CAPE AD ARE WIND8. 129 



Priestly wrote : — 



' The anemometer has been a fertile source . of troiibl<! to us. 1 don't know whether 

 you have had an exceptional season at Cape Evans but there is no doubt that I 

 never have experienced anvthing like the force of the wind we have had here. 



I have made very full notes on the \\-ind in a sort of meteorological diary that I 

 have kept, and it appears that our wind is governed entirely by the presence ot 

 Cape Adare and the particular direction from which the wind happens to strike 

 the difi. Very often we don't get the wind at all, and when it does come it 

 seems to be very gusty and with its force in the gusts intensified beyond the 

 average force gf the winds I have experienced elsewhere in the Antarctic. It is 

 impossible to walk against the gusts sometimes even on a good holding ground, 

 and I have frequently had to hold on, crouching low, and wait for a lull before 

 it was possible to make way against the wind on my return to the hut from the 

 screen. Occasionally pebbles were hurled against the hut with some violence and 

 I have been struck myself .several times when taking observations. The first real 

 gale we experienced was somewhat of a surprise to us for we all thought we kiiew 

 prett}' much what the wind could do. As long as the anemometer lasted I took 

 one minute observations for e.stimating the force of the wind, but it did not last 

 long, and I was divided between a very unscientific relief at the cessation of the 

 observations, and a more scientific regret that the anemometer had not proved equal 

 to its task. Curiously enough it was not the cups that gave wa}^ but something 

 went wrong in its inside. 



Since then we have been estimating the wind and therefore are liable to the charge 

 of overestimating, which I am afraid is certainly one of the things we shall have to 

 face, but I refuse to abate one single one of the ll's and 12 's that I have entered 

 in the books. The only fate I shall wi.sh for my critics is that they could be 

 planted downi here in this delectable climate and take observations in a gale every 

 two hours and then see if the}- don't run into three figures instead of being 

 content with a modest 12 hurricane.' 



There was certainly no overestimating of the vnnd strength at Cape Adare. Before the 

 anemometer broke, minute eye readings show that a wind which was estimated as of wind 

 strength 11 attained velocities of 84 miles an hour, while the average velocity generally as- 

 cribed to force 11 is G8 miles an hour. The storms in which these high wind velocities 

 occurred appear to have been true cyclones. The wind attained its maximum at the time 

 of the lowest barometer after a large and rapid fall. The surroundings of the station prevent- 

 ed the wind direction changing in the regidar way associated v\ith cyclones, but each storm 

 was followed by wind from between N.E. and N. The highest winds were generally from 

 E.S.E., but on one or two occasions high S.E. and E. winds were observed. The pressure 

 distribution in these storms is discussed on page 239. Storms of this nature in which force 

 11 or 12 was recorded occurred once in March, once in April, five times in May, twice in 

 June, once in July, twice in August, and twice in September. 



In the following discussion the Beaufort estimates have been converted into miles per 

 hour by the following values given on page 34 of 'The Beaufort Scale of Wind-force,' 

 M.O. No. 180.* 



* In thii publication are given two equivalent value.s of each Beaufort number, one derived by Curtis'-s method 

 and the other by Koppcn's metliod- It is stated that the former should be u^ed iji reducing estimates to velo- 

 citie.s. The latter has however been usf d here becau.^e the frequency distribution on which f'urtis's numbers largely 

 dejiend ts so different at Capo Adare from the British Isles that Curtis's values are iuap])ropriate. 



17 



