6._0N SOME METEOROLOGICAL FEATURES OF 

 SOUTHERN RHODESIA. 



By Rev. E. Goetz, S.J. 



The object of this paper is to give a general idea of the 

 meteorological conditions prevailing on the Rhodesian tableland. 

 Observations have been taken in Bulawayo since February 1897, but 

 the observations from January 1904 to January 1906 only have been 

 used for the present paper, as these only have been controlled by 

 recording instruments. The data from the recording sheets have not 

 been tabulated, and I am not able to give at present more than a 

 summary of the results likely to be gathered from them. 



A mere glance at the Anemometer traces shows a large 

 predominance of wind in the East quarter, the main winds of the 

 year ranging from E. to S.E., E. and E.S.E. having a prevailing 

 character. The records seem to show one kind of disturbance only, 

 which is the diurnal rotation of the wind. This rotation is very 

 frequent here, and, as far as we are concerned, of great importance. 

 Other disturbances are so rare that they cannot have any appreciable 

 effect on the main results. 



Taking, therefore, the anemometer records as a guide, I find that 

 we have two main weather periods, one of winds in the East quarter, 

 and one of daily veering winds. There is often a transition period 

 from one to the other when the wind veers from E. to N. or N.E. 

 during the hot hours of the day. 



In the East wind periods the main wind seems to be E.S.E. ; in 

 fact, the vane remains for days together parallel to the streets of 

 Bulawayo, which run 14 dfegrees S. of E. South-east winds also 

 occur, but the wind hardly ever remains in a more southerly direction 

 for any length of time. There is often a veering of the vane from E. 

 or E.S.E. to a point more south during the day with a motion back 

 to its original position after a few hours. The strength of the wind 

 ranges from one to four on the Beaufort Scale, stronger winds are 

 rare and calms also ; out of 1009 hours of calm registered in the two 

 years under consideration, only 48 fell in these periods or on periods 

 of East wind with some North in the middle of the day. Most of 

 those calms were of short duration, the longest being one of seven and 

 one of eight hours. 



The periods of daily veering winds are shorter than the preceding 

 ones. There were on the whole 84 such periods, giving a total of 234 

 davs out of 731. In these periods the wind is generally Easterly 

 during night; after sunrise, some time between 7 and 10 a.m., the 

 vane turns North ; in the afternoon it is West, and some time late in 

 the afternoon or at night we find it South ; and. during night, it 

 completes^ the rotation to East. This is, of course, the main tendency 

 of the wind on those days. The passage from one quarter to the 

 other is often very rapid, and calms are frequentlv taking the place 

 of one quarter, especially in the passage from West to South. The 

 rotation is practically always diurnal ; on three occasions onlv, did it 

 take two davs to complete it, and now and then it took place in the 

 .space of a few hours. Strong winds are rare. Practicallv all the 



