316 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



SURFACE 



00301 



31 AUG. 1954 



Figure 7. — Surface weather map at the time when hurricane Carol was accelerating rapidly. 

 Within a few hours the storm was moving north-northeastward about 40 m.p.h. 



around them, up to comparatively high altitudes. To illustrate the 

 point, figure 9 shows the 300-mb. map (about 30,000 feet) when Carol 

 (shown by tropical storm symbol §) was located east of Jackson- 

 ville, Fla., and was moving slowly. At the 300-mb. level the winds 

 usually blow in a direction approximately tangent to the contour lines 

 and vary in speed inversely with the space between the contour lines. 

 From the contour lines we can deduce that the air currents around the 

 hurricane were very weak and variable in direction. If the hurricane 

 had been farther south in the moderate easterlies, then about 20 m.p.h. 

 at Havana, Cuba, it would have moved faster. Figure 10 shows the 

 300-mb. map at the time when Carol was moving northward at about 

 40 m.p.h. The close spacing of the contour lines indicate that the 

 wind should be strong southerly all around Carol. At Washington, 

 D. C, winds were about 55 m.p.h. at 31,260 feet, and at Caribou, 

 Maine, they were south 35 m.p.h. at 19,000 feet. The long, heavy 

 arrow in figure 10 extending from Cape Hatteras, N. C, through New 

 Hampshire into Canada shows part of the track of Carol. 



