In winter the movements of the air are more decided, and the changes are often so rapid that the warning sometimes comes too late. With increased means—i.e., more money to cover additional work, and more stations—better results might be obtained. The United States expend 50,000l. a year in weather telegraphy, exclusive of salaries, while the United Kingdom only devotes 3,000l. a year to the same purpose. The difficulties on our side of the Atlantic are greater than on the American coasts, on account of the greater changeableness of our weather—mainly due to the more irregular distribution of land and water on this side. This, however, instead of discouraging national effort, should be regarded as a reason for increasing it. The greater the changes, the greater is the need for warnings, and the greater the difficulty the greater should be the effort. With our multitude of coastguard stations and naval men without employment, we ought to surpass all the world in such a work as this.
Those among our readers who are sufficiently interested in this subject to devote a little time to it, may make a very interesting weather scrap-book by cutting out the newspaper chart for each day, pasting it in a suitable album, and appending their own remarks on the weather at the date of publication, i.e. the day after the chart observations are made. Such an album would be far more interesting than the postage stamp and monogram albums that are so abundant.
Parents who desire their children to acquire habits of systematic observation, and to cultivate an intelligent interest in natural phenomena, will do well to supply such albums to their sons or daughters, and to hand over to them the daily paper for this purpose.
The Meteorological Office supplies by post copies of “Daily Weather Reports” to any subscriber who pays five shillings per quarter in advance; such subscriptions payable to Robt. H. Scott, Esq., Director Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.
These daily reports are printed on a large double sheet, on one half of which are four charts, representing separately the four records which are included in the one smaller newspaper chart—viz., those of the barometer, the thermometer, the rain-gauge, and the anemometer. On the other half of the sheet is a detailed separate tabular statement of the results of observations made at the following stations:
Haparanda
Hernösand
Stockholm
Wisby
Christiansund
Skudesnaes
Oxö (Christiansund)
Skagen (The Skaw)
Fanö
Cuxhaven
Sumburgh Head
Stornoway
Thurso
Wick
Nairn
Aberdeen
Leith
Shields
York
Scarborough
Nottingham
Ardrossan
Greencastle
Donaghadee
Kingstown
Holyhead
Liverpool
Valencia
Roche’s Point
Pembroke
Portishead
Scilly
Plymouth
Hurst Castle
Dover
London
Oxford
Cambridge
Yarmouth
The Helder
Cape Griznez
Brest
L’Orient
Rochefort
Biarritz
Corunna
Brussels
Charleville
Paris
Lyons
Toulon
On Winds and Currents, from the Admiralty Physical Atlas.
In the Northern Hemisphere the effect of the veering of the wind on the barometer is according to the following law:
With East, South-east, and South winds, the barometer falls.
With South-west winds, the barometer ceases to fall and begins to rise.