MONTHLY WEAT'BER REVIEW. MARCH, 1903
mechanically analogous to the whirls that may be seen float-
ing down etream in any deep and rapid river or to the standing
wava behind the stones in a shallow river or to the spots of
steady and unsteady flow of water through a long tube. All
these periodicities originate within the atmosphere and are
due to its internal mechanical conditions, not to the influence
of external conditions, such as periodicity in solar radiation.
All the measurements made with the pyrheliometer or acti-
nometer during a century past unite in showing appreciable
variations in the quantity of heat received from the sun. But
in no case have we been able to show that tlie variations take
place at the sun itself. On the contrary, they have most plausi-
bly been traceable back to variations in the gases, moisture,
and dust of our own atmosphere. If there are general varia-
tions in the temperature or rainfall or pressure on different
portions of the earth's surface, we must attribute these to
what is going on on the earth's surface, not on the sun's sur-
face. During the iiit,erval between August, 1903, and March,
1903, reports have come from several portions of the world
indicating peculiar local conditions; thus, for instance, both
Henri Dufour, in Switzerland, and H. H. Iiimb:tll, at Asheville,
N. C., report an apparent diminution in the solar radiation as
measured by the best actinometers. This may easily be ac-
counted for by the presence of an extra quant,ity of moisture
or haze or even volcanic gases in the atmosphere above their
stations. Such changes in the atmospheric constituents may
be due to changes in the general circulation of the atmosphere
in the respective portions of the globe. But the latter changes
must be accompanied by special phenomena in other parts of
the globe. Accordingly we find quite anomalous winter con-
ditions, namely, a mild winter and a cold spring over the
United States and Canada, a long-continued drought in Aus-
tralia, heavy ice and storms in the North Atlantic, unusual
snows and cold weather in Austria and Germany, great typhoons
in the Pacific, and so on for other regions. This whole series
of atmospheric phenomena is connected together; an unusual
event in one region brings corresponding phenomena in
another, while, for aught we know, the atmosphere as a whole
may preserve the same average temperature, moisture, and
motion. We must seek for the initial disturbance in our
atmosphere and on our earth. We need not go far away to
study the sun and its pos8ible variability of radiation or the
moon and its tidal influence until we have mastered the inhi-
cacies of our terrestrial conditions. It is not wise to devote
much time to the study of the minute atmospheric varia-
tions that may possibly result from possible variation8 in
external influences while the great variations-the droughts
and floods, the monsoons a d storms inherent to all atmos-
pheric prooesses-are still awaiting profound study. Solar
physics and molecular physics certainly have important appli-
cations to meteorology, but the mechanics of the atmosphere
is the important study for the meteorologist, and we earnestly
invite the young American students of science to undertake
this important subject.
.
UHAVANNE'S TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL IN
ARGENTINA.
We have already, in the MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW for June,
1902, page 315, referred to the great work being clone by Mr.
Walter G. Davis for the whole of Argentina. He has published
many volumes of climatological data, and also an elaborate gen-
eral climatological report in the first volume of the Second
Official National Census. Lately he began the publication,
for the Argentine Department of Agriculture, of a daily
weather map, which may be considered as a national extension
of the daily map of Buenos Ayres published for the last ten
years by the Observatory of La Plata.
We recently received from Dr. Josef Chavanne an important
memoir on the temperature and rainfall of Argentina, which
lately appeared in the first volume of the Publications of the
German Academic Association at Buenos Ayres. Dr. Chavanne
has been known for many years as a prominent student of
meteorology and geography. He was born in Gratz in 1846
and traveled extensively in America and Africa; his previous
memoirs have been published by the geographical, meteoro-
logical, and other societies in Vienna. It was with'great pleas-
ure that we welcomed this memoir on the climate of Argentina,
as indicating the aclclition of another trained climatologist to
the able men who have, for some years, been located in that
republic. But, while compiling this notice of his latest work,
we have been pained to learn, by a letter from Madame Cha-
vanne that her husband died on December 7, 1902, the very
day on which his memoir was received in Washington.
Dr. Chavanne begins his memoir by emphasizing the ease
with which European emigrants adapt themselves to the cli-
mate of Argentina, which can now be studied in detail by
means of the records of about 400 stations and especially since
the topographic maps of the republic now possess a sufficient
degree of accuracy. Chavanne notes that previous studies
have often led to erroneous conclusions because the data re-
lated to different years at different stations. He has, there-
fore, reduced all of his rainfall records to the fundamental
40-year period, 1861-1900, and his temperature records to
the funclamental 45-year period, 1856-1900. For the pur-
pose of comparison with the stations in Chili, he reduces the
latter to the 30-year period, 1861-1890; but the other for-
eign stations are reduced to the same fundamental period,
1856-1900, as that adopted for Argentina. The temperature
and rainfall for the year ancl the four seasons, as well as the
ranges of temperature, the anomalies of temperature and the
characteristic of the vegetation covering the surface, are also
shown in charts, so that we have a decided addition to our
knowledge of the relation between climate and vegetation.
Chavanne's climatic charts of Argentina extend from lati-
tude 22" southward to 55", and partially include the western
or Chilian coast. He considers the climate to be not only pri-
marily influenced by the sunshine but to have an additional
annual period depending upon tlie alternating prevalence of
the warm Brazilian and the cool Falkland currents on the east
coast, the increasing elevation as we go westward up to the
Andes, the prevalence of the cold Peru current on the coast of
Chili, and the variable characteristics of the surface, as modi-
fied by vegetation.
This complex of climatological factors brings about a sub-
division of the Argentine territory into five general climatic
subregions, three of which shoulcl be again subdivided into
two.
1. Northern coast, a subtropical climate having mean daily
temperatures above 30" C. (68" Fahr.) for from five to seven
months and above 10" C. (50" Fahr.) for the rest of the year.
2. Southern coast, temperate climate ; mean daily tempera-
tures above 10" C!. during eight to twelve months.
3. Northern interior, subtropical climate ; temperature above
20" C. during five to eight months and the rest above 10" C.
4. Southern interior, temperate climate; temperatures above
10" C. during eight to twelve months.
5. The region of the steppes ancl the so-called local zondas,
subtropical cliiiiate ; temperatures above 20" C. during five to
seven months, the rest above 10" C., but having a temperate or
even a cold climate a t locations whose altitudes exceed 1500
meters.
6. The northern Andean region, having a temperate climate
at altitudes of 1300-3600 meters, with temperatures above 10" C.
during eight to twelve months, but having a subtropical climate
for localities below 1300 meters.
7. The southern Andean region, having a temperate climate
up to altitudes of 1800 metera with temperaturea above 10 C"
These nine regions are as follows:
MARCH, 1903. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 141
during six to nine months, but a cold climate et altitudes above
1800 meters, with temperatures above 10' C. during one to
three months.
8. The eastern Patagonian region, temperate climate, with
temperatures above 10' C. during four or five months.
9. The western Yatagonian and Staten Islancl region, a cold
climate, having temperatures above 10' C. during one to five
months according to the altitude and longitude. Staten Islancl
has no month with mean temperature above 10' C.
THE ZONDAS.
In the course of his more detailed remarks on the peculiari-
ties of each of these climatic regions Dr. Chavanne mentions the
zondas as a special characteristic of the elevated steppes. These
are local hot winds, whose origin ancl effects are due to the
local topography, the general configuration of the orography
and the peculiarities of the surface of the land, as to the
amount of sand, clay, and boulders. They occur with great
frequency and regularity in the summer months and in the
afternoon hours, often blowing with the st.rength of a gale or
storm; during their prevalence the temperature rises by from
10' to lo", while at the same time the relative huniiclity sinks
to 0 per cent.
[It is evident that here we have to do with a phenomenon
analogous to the hot, dry winds of Kansas and Nebraska.
These are exaggerated or intensified illustrations of the foehn
winds of Switzerland, the chinook winds of Montana, ancl of
the afternoon gale that descends from Table Mountain into
the streets of Cape Town. The temperature of the ground
does not aclcl much to the temperature of these winds; the
latter is due primarily to the compression and dynamic warm-
ing of air forced down froin moderate heights in the atmos-
phere; the hot winds descend as well during the night as clur-
ing the day. The time when, the place where, and the reason
why they descend is not yet clearly understood.-ED.]
TEMPERATURE GRADIENT.
A study of the diminution of temperature with altitude
shows that on the average for all these surface stations tlie ver-
tical temperature gradient ranges between 0.55' C. and 0.20" C.
per 100 meters, the general average being 0.35' C. The diminu-
tion of temperature with latitude is on the average much larger
in the eastern portion of the republic and at sea level, where
it amounts to about 0.G" C. per degree of latitude; it is much
less in the western or mountainous regions, where i t amounts
to 0.21' (7. per degree of latitncle.
Chavanne's detailed tables of temperature and rainfall Fill
probably furnish an excellent guide for the selection of plants
intended for importation into or export from Argentina. They
will also serve as a basis for special phenological studies.
THE WEATHER IN VENEZUELA.
Mr. E. H. Plumacher, United States Consul at Maracaibo,
under date of March 19, says:
We are having here very unusual weather. It blows every day with
great velocity, hut without a cloud in the bky. It seems that in the
upper strata a fine dust is moving, which gives the sky a hazy hue. The
velocity of the wind is that nhich is called a .'double-reefeil topsail "
wind. Outside of the liar and in the Gulf of Maracaibo the navigation has been rough and qtramers leaving port have had very unpleasant
voyages. We have nexer experienced such weather in this section of
Venezuela, and consequrntlg the country is suffering greatly. Since
September, 191X, we have not had any rains, and cousequeutly sickness
abounds from using hail water. During the first twenty days of this
month we hare had five slight seismic movements.
THE CUBAN METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE.
Mr. W. C!. Devereaus, Observer Weather Bureau, reports from
Havana, Cuba, under date of April 11. that the Cuban Meteoro-
logical Service was officially inaugurated 011 that date, a t 12
19-5
o'clock noon, by the president of the republic, by dropping the
time ball. Sefior Enrique A. Del Monte is chief of the central
station for meteorology, climatology, and crops (nieteorologia,
climatologia y cosechas), and informs US that, "beginning with
April 13,1903, he will take observations every two hours, from
8 a. m. to 4 p. m., inclusive."
It seems fair to assume that this latter expression relates to
complete personal records, including clouds and miscellaneous
phenomena, and that the ordinary records of maximum and
minimum temperatures and the continuous registers of tem-
perature, pressure, wind, rain, and sunshine will be kept up
by means of the proper apparatus, as at all first clam stations.
Meteorology is indebted to Ftlipe and Andr6s Poey for meteoro-
logical records a t Havana many years ago, which were at that
time deemed among the most elaborate of their kind. Con-
tinuous registers have also been maintained at the Colegio de
Belen since 1873, by the use of the Secchi meteorograph.
We also owe to Sefior Del Monte himself the establishment of
the meteorological observatory at the Vedaclo Park and the
wries of observations published in the MONTHLY WEATHER RE-
VIEW for April, 1900. The advantageous location of the new
central ineteorological ofice and the introduction of the
newest type of self-registering apparatus will, it is hoped,
give increased precision and reliability to the new series of
records. As there has not yet been devised any hatisfactory
continuous register of the ventilated wet-bulb thermometer
or of the ventilated clew-point apparatus, we must regard it
as a distinct addition to our knowledge of West Indian cli-
mates that Sefior Del Monte is maintaining a series of per-
sonal observations of the moisture of the air at intervals of two
hours-froln 8 a. m. to 4 11. m.
STUDENT ASSISTANTS I N THE UNITED STATES
WEATHER BUREAU.
A recent note from Dr. 0. L. Fassig, Section Director, United
States Weather Bureau, Baltimore, &Id., states that-
Mr. Benjamin L. Miller, who during tlie past two years has held the
psition o f btudeut ahhistaut in the Baltimore office o f the Weather Bu-
reau, has been appointed assistant in gecilogy in Bryii Mawr College.
Dr. Miller (.oinpleted hib studies in the dohns Hopliins University in FPbrUary, 1903, re(-eiviug the degree nf Ph. D on Fehruaiy 23.
In adriitiou to instruction in geology a t Brgn Maw, Dr. Miller will
give a course of two hours per week throughout the year in meteor-
oloqg, which has heretofore uot lieen taught as a seliarate study in this
iustitution.
During the past five years, and in addition to his specific
Weather Bureau work, Dr. Fassig has actively maintained a
course of instruction in meteorology for the students of the
Johns HopkinB University ; probably thirty or more post
graduates have attended these lectures. Several of these are
now giving courses in meteorology in other institutions. The
two student assistants annually allowecl to the Baltimore office
have, we believe, also been students of geology and physics
and have attended these meteorologicd lectures. Although
the student assistants of the Weather Bureau generally enter
its service, yet we shall not fail to recognize the great impor-
tance of the work that they may do outside of the service as
teachers of climatology. The future progress of the higher
meteorology depends upon securing here and there a man of
genius from among the thousands who have stncliecl clima-
tology and meteorology under the earnest teachers of our
colleges and universities.
AN ARCTIC MAGNETICAL AND METEOR0LOGIaA.L
STATION.
A letter adelreshed to Dr. L. A. Bauer, of the United States
Coast and Geodetic Survey, from Christiania. Norway, dated
April 1, from Roald Amuadsen, leader of the Norwegian Mag-
netis North Pole Espedition, states that he will start in May