The new air world

by Willis L. Moore

Thus we see that the climatological features of the world, not only on Christmas but on any other day of the year, are as varied as the hopes and wishes of man, and whatever his desires or physical necessities may be, a climate may be found under the influence of which he may find pleasure and gain health.

The Hottest and the Coldest Places in the World. It is an innate characteristic of the human race to be interested in the abnormal, whether it be in the achievements of men or in the extremes of natural phenomena. This is especially true with regard to the weather. During periods of extremes of heat or cold the natural inquiry is as to whether there ever has been a period of equal or greater severity. Although suffering intensely there always is a desire to “beat the record.” It therefore may be of interest briefly to refer to the hottest and the coldest places in the world.

North America. One of the most torrid places in the United States is in that remarkable region known as Death Valley. It is located in Southern California. Its name is supposed to be derived from a melancholy tragedy that occurred in 1850, in which every member of a party of emigrants perished in Death Valley from thirst and exhaustion, leaving the bones of themselves and their animals to whiten in the sun. The valley is the bed of an ancient salt sea which existed when the climate was much wetter than now; its soil is largely composed of sand, salt, and borax. The borax deposits are large; at places they form crusts that support the weight of travelers. The length of the valley is seventy-five miles, but it is narrow at the bottom, in places being no more than six miles. One of its remarkable features is that its bottom, in many places, is three hundred feet below the level of the sea, one hundred miles to the west. It is fed by several small streams and innumerable warm springs, the water from which is entirely absorbed by the porous soil, although water may be found by digging down a few feet. The water is unfit for use. It is a desolate and forbidden region, inhabited by gnats, toads, lizards, and snakes. However, the employees of a company engaged in the business of marketing borax spend a portion of each year there.

In 1891 an observer of the U. S. Weather Bureau remained in Death Valley from May to September, during which time he made daily observations of the weather. His experience was a most trying one, drawing heavily upon his physical and mental stamina to complete the period of time that had been set for him. For the entire time of one hundred and fifty-four days less than one half an inch of rain fell. There occurred several days in succession with a temperature of 122°. However, this is not the highest temperature ever recorded in the United States. In July, 1887, at Mammoth Tank, in the Colorado Desert, the temperature reached 128° in the shade, and again, in 1884, 124° was reached at the same place. On July 18, 1891, in Death Valley, the maximum was 120° and the minimum 99°, making an average for all hours of 108.6°. The extremely high temperatures reached in the Colorado Desert, which embraces a portion of Southern California and Arizona, do not vary greatly from those of Death Valley; they are not exceeded anywhere in Central or North America. Such degrees of heat, if experienced for two or three weeks in the more humid regions of the eastern half of the United States, would nearly depopulate the region by the havoc of death.

The lowest temperatures in the United States occur in extreme northern portions of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana, where temperatures from 50° to 55° below zero have been recorded. It is interesting to note that in this same region the summer temperatures have risen to readings of from 105° to 108°. Of course this heat is quite different in its effects upon life from the heat of the Gulf or Atlantic coasts. One feels a marked difference between the sun and the shade temperatures in these semi-arid regions. Sunstroke is infrequent and death seldom results from exposure, as it does in the East.

The region of severest cold in North America is found about the Great Bear Lake in the British Northwest Territory, where temperatures of 58° below zero have been recorded.

South America. The hottest portion of South America is in the interior, with extensive systems of mountain ranges along the coast preventing the inward flow of the moist rain-bearing winds from the ocean. In a stretch of country extending from Uruguay northward into the interior of Brazil, the average of the highest temperature of each year for a period of several years is 104°, with individual readings much higher. Except on the top of the mountains, or well up their sides, no severely cold weather occurs in South America, seven eighths of its territory lying between the equator and latitude 30° south.

Africa. In Africa is to be found the hottest region of the world, the great Desert of Sahara, upon whose sands beats down the fierce tropical sun with merciless intensity. Here shade temperatures of 130° are frequently experienced. Only those bred to extreme tropical desert heat can long live under such conditions. In a portion of the desert lying between Egypt and the Red Sea the temperature has been known not to fall below 113° for a period of ten days, while on several nights the lowest temperature reached was 118°, with a practically calm air. Africa lies with about one half of its immense area on each side of the equator, and the greater part of its territory inside the Tropical Zone. Except in a few isolated cases on high mountains, temperatures as low as zero never are experienced.

Europe. The warmest portion of Europe is in the region round and about the Mediterranean Sea. The coldest places in all Europe are in the western part of Russia and in the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Here the average of the coldest days of winter is 50° below zero.