1912] The Ottawa Naturalist. 15 



THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.* 



Otto Klotz. LL.D., E.R.A.S. 



We have learned of the physical constitution of the moon, of 

 her volume and mass, of her phases and rotation, of her borrowed 

 light, of her gravitational or tidal effect on the earth and now 

 what about her connection with our weather, what about 

 change of the moon, change of weather? 



Let us calmly do a little bit of reasoning about this; let us 

 use just a little bit of common sense, and see what conclusion 

 we inevitably arrive at. 



The change of the moon, what does it mean? Changing 

 from more light to less, or less to more; that is all, and that 

 goes on constantly, uniformly, from day to day. Practically, 

 there is as much change on any one day as on any other day, 

 so that change of moon as designating something apart from 

 everv day occurrence is in reality a misconception. Even if 

 we were to admit certain changes as something quite apart from 

 other lunar characteristics, we will ask, what is it that distin- 

 guishes them from other times? The only answer is, that the 

 amount of light we receive is different from that at other times. 

 We all know that the sun is the cause and source of the circulation 

 of our atmosphere, upon which depends our weather. Now, 

 the light received by the full moon is about the 1-600,000 part 

 that of the sun, and, of course, for the other phases still less, 

 vanishing completely at new moon, being on the average only 

 the one millionth that of the sun, which is equivalent to saving 

 that the sun gives us as much light and heat in 30 seconds as the 

 moon does in a year. 



Is it then reasonable to expect that the changes in quantity 

 of this minute amount of light of which furthermore onlv a 

 fraction is available as heat, for to have any effect on weather 

 we have to deal with heat rays this diluted light, this homeo- 

 pathic emanation, would have any effect on our weather? Cer- 

 tainlv not. And, remember that when it is new moon or change 

 in Halifax, it is new moon in Ottawa, in Winnipeg, in Calgary, 

 in Vancouver; indeed it is new moon in Japan, in Siberia, in 

 Russia, in England, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Africa, in 

 fact, everywhere. With one accord, however, our weather-wise 

 moon prophets shout, "change in the weather." Don't you think 

 this is a pretty big contract to turn the crank at this particular 

 moment of "change," to change the weather over the whole 



*(Xote: On Feby. 29 last Dr. Klutz gave a popular illustrated address at the 

 Observatory on "The Moon". We give the following extract, in which he refers to the 

 Moon and the Weather, as it will undoubtedly be of particular interest to our readers. 

 Editor). 



