121
Date
~
4th .-....
31st ..... 31st .....
2?d E-. . - 4t.h ..-.-.
13th ...-.
30th .....
1st ......
26th -....
25th .....
MARCH, 1929 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Ca6(26S-.2)
ss'* NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN
"&:-
__-
Inches
3 .1 6
28.76
%.SO 26. S4
29.N
29.81 29.14
29.40
29.m
~3 .7 8
By WILLIS E. HUHD
During March pressure increased over that of Fehru n.ry in the central Aleutian region and decreased in t,he Gulf
of Alaska, where the Aleutian cyclone was ce.ntra1 t,liis month, aver age miiiiimni pressure 2 9.59 in clhes, at Iio d i a k . During the first two decades of t,he inonth the disturhance
was strongly deve1ope.d in the. gulf, e.spe,cially from t'he
5th to the loth, when it extended far6hest southward be-
tween the Hawaiian Islands and the Ainericxm mainland,
and was at its greatest depth in nort,liern waters, lowest pressures a t the island stations being about 2S.SO inches
on the 9t)h and lotah. After t,he 20th the c.yclone begm
to disintegrate and t,he dec.rea.sing renlnant~ to ret,reat.
northwa.rd until, at the end of t,he month, i t no longer
affected North Pacific. wea,t'her.
The California-Pacific an ticydone on the average cov-
ered an unusually large area for hlarc.h in middle and
lower lahitudes, pressures being generally above norinal
throughout the whole region so dominated.
Barometric data for several island and mainland coast,
stations in west longitude,s are given in the following table :
Depar- ture from normal
Inch
.....__
H .0 3
+O. 115
fO. OS 0. 00 -0.20
+o.os +0.03
__~
-0.16
TABLE l.--Averages, deparlures, atid extremes of afniospheric prrs-
sum at sea level, at indicated hours, North Pacific Ocean, a n d ad-
jacent ionters, March, 1999
High-
est
__
Inches 30.7'3 30.54
30. 44
3U. 46
30. 13
30.37
30.32 30.41
30.18
Aver-
age pres- sure
Inches
Stations
Point Barrow 1 ..___...____.......
Dutch Harbor 1 2.. . .______.____._
8t. Paul ...._____....__..__
Kodiak 1 9 _.._._______...___...-..
Midwav Island I -. _._.___...___..
30.01 29. ifi
L2. SO
29. S9 30.16
Juneau 4 ________.._.._.._ -...-.... 3 .7 4
Tatoosh Island 4 5 ..._._...___..._ 30.03
8an Francisco 4 5 ..__._.....__.._.. 30.08
Sa0 Diego 4 1 .._._..._._.__...___. . 30.04
1 P. m. observations only.
2 For 30 days.
a For 3 days.
4 A. m. and p. N. ohserrations. Corrceted to ?-$-hour mean.
6 And on 21th.
Date
30th. 9th. 9th.
10th. 17th. 20th.
11th. 9th. 10th. ??d .
Fewer st'ormy days occurred on the Nort,h Pacific during Marc,h than in any ot,her nionbh since, Se.ptember,
1928. These were principally confined t,o t,he first, t8hree
weeks, t,he only gales of later dat,e thus far reported by seamen be.ing two of moderat,e force on the 23d and 25bh
east, of Japan. The principal st,orni re,gion of the month lay west of t,he one hundred and e.ight,ieth meridian and
north of the t,hirtiet,h paralle,l, but st,rong gale,s occurred immediately south and soubheast of the Aleut,ian IslRnds
from the 5th to the loth, and the wind atstained hurricane
force on t,he 7th near 50' N., 160' W. Most of the heavy weat,lier in this locality resulted from the steepness of
t,he gradients on t,he west,e.rn side of the Ale,ut,ian cyclone center, the gales largely increasing in force whh rising
pressure. Fart,he.r westward toward t'he Japanese coast t,he rough weathe.r princ.ipa.lly resulted from several
rat her intense cyclones t,hat trRveled eastward from Siberia, ac.c.onipanied by frequent severe snow squa.lls. From these sources storm to hurricane veloc.ities were encount)ered east of the Kuril Islands on hhe 6th, and
near 43' N., 160' to 170' E., on the 12th and 13th. On t'he 2ot.h and 2lst t,he British steamer Dalblnir, just east
of t,he Kurils, ran int,o a cle,ep storm, accompa.nied by
whole gales and snows. Under stress of t,he bad weather t,he vessel hove to for r6ore bhan 24 hours, he.ad to tmhe
abnormally high we,sterly seas. Along the i1ppe.r steamer route,s betwee.n Japan and longitude 170' E . about 20
t,o '35 per'ce.nt of the, days had gales. From the 30t,h to t,he 22d a cyclone of near tsopic.al
nat,ure 0ccurre.d to t,he westward of the Hawaiian Islands, wit'h pressure observed as low as 29.18 inches, read on
hoard t,he Japanese steaimr Siberia A f a r ~, on the 21st,
in 26' 3s' N., 169' 10' W. Gales of force S t,o 9, the highe,st reporte,d, we,re esperie,nced be.tween lat,itudes 30'
and 30' N., longit,udes 165' to 175' W., on the 21st and
22~1, in c,onnec.tion wit,h t,his storm, whic,h seems to have
come in from the sout,hward, alt,hough it did not progress greatly during the three days it was under obse,rvation.
It, filled in east of Midway Island, but at no time, despite its great cent.ra1 dept,h, did it. more than slightly affect the barometer at t,hat stat'ion or a t Honolulu.
No gales were reported by vessels in American coast
waters, except on t,he 5th! when a nort'her of force 8 was experienced in the Gulf of Tehuantepec and on the 25th
and 27t.h when t'he Weat.her Bureau stmation at Tatoosh
Island, Wash., recorded gales of force 9 on the 25th and
2ith. The weather ab Honolulu during March WRS abnormally
dry and warm, with less wind than usual for the month. The pmvailing direction was from t,he e s t , and t,he ma.simum velocity was at) the rate of 25 miles an hour
from the northe,ast.on the 4th.
Fog was less frequent than in February, and was re- ported on one day only in east, longit,udes. About 10
t'o 15 per cent of t'he, days had fog over the region between
8.j0 and 50' N., 145O W. a.nd the American coast, where
it, was gtneral from the 18th t>o 20th, and about the same pe.rc.entage, was encountered t,o 170' west longitude by
ve.sse,ls on northern routes. Fog was mported on three
days at St,. Paul in the Bering Sea; on six days off the
coast of sout,hern California and the upper part' of the
85O-SSo W. at some distance from t.he Panama coast,. adjoining peninsula, and on t'wo days ne,ar 7'-So N *l