The second point of importance about our weather is the periodic occurrence at some part of our area of anticyclones, or areas of high pressure, out of which the winds stream gently in the same direction as the hands of the clock. These areas of high pressure do not display the same tendency to move as do the cyclones, and are most frequently merely displaced by advancing cyclones. For reasons into which space does not permit us to go fully here, anticyclones have a very different effect in summer and in winter. In winter they may bring to us the continental cold, and make our weather abnormally severe, though often bright and fine. On the other hand, in summer they bring to us continental warmth, so that “good” summers are those in which anticyclonic conditions are most frequent, while “severe” winters are due to the same cause. Anticyclones also sometimes induce a curious form of inversion, in that places to the north of a given spot may have temporarily a higher temperature than places to the south. It is such facts which are entirely masked by “mean” figures.
We do not as yet understand the causes which make cyclones sometimes more numerous or better marked than usual, which cause them sometimes to cross our area, and at other times to travel too far north or too far south to influence our weather. It is possible that further investigation in the future may unravel this problem; it is practically certain that a freer use of wireless telegraphy, and the establishing of meteorological stations in northern seas, would give weather forecasting a definiteness and accuracy which it does not yet possess.
Fig. 12.—British weather map for Nov. 29, 1910. A cyclone lies over the south of Scandinavia, and into it the winds are sweeping strongly in a counterclockwise direction. An anticyclone lies over Iceland, and from it the winds are streaming gently in a clockwise direction.
We cannot follow this interesting subject further here, but we have said enough to illustrate its geographical significance. As a science or sub-science by itself it will form the subject of a special volume in this series. It may be enough to point out that the Daily Weather Report, published by the Meteorological Office at a cost of one penny, and reproduced in some daily newspapers, is a document well worth the careful study of those with any interest in geography.