MAY, 1918. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 235
to have been easier to enter Kin s Bay than fjords
west coast of S itisiber en more or less met the pack of
to reach the open water north of Prince Charles Fore- land. Storf’ord seems to have been clear of ice in Se -
Kara Sea are scant , but the ice conditions there seem to have been bad. d vessel attempted to make the p s -
sage in 1917.
farther south, but until late in J u y 5 the pack on the
the Greenland 8 % ea, an on this account it was not easy
tember, and possibly in AuguJt,. Reportd from t g e
100’ to 105’. The annual rainfall at the coast stations ranges from 15 inches to 35 inches, and at Jerusalem it is 36 inches, no rain falling in June, July, and August. The rain setwon extends from the middle of October to early in day. In the district, of the Suez Canal the complete absence of rain for months together ancl the esceptioaally snicl.11 total annual fall in laces inimensely augments the difficulty of transport. Jrof. Ward says that winter is the best season for a cam aign, both on account of the better water supply a d o P the lower temperature.
EAINFALL IN MYSOBE DUBX’NGI. 1916.
[Ah6ract rrprini2dfrom Nature, London, May 30,191S.1
The report on rainfall registration in 1916 in Mysore includes ma s showing the actual rainfall for t.he year
1870-1915. On June 25, 1916, more than 16 incies of rain fell durin 24 hours at Na ar in the Shimoga clb-
inches, nearly 50 per cent above the norinaf alt~hnugh t,he tot-a1 fall for 1916 was racticdy norma1 at 104 inches.
above the norma? on account of an esceptional nunibcw of cyclonic storms, which originated in the Bay of Benval. The rains were on the whole but half of the noina.1 (Eir- ing the cool-weather period, January and February, n,iitl
also clurin March, the beginning of the hot-weather period. T i e deficiency was more than made up during the rest of the year, especially hi t,ho northeast monsoon period from October to the end of the year. The tthles
occupy 58.pages and give tho details for the 334 stations under vanous heads; a notable table is that which gives the dist,ribution in tho river valleys.
re?
1916, and t 1 e average annual rainfall for the
trict; the tota k rainfall at that p P ace clurin June WBS 3s
The rains durin Octv \ cr and Novemher, 191G, were
CLIMATIC NOTES ON PALESTINE, MESOPOTAMIA, AND SINAlTIC PENINSULA.
[Ahslraet reprinlrdfrom Nature. London, May 30,101S.l
Weather condrols over the .Palestine, and near the Suez
hting in Meso >ot,amia, in is the su b ject of MI
wticle by Prof. Robert DeC. Ward, of Haivard h i - versity, in the S c i e d i f c Nont7dy (New York, Apiill.
Mesopotpqia is charachized as ‘i a count.ry of aridity, of intense kunimer heat, of deserts :tiid stcppes, of reln- tively mild winter, and of cold-season rains.” The niea.ii
temperature at Bagdad for January is given as 48.7’ F., mid for August 93.5’; the mean niasimuni is 110.5’, mil the mean miniinuni 3 1.9’, which are the mean est.rames in the year. Winter frosts occur and snow fdls loc,nlly. The total mean annual rainfall is only about S or 9 inches, and in some The rtlia
falls between 6 ctober and May, and the remaining months are practically rainless. Februnr or March is the rainiest.
climate of Palestine has been discussed by slier and Hann, and the article quotes various data. Tho coast. stations have a mean nudwinter temperature of between 50’ and 55’ F. and mean midsummer temperature of 75’
to 80’. The kill stations, at elevations of about 1,500
to 3,000 feet, have mean midwinter temperalures from
45’ to 50°, and midsummer means from 70’ to a little under 80’. In the Jordan Valley the temperatures range from 55’ in midwinter to S5” or 90’ ui midsummer. Jerusalem avera es 3.6 days a year with temperature be- low freezing, an a the highest summer temperatures reach
ears only about half as niuch.
I4 month, and the floods come in L arch and Axil. The
CLOUDS AT TEE BOYAL ACADEMY.
By J. S. D[INEB].
[Rrprinlrd/rom Nature, Eondon, May 30,1018. 101: 245.1
The smoke and haze which commonly obscure the sky in large cities, and the otherwise restricted outlook, allow t.hc t,own dweller inadequntc opport,unit,ies for the study of cloucls, but to those who live in the country, and t,o t,he ohscroant worker in n town when speiiding.a holiday
awity from his native place, the ever vtwymg c!outl effects forni quite as attractive an object of int.erest as the countryside itself. This being so, it might be thought that in landscape scenes artists would devote at least as
niuc:h attention to the sky mid the clouds above as to the hills and valleys below. That this is not. the case will be painfully cvitlent to the meteorologist, or even t.hn orclinary int.elligent observer of Nature, who visits blie Royal Ac.aclem~7 and niakes but, a cursory exaniinn- t.ion of its walls. ’Let. it be granted at oiic,o t$at there
m e notable escephns, but the conclusion can not be resisted that to many artists the clouds form ax very subsidiary part of the picture, ancl arc put in to produce w1ia.t to the artist’s eye is presumably a pleasing effect., but without the least regard to natural truth. The majority of the c.louc1s ap enring in this yea.r’s eshi-
though, as would be ex ected, the hard coniwtion cum- ulus, the most striking o P all clouds, is not neglected. Por- hnps the most remarkable feature is the almost entire neglect of high clouds of the cirrus ancl cirro-cumulus t ea which roduce some of the most beautiful effects ii%Fl)t.ure. ffrro-cumulus is shown in one or two sunset
hition belong to the strat-o-cumu P us or fracto-cumulus type,
pictures, and a not. entirely successful iiiacle in one case to de ict the sun shining
nn nlto-st,mtus veil; gut, true cirrus is uiirci~reseiit.et1. In i‘ The Passing of Autumn” (91) tho
meteorologist may think that lie detects a. fragment of false cirrus showing up against a rather fine cumulus, but t,he remaining clouds in this picture spoil what might otherwise have been a successful cloud study. True cuniulus sliould surely be a doucl type which would lend it.sdi to the art,ist’s needs without any departure from t.lie forms provided by Nature, but in many cases these clouds are given the most grotesquc? m d unreal shapes, which completely spoil the picture to the observant lover of t,lie country. On the other hand, some of the most successful clouds in the e-shibitioii a pear in B. W. Leader’s “The Wedd
of Surrey” (51) am P A. R. Quinton’s “The Road over the Downs, Susses” (6951, where clouds of the cumulus and otrato-cuiiiulus types are both true to Nature and blend adniirably with t.he peaceful scenes de iicted. Less
ba.rsons’s “Rolling from the West” (1961, where similar eaceful, but with an equally admirable e d ect, is A. W.
236 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. MAY, 1918
clouds are depicted over the sea. In the most pronii- nent picture of the second g d e , “Cader Idris” (87),
which in their hard out-lines and rather unnatural coE-? ing, are very jarring when ins ected from any of the
the greatest distance possible the effect becomes more attractive and trhe lights and shadows of the clouds blend into one another in a more harmonious whole. A very similar effect is roduced in the smaller work by the
When looking at a wide stretch of country, whether it be a.11 extensive plain as seen from the top of a range of
hills, or the hills and valleys of a mountaiiious country viewed from soiiie vantage point, the most attractive effect,s are often obtained on a day when the sky is cov- ered with detached clouds of the cuniulus type, causing a briglit contrast between the light and s h d e 011 t,he country below. A scene of this kind is depicted by Bertram Priestman in “The Walls of Langstrothdale”
(114), but to the critical observer the whole is spoiled by the unreality of t,he clouds themselves, thou h the shadow effect on the ground is more successful. %e only type of cloud which is almost uniformly well dealt wit,h is where the “clouds’? appear as mountain mists, and one con-
dudes that. artists niust subject this type to much more study t,lian tlie clouds in tlie sk above. Some of these
tlie Glen,” by Peter Graham (439), and “Yarrow: ‘The Vapors Linger Round the Heights,’ ” by Alfred Parsons (136), may be mentioned aniong others in this connec- tion. In “Easedale Tam, Westmorland” !207), J. H. Crossland has shown us clouds over a. mountain top which are delightfully real. over a land-
the dark fallin rain in the shower than of the cumulo- nimbus cloud a B ove. This appears to be a subject that might give far more realistic and attractive results tha.n any shown in this year’s exhibition. “The Gravel Pit,” by Arthur Friedenson (583), seems to be the most suc- cessful of those exhibited. The high cloud at sunset in B. W. Leader’s “Still Evening” (175) raises an interest- ing speculation as to the probability of the conditions shown being true to life. Bands of high cloud me
brightly tinted pink in the rays of the Seth sun, whereas other clouds in the sa.me part of the sky,%it a t an apparently higher level, are illuminated, but without color. The writer does not remember a case of this kind coming under his observation, although it appears not to be impossible. The interesting and quite common case where the high clouds are illuminated with a ink glow,
of the earth, does not seem to have attracted t.he artist’s ima.gination. Very intereating information as to the relative hei hts of different cloud layers niay sometimes
Observers often, in dealing with Nature herself, have difliculty in deciding to which of the artificial types of the international classification a cloud belongs, so infi- nite are the varieties which occur, but all meteorological observers who visit the academy will undoubtedly give
a sigh of relief that they are not expected to classify the strange shapes which appear in the sky in “Evening”
(233) , to mention one case only, thou h it does not stand alone. In “Wind from the South” h83) the artist pre- sumably set out to portray fallin snow; but surely with
H. Hughes-Stanton includes clou 7 s of the cumulus t
nearer parts of the room, but if t P ie picture is viewed from
same artist, “Welsh PI ills near Barmouth” (602).
mount,ain mist effects are iiotab T y good. “The Head of
Attempts to indicate showeis passin scape generally lead to a more success B ul portrayal of
while the lower ones have h e a d y passed into t R e shadow
be obtaine B in these circumstances.
a title so meteorological he might % ave given more careful
attention to the meteorological elements in his picture. Finall , all who hold that gunfire has an influence on rainfa5 should undoubted1 visit the academy for con- firmation of their views. fields of France really take the forms shown in some of the pictures (notably “Dawn,” 3331, few will have the hardihood to maintain t;hat the rainfall or even the entire climatic. conditions of tlie neighborhood may not be seriously affected.
s f the clouds over the battle-
Grove Karl Gilbert, 1843-1918.
Dr. Grove Karl Gilbert, one of the charter members of the Washin ton Academy of Scieiices, died a t Jackson, Mich., on hfay 1, 1918, within a few days of his 75th birthday (May 6, 1843). He had been asociated with the scientific life of Washin ton for 47 years, having been geologist of the Whee H er and Powell surveys in
1871 and 1874, and one of the original staff of the present United Stat,es Geological Survey a t ita establishment in
1S79. Dr. Gilbert was a member of the Geological Society of Washin ton, of which he was resident in
of which lie was president in 1892; the ational Aca emy of Sciences; and many other American and foreign scientific organizations. His broad-minded interest in the problems of the earth ke t him an active investigator throughout his life, and {is published pa ers cover almost the entire range of modern geologica Y science.- Joiw., Trash. Acacl. SCL, J m e 4, 1915, p . 379.
d 8
1895 and 1909; the 5 hilosophical Societ of bashin ton,
Dr. Gilbert was not directly occupied with meteoro- logical problems as such, but one of his early papers bore directly on the problem of the deflection of winds on a rotating earth ; while his classic monorphic study of the shorelines of the Pleistocene la -e named after Bonneville could not but lead him to a stud of the prevailing winds of a prehistoric geologicar e och.
revealed a tilting that must be taken account of in an
due to precipitation (see this REVIEW, April, 1898,
p. 164) *.-Editor.
Again, his studies on changes in levels of the Great f akes
study of very long period oscillations in the lake leves P
Yudzi Wada. 1859-1918.
Dr. Y. Wada, director of the Korean meteorological
service established in 1904 by Japan after the Russo- Japanese War, died after a brief illness on January 5,
1918. Dr. Wada wm born September 29, 1859, in Nihonmacu; early learned the Brench language - graduated from the Impenal University of Tokyo witk the title Rigaksi in 1879, having specially devoted himself to h sics. On graduatin he entered t.he Geogra hical
Meteorological Observatory-where he was occu led with
ks activity as a weather forecaster for the Japanese hurricane service then under E. Knip big; later he con-
In 1890-1892 he visited the Parisian universities and observatories for purposes of study; and on the Japanese occupation of Korea and southern Manchuria in 1904 he
gzce-then including t % e work of the present dntral
eodesy, aatrononiy, and meteorology. In 1882 % e began
tinued this work alone as chief of the P orecasting service.
1 Sre also his paper “The water level of O m t Salt W e ’’ this REVIEW, January, 1901.2): 23-21. for a discussion and interpretation of lakelevdl fluctuations.