Table 112. 



INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL SYMBOLS. 



Symbol. 



T 

 < 



V 



-4» 



® 







Meaning. 



Remarks. 



Thunder and lightning. 



Without Hghtning. 



Without thunder ; " heat-lightning 



Sometimes called " soft hail, 

 sembles little snow-pellets. 



French, gresil. Re- 



Not exceeding the height of a man. 

 One which wets exposed surfaces. 



In America often 



Driving snow. 

 Ice-crystals. 



Snow on ground. 

 Gale. 



Rain. 



Snow. 



Rain and snow to- 

 gether (" sleet " 

 of British usage). 



Thunderstorm. 



Thunder. 



Lightning. 



Hail.* 



Graupel. 



Fog. 



Ground fog. 



Wet fog. 



Hoarfrost. 



Dew. 



Rime. A rough frost deposit from fog. 



Glaze; Glazed frost.t Ice coating due to rain, " ice-storm, 

 called " sleet." 

 Ger., Schnccgcstoher ; Fr., bourrasque de ncige. 

 Ice-needles sometimes seen floating or slowly falling 



in the air m clear, cold weather. 

 Ground near station more than half covered. 

 Wind of force 8-12, Beaufort scale. (Rept. Int. Met 1 

 Comm., Berlin, 1910, English ed., p. ly.) Formerly 

 used for " strong wind." A 3-barbed arrow is intro- 

 duced in the 2d German ed. of the Int. Met'l Codex 

 to denote " strong wind," but no authority is cited. 

 According to the Observer's Handbook of the British 

 Met'l Office " the number of barbs on the arrow may 

 conveniently be made to represent the strongest wind 

 force noted," but there is no international sanction 

 for such variants. 

 In German edition of Int. Met'l Codex, but has never 

 been definitely recognized by the international or- 

 ganization. (See Rept. Int. Met'l Comm., South- 

 port, 1903, Engl, ed., pp. 19 and loi.) Widely used in 

 German and Austrian publications. 



Solar halo. 



Solar corona. 



Lunar halo. 



Lunar corona. 



Rainbow 



Aurora. 



Zodiacal light. 



Ho^ze ^"^ ^° ^"^ ^'■'^^' ^^ ^^ ^^^ disturbance of atmospheric 



transparency by air-currents of different densities 

 ("optical turbidity"), and not to water-drops. In 

 practice, this is often difficult to distinguish from 

 light fog ( = °), or "mist" of British observers. 

 Prussian and Austrian observers underscore this 

 symbol (J^) to denote a definitely smoky atmosphere 

 (" Moorrauch "). 



Mirage. 



Exceptional visibil- 

 ity. 



Sand storm or dust 

 storm. 



Sunshine. 



* True hail, which occurs chiefly with summer thunderstorms, should be distinguished from the 

 snowy pellets, like miniature snowballs, known as graufel, or soft hail (A) : also from the small 

 particles of clear ice, called sleet by the U. S. Weather Bureau, for which there is no inter- 

 national symbol. On the history of the word sleet see Monthly IV eathcr Review, May, 1916, pp. 

 281-286. . ^ „ . . 



t Glase is the official term in the United States; glased frost m Great Britain. 



Smithsonian Tables. 



242 



