainfall periodicities, which are inherently possible in data at the present time, may be established. It is believed by the author that this question requires such a method as the periodogram, through which periodicities and probabilities are shown, entirely free from the personal bias which must affect the judgment when almost any other method is used. At present, it is his belief, the great need is for such a careful examination of data,...

Does the Solar Heat Stream Vary?1

FIVE notable contributions to the literature of the “solar constant“ have come recently from the United States: three, published by the Smithsonian Institution, give the evidence for variation in solar radiations and for the influence of that variation on terrestrial weather; the other two, appearing in the Monthly Weather Review, the organ of the Weather Bureau of the United States, contain critical analyses of the radiation statistics.

The Anti-Trade Winds

FATHER SARASOLA'S observations are certainly out of harmony with the older ideas about the general circulation of the atmosphere as due to Ferrel, Dove, and others, but these are not nowadays accepted as anything more than a rough approximation, and the observations, in fact, lend most valuable local support to more recent views, according to which over the equatorial limits of the north-east and south-east trades the average direction of the wind is respectively south-east and north-east, becoming south-west and north-west respectively above the polar margins of the trades. A scheme involving this disposition of the anti-trades was, as I indicated in the article in NATURE of July 18, put forth by Blair (Monthly Weather Review, 1916), and various upper air observations in different localities certainly support it. In the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands, lat 16° N., the “anti-trade” is, I believe, south-east, in conformity with the observations in Colombia, whereas in the vicinity of the Canary Islands in lat. 28° N. it becomes south-west. In a report of upper air observations at the Apia Observatory, Samoa (14° S.), during 1923–24, the anti- or counter-trade is very definitely established above the south-east trade, its base being between the altitudes of three to five miles according to season, the direction being north-east below and changing through north to north-west above.

West Indian hurricanes and other tropical cyclones of the north Atlantic ocean. By Charles L. Mitchell. Washington, U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Monthly Weather Review, Suppl. no. 24. Washington, 1924. 4°. Pp. 47, charts

West Indian hurricanes and other tropical cyclones of the north Atlantic ocean. By Charles L. Mitchell. Washington, U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Weather Bureau, Monthly Weather Review, Suppl. no. 24. Washington, 1924. 4°. Pp. 47, charts

The Preparation and Significance of Free-air Pressure Maps for the Central and Eastern United States . By C. LeRoy Meisinger, Monthly Weather Review Supplement 21, Washington, 1922, 4to, 77 pp., incl. tables, 31 diagr. and 22 charts.

<i>The Preparation and Significance of Free-air Pressure Maps for the Central and Eastern United States</i> . By C. LeRoy Meisinger, Monthly Weather Review Supplement 21, Washington, 1922, 4to, 77 pp., incl. tables, 31 diagr. and 22 charts.

CHANGES IN MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW CHARTS AND SECTIONS

CHANGES IN MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW CHARTS AND SECTIONS

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, December, 1920.

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, December, 1920.

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, January, 1921

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, January, 1921

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, October, 1920.

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, October, 1920.

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, October, 1920.

MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, October, 1920.

Back numbers of the Monthly Weather Review in demand.

Back numbers of the Monthly Weather Review in demand.

Solar Variation and the Weather

MR. CLAYTON'S representation in NATURE of December 9 that, apart from seasonal and diurnal changes, the “chief, if not the only,” cause of weather change lies in solar variations overlooks an important source of variation in the atmosphere which could not be allowed for on the lines of his investigation. No one will dispute that if Mr. Clayton finally substantiates his correlation results, which have been severely criticised in America by Dr. C. F. Marvin (Monthly Weather Review, March, 1920) they will be of great value in forecasting deviations from the normal of particular elements, such as temperature and rainfall, in coming seasons. But they will not help us to foresee the actual sequence of atmospheric phases embodying the combination of all elements which we call weather; and it is the precise sequence of changes, not the departure of one or more elements from normal during a given period, which, after all, is the primary aim in weather forecasting.