94 



NOTE 0!ir THE GENERAL METEOROLOGICAL PHE^TOMENA OF THE MONTHS OP 

 JANUAE? AND FEBRUARY, 1864, IN EQROPE.— By M. Maeie Davy. 



[Translated for the Smithsonian Institution from the International Bulletin of the Observa- 

 tory of Pads, 12th March, l&64r.] 



An examination of the meteorological phenomena presented by the months 

 of January and February, just elapsed, leads to some important considera- 

 tions regarding the study of atmospheric perturbations. 



The month of January opened with weather -of a stormy character. The 

 cyclonic gale which, on the Slst of December, had its centre, at 8 o'clock 

 in the morning, towards the southwest of Ireland, and which involved 

 England and a part of France, proceeded across this latter country from 

 northwest to southeast to the Mediterranean, where we recognize its preva- 

 lence from the 2d to the 4th of January. This fact, a rather exceptional one 

 for this season, will subsequently become almost the rule. 



On the 1st of the same month a centre of barometric pressure is discov- 

 erable on the North sea, which, during the following days, continues to extend 

 and gather force while slowly making progress towards the southeast of 

 Europe. On the 9th of January this strong pressure extended from Stock- 

 holm to Naples. After this last day it first drew back somewhat towards 

 the north, and then entered upon a period' of oscillations and continual dis- 

 placements, during which the region over which it prevailed was found to 

 be sometimes encroached upon on one side, and sometimes on the other. 

 During this period of calm and cold for Europe, the barometric curves inti- 

 mated, at different times, the existence and approach of foul weather on the 

 Atlantic; but this weather, after having produced some agitation on the 

 coasts of France and England, drew off towards the north, beyond the field 

 o'' our observations, and it was not until the lapse of several days that we 

 again detected its reappearance, first over the north, and then over the east 

 and south of Russia, as if it had wheeled around the region of strong pressure. 



It was not till after the 22d that the barrier, so to speak, was broken 

 through, or that the line of transmission of this stormy weather, from the 

 western towards the eastern regions, descended towards central Europe. A 

 tempest, whose existence upon the Atlantic was announced in the Bulletin 

 of the 20th, passed, in the following days, a little to the north of England, 

 and then traversing the North sea, Norway, and Sweden, is found prevailing 

 in the north of Russia on the 24th, having its centre, at 8 o'clock of the 

 morning of that day, at St. Petersburgh. Another, which closely followed it, 

 arrives almost at the same point on the 27th. 



At the same time that this movement was taking place, another, equally im- 

 portant, was in process. The extent of the trajectory of the stormy weather 

 over Europe gradually contracted on the eastern border, and the Mediter- 

 ranean now became menaced. This sea was invaded the 29th, 30th, and 

 31st of January by a tempest, which, after raging over the north of Europe, 

 passed, though still growing feebler, over Germany. A similar state of 

 things recurred on the 4th of February, and the Mediterranean was reached 

 on the 5th, 6th, 1th, and 8th. The movement of withdrawal of the trajectory 

 towards the west was still more marked on the following days. The 10th 

 of February a storm gathers to the west of the British channel, and the next 

 day descends upon the Mediterranean. 



The general movement by and by recovers somewhat of its extent to- 

 wards the east, and a new tempest which bursts upon the northwest of 

 England on the 12th, was propagated to the Gulf of Bothnia by the 14th, 

 and to the northeast of St. Petersburgh by the 15th. Another follows it 



