The new air world

by Willis L. Moore

We now will glance at the weather that experience teaches us will probably prevail in some of the principal cities of the world on Christmas Day, and thus have impressed upon us the fact that on any day of the year humanity lives under widely differing weather conditions throughout the world.

In our own country we know that Maine is the home of ice, snow, and chilling blasts, while in California and Florida orange blossoms perfume the temperate air.

In London Christmas is not always bright and comfortable, for on the average twenty-one days in December are cloudy and the temperature ranges from a few degrees below freezing at night to about 50° during the day.

In Paris the weather is about the same as in London. It has the same percentage of cloudiness, and its daily range of temperature is from 32° to 45°, slightly colder than London. The influence of wind direction and the relation of water and land areas to the location of a city are well exemplified in the fact that Paris, farther south than London, has a lower winter temperature. In the United States the coldest winter winds are from the northwest and they also would be so in Western Europe were it not for the fact that they draw from the ocean, whose waters are much warmer in winter than the interior of the continent of Europe. The northeast winds are therefore the coldest that come to Paris and London. In the first case they draw from the cold interior, and in the second case the air in passing to London from the northeast must pass over the North Sea and the extreme temperature of the cold land is somewhat modified by even this comparatively small body of water with the result that the average daily maximum temperature of London for December is five degrees warmer than its neighbor some two hundred miles farther south.

Berlin and Vienna have the same degree of cloudiness, but there the similarity ceases. Berlin, only about one hundred miles from the Baltic Sea on the northeast and about double this distance from the North Sea on the northwest has an average range of but eight degrees between day and night temperatures, while Vienna, deep-set in the interior of a great continent, has a daily range of thirty-seven degrees, the average temperature swinging from 13° to 50° each day during December.

Constantinople was named after the Roman Emperor who made it his capital and who first protected the early Christians from persecution, then became converted and, in the manner of his time, forced others to accept the doctrine at the point of the sword. Here Christianity was first recognized and adopted as a State religion, but since the middle of the fifteenth century Constantinople has been the home of the Sultan of Turkey and the principal city of those who worship Muhammid as the prophet of God instead of Christ. This ancient city, so interwoven in the history of Christianity, has a delightful climate at Christmas time, the daily range being from between a little above freezing and 65° or 70°, with clouds obscuring the sky about one half the time.

Historical Rome has about as many clear days as cloudy ones and the days are pleasant and the nights simply cool.

At Cairo, in the land where Joseph was sold into bondage and where Pharaoh raised him to the highest position in the land next to his own, no more delightful place can the traveler find at Christmas time. Only one day in three is cloudy and the gentle winds are warm and balmy, with a daily range in temperature of 12°.

In Calcutta there is a great amount of sunshine, only one day in five being cloudy, with an average daily minimum temperature of 58° and a maximum of 80°.

Bombay is also sunshiny at this time of the year and excessively hot, with a range each day from 66° to 88°. Here, as at Calcutta, Brahmanism and Buddhism rule instead of Christianity.