OBSERVATIONS OF TEMPERATURE; WIND DIRECTION AND
VELOCITY; STATE OF SKY, AND RAINFALL.
Before beginning observations with the ordinary instruments, accustom yourself to making and recording observations of a general character, such as may be carried out without the use of any instruments whatever. Such records include: Temperature; Wind Direction and Velocity; State of the Sky, and Rainfall.
Temperature.—In keeping a record[2] of temperature without the use of a thermometer, excellent practice is given in observations of the temperature actually felt by the human body. Our bodies are not thermometers. They do not indicate, by our sensations of heat or cold, just what is the temperature of the surrounding air, but they try to adjust themselves to the conditions in which they are. This adjustment depends on many things beside the temperature of the air; e.g., the moisture or humidity of the air; the movement of the air; the temperature and the nearness of surrounding objects. In summer, a day on which the temperature reaches 80° or 85° often seems much hotter than another day on which the temperature rises
to 95°. In winter, temperatures registered by the thermometer as 10° or 15° above zero often feel a great deal colder than temperatures of -5° or -10°. In recording your observations on temperature, the record book may be divided into columns as follows:—
[2] Each scholar will need a blank book in which to preserve the observations.
Sample Record of Temperature.
| Date. | Hour. | Temperature. | Remarks. |
| Jan. 16 | 9 A.M. | Chilly | |
| “ “ | 12 M. | Warmer | |
| “ “ | 4 P.M. | “ | Growing slowly warmer all day. |
| “ 17 | 8 A.M. | Warm | About the same as Jan. 16, 4 P.M. |
| “ “ | 11 A.M. | Cooler | Began to grow cooler about 10 A.M. |
| “ “ | 3 P.M. | Colder | Steadily becoming colder. |
The following are some of the questions you should ask yourself in carrying out this work. It is not expected that you will be able to answer all these questions at once, but that you will keep them in mind during your studies, and try to discover the answers, as a result of your own observations.
How does it feel to you out of doors to-day? Is it hot, warm, cool, or cold? What is the difference between your feelings yesterday and to-day? Between day before yesterday and to-day? Have you noticed any regular change in your feelings as to warmth and cold during three or four successive days? During the past week or two? During the past month? Is there any difference between the temperature of morning, noon, afternoon, and evening? Is there any regular variation in temperature during the day? Have there been any sudden changes in temperature during the last few days? Have these sudden changes brought warmer or cooler weather? Has the warmer or cooler weather continued for a day or so, or has another change quickly followed the first? Have the sudden changes, if you have noted any, come at any regular times (as
morning, afternoon, evening) or at irregular intervals? Does there seem to you to be any definite system, of any kind, in our changes of temperature? In what ways are people in general affected by hot weather? By cold weather? What difference does a very hot or a very cold day make in your own case?