[Chart 8] shows the lowest temperatures experienced in the United States since the founding of the Weather Bureau, 1871 to 1913. Note the influence of the Pacific Ocean in forcing the zero line from Arizona northward to British Columbia.
Chart 9.—Number of Cold Waves, 1904-1914, Inclusive.
[Chart 9] shows the number of times that a cold wave occurred at each station of the Weather Bureau for a period of ten years. The number is greater for northern New England than for the Red River of the North Valley, because practically all the cold waves that cross Minnesota reach New England; and the latter also receives fierce boreal visitors that come to it from the Hudson Bay region lying directly northeast, which do not visit any portion of Minnesota or the region farther west. During the period not a single technical cold wave occurred at the coast stations of California, Oregon, or Washington, while Red Bluff and Sacramento were the only two places in California west of the Sierras, and Roseburg, Oregon, the only station west of the Cascade Range that had any, the numbers being one, two, and five respectively. In the Florida peninsula south of Jacksonville, Tampa had two, while none occurred at Miami. Sometimes the temperature falls lower than that required for a cold wave, but not within the period of twenty-four hours required by the regulations. A notable case in point is the severe cold wave in California in January, 1913, the lowest temperature ever observed being recorded at San Diego on the 7th, when the minimum fell to 25°.
Cold Waves Tempered by Great Lakes. The severity of cold waves is markedly modified by the Great Lakes, especially in the fall and the first part of winter, before much of the water surface is covered with ice and snow. Not only is the number of cold waves much less at stations of the Lakes than at near-by places in the interior, but there is a marked variation in the number that occur at the Lake stations, depending upon which side of the lake and how close to the water the station is located. The most striking differences are noted in the Lake Michigan region, the number on the west shore being five or six times as great as on the east side. Milwaukee shows a count of forty-seven as compared with nine at Grand Haven. This lake influence affects the entire Lower Michigan peninsula, but it is not so great in the interior and eastern sections as along the west shore, Grand Haven’s nine standing out against fourteen, fifteen, and twenty-three for Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Port Huron. A similar condition is noted in New York State; Buffalo, Rochester, and Oswego, near the lake shore, had twenty, twenty-seven, and twenty-nine cold waves respectively, while the interior stations of Ithaca, Binghamton, and Syracuse had thirty-eight, forty-five, and fifty-two.
Cold Waves Tempered by the Heat of Cities. Another reason for the lack of uniformity in the recorded number of cold waves in the various sections of the country is the difference between city and suburban temperatures. Stations located in small villages or in the open land will show a greater number of recorded cold waves than those located in large cities, where the heat stored up by pavements and brick buildings during sunshine each day, and where the heat from thousands of chimneys, and maybe millions of human beings, holds the minimum temperature of night much above that of the free air in the open country. Charles City, where the instruments have open country exposure had sixty-five cold waves, which far exceeds the number recorded at any other station in Iowa.
No matter how severe may be the cold wave that appears in the northwest, it will not extend over Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and any region south of them, unless the center of the High extends well over the Rocky Mountain Divide. Otherwise it will come down the east slope of the mountains and the cold will not cross them.
In the Lows the conditions of the air and its movements are exactly the reverse of what they are in the Highs; the air is warmer and moister, it is drawn spirally inward from all directions instead of being forced outward as in the High, and it ascends as it approaches the center of depression, sometimes causing rain or snow as it cools by expansion during its ascent. While the air cools with ascent in the Low at the same rate that it warms with descent in the High, the earth experiences a general warming effect with the passage of the Lows, because the air falls but little in temperature as it rises before it reaches its dew point, and then there is a liberation of the latent heat of condensation (see [Chapter V]); and what is more important, there is formed a covering of clouds that checks or wholly stops radiation outward from the lower air. However there are times when the passage of Lows produces a cooling effect. This is when abnormally hot weather has prevailed for some days; then the air may be mixed, washed, and cooled by thunder-showers.
Chart 10.—Storm Tracks for August for Ten Years.