maps. From 1910 to 1921, when he retired, Dr. Bigelow was Professor of Meteorology in the Argentine Weather Service, and during the last 6 years of this period, Director of the Pilar Solar and Magnetic Observatory. While in Argentina he published two books: Circulation and Radiation of the Atmospheres of the Earth and Sun, and Treatise of the Sun's Radiation and other Solar Phenomena. Into the advance phases of these latter studies few could follow him. Professor Bigelow often urged his American colleagues to break away from the conventional studies in meteorology and devote their attention more to research in radiation and its atmospheric effects. Professor Bigelow was a contributing member of the American Meteorological Society.—C. F. B. NOTES The Royal Meteorological Society presented, on January 16, the Symons gold medal for 1924 to DR. TAKEMATSU OKADA, director of the Central Meteorological Observatory, Tokyo, Japan. DR. DINSMORE ALTER, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., has been elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, in recognition of his contributions on rainfall periodicities. ROSCOE NUNN, Section Director, U. S. Weather Bureau, Nashville, Tenn., published a three-column article on, Meteorology and Some Tennessee Meteorologists, in the Nashville Banner for March 23, 1924. The article begins with an excellent general statement of the progress and aims of meteorology, while the body of the paper is devoted to very interesting biographies of Maury, Ferrel, Clayton and Fergusson. DR. C. LEROY MEISINGER, Meteorologist, U. S. Weather Bureau, is now at Scott Field, Ill., engaged in the balloon project for following storm winds. (Cf. March, 1924, BULLETIN, p. 45.) Dr. Meisinger went from Washington to McCook Field, Ohio, and Scott Field, by airplane. A special dispatch, from Dayton, concerning Dr. Meisinger's project was published in the New York Evening Post, April 5. Dr. Meisinger's first flight, on the rear of the intense coast cyclone, April 2, carried him to South Carolina. On Feb. 22, 1924, Lieut. John A. Macready observed a temperature i of -60 degrees C. over Dayton, Ohio. He thinks the air got much colder, since he went considerablly higher after the thermometer failed at -60° C. However, he may have entered the stratosphere, where the temperature is not quite so low as immediately beneath it. The New York Times report (Feb. 23) says that Lieut. Macready's failure to break the altitude record of 36,555 feet, held by Lecointe, was due to the break of the supercharger and to the extraordinary cold. Aside from the direct effects of the cold, the low temperature probably resulted in an unusually low pressure at the height of 34,983 feet reached. The fact of an altimeter reading of 41,000 feet shows this. When the air is cold the atmosphere becomes contracted to such an extent that there is less than the usual amount of air at great heights. Winter, especially cold winter weather when the pressure is not high at the ground, is, thus, not a favorable time to break altitude records. Warm, summer weather, when the surface pressure is high, especially in late summer when the layers of air to great heights have reached their maximum upward expansion offers the greatest air density far aloft, and, therefore, the best chance of breaking an altitude record. It seems likely that Lieut. Macready actually flew in air more rare than any previously reached.-C. F. B. The Libyan Desert, although practically barren of vegetation, supports numbers of birds, snakes, lizards, insects, foxes, jackals, and mice. -Sci. Serv. The longest existing continuous rainfall record is that at Padua, Italy, which has been kept since 1725.-Sci. Serv. "Weather, Crops and Markets" has dropped the weather and become "Crops and Markets"; while the Weather Bureau has begun issuing a "Weekly Weather and Crops Bulletin," 25 cents a year. In many mountain valleys (of the northern Alps) ten feet of snow fell between the 23rd and the 27th of December, 1923.-Met. Mag., London, Jan., 1924, vol. 58, p. 292. Running Away From Weather. The first result of man's study of the weather was apparently to run away from it. Sir Napier Shaw, the English authority on meteorology, points out that the first civilization of which we have much record, that of Egypt, existed where there was really no weather. This civilization may have been the result, he says, of a migration of all the bright individuals or races from other parts of the world, who fled their inclement native climes and settled in Egypt. A similar movement seemed to be in progress at the present day.Science Service. NOTES ON WEATHER BUREAU SERVICE The weekly clip sheets issued by the press service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture contain numerous notes on Weather Bureau work and popular fallacies. Professor C. F. Talman, Weather Bureau Librarian, is the author. The clip sheets for release in the weeks beginning December 10, 1923, to January 14, 1924 contain 11 Weather Bureau news notes, and 5 on popular fallacies. The news notes are reprinted below. Those on popular fallacies are entitled: Draws distinction between a cyclone and a tornado; If rain follows a battle there's a simple reason; Moon's influence negligible, says U. S. Weather Bureau; Effect of the Gulf Stream on U. S. Weather is slight (a title not correctly reflecting the contents); and Weather Bureau says there are no equinoctial storms. In two other notes, not from the Weather Bureau, there is information of interest to meteorologists: one says that 36 per cent of the fires in national forests in 1922 were caused by lightning; the other tells of maple-sugar weather. How Upper Air Observations Aid Weather Forecasting The observations of the winds at high levels made twice a day at a number of Weather Bureau stations both serve the needs of aviators and also supplement the observations at the earth's surface on which weather forecasts are based. The Atlantic coast storm of October 23-24, instead of following the usual track of such storms, northeastward along the coast north of Cape Hatteras, followed a most exceptional course from the vicinity of Cape Hatteras to eastern Lake Erie. The rain area attending this storm ex tended far to the west and the northwest of the region in which rainfall ordinarily occurs in connection with coast storms. Forecasters of the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture state that there was nothing on the daily weather maps, as drawn from the ordinary surface observations, to suggest that the storm would take this unusual course, but that pilot-balloon flights and the observed movements of the upper clouds for a day or two preceding the storm showed that at an altitude of two or three miles the winds were blowing from a southerly instead of from a westerly quarter, as they usually do at these levels. This abnormality in the upper winds justified the prediction on the morning of October 23 that the storm would move north-northwestward, as it did, and that the accompanying rains would extend over the Appalachian Mountain region and into the upper Ohio valley and lower lake region. Where Kites and Balloons Give Free-Air Information In connection with its aerological investigations the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture makes many free-air fr observations by means of kites and balloons. This work has become an important part of the bureau's program. Observations with kites during the last year were made regularly at Broken Arrow, Okla.; Drexel, Nebr.; Due West, S. C.; Ellendale, N. Dak.; Groesbeck, Tex.; and Royal Sh Center, Ind. Kite flights are made daily whenever possible, and, in cin addition, when conditions are favorable, continuous series of flights are made for periods of 24 to 36 hours. Records of air pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind are thus obtained. Observations by means of pilot balloons were made at the six kite stations, above listed, and at Burlington, Vt.; Denver, Colo.; Ithaca, N. Y.; Key West, Fla.; Lansing, Mich.; Madison, Wis.; San Francisco, Calif.; San Juan, P. R.; and Washington, D. C. The observations are made twice daily at the six kite stations and at Key West, Fla.; and Washington, D. C., and once each day at the remaining stations, and the computed wind conditions at various heights are telegraphed to district foreSi cast centers at Washington, D. C.; Chicago, Ill.; and San Francisco, Calif.; where they form the basis for "flying weather" forecasts issued to the military, naval, and postal aviation services. rea Bure Special observations have been made, when requested, for use in connection with such events as long-distance flights and free-balloon erraces.. Alaskan Forecast Service Protects Chicago District The Alaskan forecast service of the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture has a tremendous economic value to the commercial and marine interests in this country which would lose many perishable products without timely cold-wave warnings. Twicedaily observations from all accessible portions of the Alaska Territory are obtained from 11 stations with a gratifying degree of regularity by means of radio, telegraph, and cable (in most cases a combination of the three). The active and cordial co-operation of the Signal Corps of the Army and the Office of Communications of the Navy has been essential to the success of this service. These reports are of inestimable value in the general forecast work of the bureau, especially in the issuing of storm warnings for the Pacific coast and cold-wave warnings for the Middle and Western States. It is estimated that the value of perishable products saved as the result of cold wave warnings issued last winter for the Chicago district alone exceed $10,000,000, although the winter was not an unusually severe one. (Winter 1922-23.) The district forecaster, in commenting on these estimates, stated that it would have been impossible to issue these timely warnings so accurately if no reports from Alaska had been available. The estimates were for the Chicago district alone. Many other commercial districts in which the Alaskan observations were an equal factor in issuing coldwave warnings therefor were similarly benefited. |