AUGUST, 1924 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 407
TABLE 2.-Free-air resultant winds (nr. p . 8.) during August, 1094
RoyalCenter Ind. (a me&) Due West, 8. C . Ellendale N. Dak. (217 meters) (444 deters) Broken Arrow, Okla. Drexel. Neb. (233 meters) (386 meters)
-- Altitude. I
THE WEATHER ELEMENTS
By P. C. DAY, Meteorologist in Charge of Division
PRESSURE ANI) WINDS
The distribution of the at,mospheric. pressure during August, 1924, showed no important deviation from that usiially prevailing during t.he summer months, save for
the large number of slight cyclonic depressions that per- sisted over the lower Missouri ant1 upper Mississippi Valleys, particulailp during the first decade. These usually develo ed only slioht resswe gradients, but
rain3, and, as a rule, pursued short courses toward the upper Lakes, where they mainly disappeared. Slight barometric depressions were rat,her frequently observed over the southwestern districts, but these likewise usudly developed litt,le strengt,h, pursued short, courses, and brought but little precipitation to those districts. The antic clones of the mont,li, as in the receding
culation, and, though they developed little promincncr. pursued rather definite courses across t,he countr .
than normal over the Pacific Coast States, in port,ions of the lower Mississippi Vdley, and alon t.he west Gulf
sure was mainly less than normal. Compared with the preaedin mont.11 t,he average pressure was less in pract,ir.ally 9 parts of t,he country. only a small area over t.he extreme Northe@,, including the Canadian Maritime Provinces, having averages mat.erially higher than those of July.
Due to the absence of iniportant cyclones or anti- cyclones the wind circulation was mainly moderate, and such high winds as occurrecl were usually associated with thunderstorms, except along the immediate Atlantic coast where some high.winds occurred on the 25th and 2Gth in connect,ion wit;h a tropical storm that moved northeastward near the coast during that period. This storm was particularly severe along portions of the coast from New Jersey to southern New England. At Block Island it was reported as the worst summer st,orm ever ex erienced at that place, and other points in the vicinity s&ered severely from the wind and high waters. The prevailing wind directions were mainly from south- ern points over the Great Plains and to the eastwnrcl. save over the more northern districts where they were from the west or northwest, Elsewhere they were yariable, as is Uwal.
were att,ended E y frequent &un Ip erstormu, 1oca.lly henry
July, were t z e dominant fen.t.ure of the-atmosp K eric cir-
The average pressure for the month was slight. i? y liiglicr
coast. Elsewhere, including Canada, t f e average prrs-
TEMPERATURE
The important feature of the temperature distribution during the month was the continued cool weather over the north central districts, which had perqisted with inore or less constancy from early in May until about the end of t.he second decade of August. cool
over the Plnteuu and facific Coast States, but it was mainly warm in t.he central valleys and Southern States, tlic eriod being particularly warm in the central and
The week ending August 12 wits cool throughout over ncarly all dist.rict,s from the Great Lakes and middle Mississippi Valley westward to the Pacific, but the tem- peratures hi her than normal continued in the South,
eastern distnct.s, the maximum temperatures rising above loo', t,he hi hest for the month, in portiom of the Middle Atlantic. 8tates. The week ending August 19
continued cool over all northern and most central dis-
tricts, the week being decidedly cool, 6' to 9' below nor- mal, from the northern Plains eastward to the Great 1,akcs unci Ohio Valley. Warm weather continued tluring most of this period in thc South, particularly from
Textis and Okldioma weshvard to Colorado and eastern Arizona. The cool weat,lier that had peivisted for so many weeks over much of thc c.entra1 m d northem portions of the country from the Rocky Mountains eastward termin- nted near the end of the second decade of the month, and the average temperature for the week ending August 26
was above normal over practically all districts from the Rocky Mountains eastward, the period being unusually warni over the central and southern Rocky Mountains mcl thence eastward to the Ohio Valley and Middle Gulf States, where locally the highe5t temperatures of the summer were observed and in some cases the highest ever observed in August. From the 26th to the end of the inonth the temperature was mainly abovenormal through- out, save for the last day or two, when cool weather over- spread the Northwest.. Over portions of t,he Atlantic coast this period was 1oca.lly the warmest of the summer, and likewise in the interior valleys of California, where some damage to drying fruit resulted, part,icularly raisins. For the month as a whole the temperature averages were below or only sli htly above normal from the Great Lakes westward to l6ashington and Oregon, and over central and southern California and apparently over all
The first few days of the month were distinct.1 from the upper Mississi pi Vdley eastward imd li l ewise
sou t R ern Great Plains.
xnd decided K p warmer weather overspread the more
408 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW Auoum, 1924
of western Canada. The m0nt.h was moderately warmer than normal over practically all central portions from the Rocky Mountains eastward, while in most southern districts it was much wanner than normal; in fact, over many parts of this area the daily means were above normal practically every day, the monthly means werc! tshe highest of record for August, and in some cases tho h' heat for any month in man years. %faximum temperatures 01 looo or higher wiw re- ported from all the States, save in the u per Lake region and New England, the hi hest observe(( 1P4O, occurring
were reported
were materially below at ex osecl localities in all thc
occurring in Idaho.
in the desert region of Ca P ifornia.
from practically all the northern border 5 tates, and they
western mountain St.ates, t. R e lowest. ohse~ecl, 13O,
Temperatures slightly below freezin
PRECIPI'rA'i'lON
The precipitation for the country as a wholc was eatly deficient although a few sections had amounts
fL in excess of the usual fall. Precipitation was frequent and locally heavy in the lower Missouri and upper Mississippi ~allcys ant1 thc adjacent areas of the upper Lake region during the first two decades, antl in portions of this nrea rains continiid at short intervals until ncar bho micldle of t h last doc'~~ilc, and fell again at t.he end of the month. In iicarly all other ortions of the country prcci ,it,at,ion was less than
ern States proci itation was greatly deficient nncl the
cases, the driest of rccortl for August,. In portions of t.he cnst Gulf States, notrrbly ill Georgin and near-by districts, the long periods wit,hout innt,oriel
precipitation with the intense heat produccd tlrought conditions of unusual severity, ani1 crops deteriorated rapidly toward the end of t,he month. Likewise in Louisiana and portions of ad 'nccnt St.atsa tlic month was among tho driest of rerort 1 , and drought conditions that began early in thc summer were not. rcliwcd until after the end of the month.
In Colorado and thence w&ward over t.hc PliLtetiI1 region the month continued dry and over the greater art of this region the season so far has bcen t.hc driest for many yeas. Farther west, there were some good rains in parts of northern California on the lSth and 19th, but over tho
norma ? or only slightly in excoss. \ n most of the South-
month as a who Y e was ainoiig the clrirst, antl. in soiiw
greater part of the State severe drought continued at the close of the month. Water shortage increased, and the deepening of old wells and digging of new ones to re- lieve the situation continued. Steam-power plants con- tinued in operation to increase the productidn of electric
energy; water for irrigation was insufficient and crops in many localities steadily declined from lack of water and from hi h temperatures, particularly near the end of the mon t%; pastures became short; and conditions were favorable or forest fires. On the other hand, the month was unusually wet in the lower Missouri and upper Mississippi Valleys and portions of the upper Lake region. In some localities of these areas the daily falls were unusually heavy, notably in the vicinity of Milwaukee, Wis., where the total fall was the greate.st of record for August, the f a l l for the period from the 3d to 6t.h aggregating in some cases nearly I O inches, result.ing in severe floods. Also northern I h o i s and eastern Iowa had heavy to exces- sive precipitation, attended locally by hi h wind and hail, causing much damage by flood and ot E. eruise.
SNOWFALL
The only snowfall observed, RY far as reports indicate, occurred in the mountains of Wyoming, where one sta- tion reported n measurable, miount and several others hac1 t,races.
ItFXATIVE IIU3fIDITT
The ercentage of relative humidity was nearly every-
tt Iprecinble cscess cmbracecl the Missouri and upper hississippi Ynlleys. portions of t,he Great Lakes re ion, and the interior soction of New Tork and New Eng P and. In the Southorn States t,he values were in some cases aa
much tw 20 per cent less than normal, and deficiencies iiearly as great were reportecl from portions of the Plateau nnd Rocky Mountain sections:
wherc P: reas than normal; the only section reporting an
SUNSHIBE AM> CLOUDS
Generdy there w-iu abundant sunshim except over the upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes region, sout,hern E'lorida, and t.hc far Northwest. In the in- terior portion of California the sunshine was almost con- tinuous and there was a hi h percentage over ortions of
elsewhere in the South. the 8outsheim Plains, the f ower Mississippi #alley and