Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

17 articles on this Page

THE WEATHER OFFICE.

News
Cite
Share

THE WEATHER OFFICE. The Meteorological Council has just issue 1 its report for the year eliding the ulst March, ZD 1888, which shows the amount of work done with the funds available for the discussion of the weather in our own Islands, The Council is constituted as in former years, except that Professor Stokes, President of the Koyal Society, has had to resign his seat, which lie had held since the formation of the Council, in 1877. This vacancy was filled by the appointment of Dr. Alexander Buehan, Secre- tary of the Scottish Meteorological Society, who has devoted many years to a practical study of the weather, and who has also con- tributed largely to the literature on tins subject. The woik of the office is classed under three heads-ocean meteorology, weather telegraphy, and land meteorology of the "Z British Isles. For the preparation of its Weather Forecasts and Storm Waruing.s the Ottice receive 59 reports every morning, 17 every afternoon, and 2U each evening. There are 28 foreign reporting stations, which extend along the entire western coast of the Continent, from Bodo, in latitude 67 degrees N, to Lisbon in latitude 38 degrees N, and include four stations on the coast of the Baltic, tluea in Germany, and two in the Medi- terranean. Forecasts are prepared three times a day-at eleven o'clock in the morning, half- past three in the afternoon, and half-past eight in the evening. A comparison of the forecasts issued during the year with the weather actually experienced shows that the a' success over the whole United King- dom was 81 per cent., or 3 per cent, more | than for the previous year. Special ioiecasts I are issued during the hay-harvest season, and I the results during the year dealt with in I the report show that the general per- I centage of s-ucccss was 4 per cent. higher I than in the preceding year. The highest I per-centage was 97 in the south of I England, while the lowest was i :-), in I the east of Scotland. Storm warnings were I issued as necessary to 146 stations; of these I 70 were in England, 11 in Wales, 41 in Scot- I land, lo in Ireland, three in the Isle of Man, I and three in the Channel Islands. During I the year there were 172 orders to hoist the I signals, of which 2G2 were followed by gales I and 123 by stiong and stormy winds. This I shows that 82 per cent. of the warnings were I justitied, which is in fair agreement with the I success in recent years, but is about 5 per I cent, below the success in 1881. The type of I weather, however, largely influences the ex- I tent to which a high rate of successful fore- I casting is practicable. There were in all only I live gales during the whole of 1887, for which I warnings were not issued, and the voport con- I tains in each case an explanation showing the I reason of the failure. A table is gi,.eit, show- I ing the number and nature ot the severe local I gales experienced on the coasts of the British I Islands during the years 1875 to 1885. This I shows that the parts of the United Kingdom I most subject to these partial gales are the I Irish Sea, the north-west of Scotland, and the I north-east of England. The proportion of ■ storms is very high in the east of Scotland, ■ the south-west of England, and the south-west ■ of Ireland. The districts least influenced by ■ these storms are the east and south of Eng- ■ land, the frequency of the occurrence of gales ■ being only about one-fifth as great as in the most stormy districts. Daily telegrams are received from America which contain a general summary of the principal features of the atmospherical conditions over the United States, supplemented by ship reports, which show the conditions of the weather over the western portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The collection of the information and transmission of the telegrams is undertaken by the Chief ■ Signal Otlice, Washington, whose staff in New York and Boston arc charged with the eXtCU- tiou of the duty. The conclusion has been come to that the information conveyed by these telegrams is not of any practical utility in the issue of forecasts and storm warnings, and the Council have resolved to discontinue their participation in the payment for their transmission. The probable value to this country of such a service of telegrams can be n gathered from a discussion by the Secretary, Mr It. H. Scott, of the history of the severe M storms which visited the British Isles between August 1st, 1882, and September 3rd, 1883, as traceable from the Atlantic Charts pub- lishecl by the Office. In many cases cyclonic systems coming from low latitudes appear to merge in a large area of low barometer read- ings, which is very generally prevalent over ■ the region stretching from Baffin's Bay to Iceland and it is a matter of uncertainty ■ whether a system of cyclonic wind circulation, ■ which apparently disentangles itself from Europe, is really the same system that moved up to Davis Straits a few days before. It is assumed that unless a storm has manifested itself within the limits bounded by the parallels of -10 deg. and 52deg. N. (Philadel- phia and the Straits of Belle Isle), and on the western side of the meridian of 40 deg., it would not be possible for a report of it to be made early enough for anyone in the United States to telegraph its probable approach to Europe in time to be of any practical utility. The general outcome of the investigation has Ithis region, and advances over Iceland to been to show that it is evtremely improbable that telegraphic reports of weather received from the other side of the Atlautic could be of a nature to assist in the forecasting of weather on our coasts, and this conclusion is fully sustained by the actual results of the experimental system of reporting which has been in operation during the past year.

[No title]

STOCK AND SHAnE LIST.

Advertising

[No title]

IIN-CCMING MAILS.--1

— POSTAL RATES. ___

POST-CARDS.

INLAND BOOK POST.

INLAND PARCEL POST.

[No title]

RAILWAY TIME TABLES. —JAN…

|- -- - -- - --- - - --- b…

MANCHESTER AN MILFORD RAILWAY.…

CARDIGAN EXTENSION RAILWAY.

[No title]

Advertising