66 c 



variations in sea surface tenperature over large areas 

 occur irregularly there should be, through the changes m 

 vapor discharge to the air and in the temperature of the 

 air, a greater favoring of high atmospheric pressure uhen 

 the sea is colder and of lo';7 when it is warmer, European 

 meteorologists have long recognized this relation in the 

 northeastern Atlantic, Two apparently significant 

 exarToles niay be cited from our Gulf Stream, A body of un- 

 usually v--arn water coming through the straits of Florida 

 in Januray 1Q16, on spreading over the western Atlantic goutn 

 and east of ITew England appears to have been responsible 

 for the eastward deflection and intensification of_many 

 western lov; pressure areas that reached the Atlantic sea-- 

 board. Consequently, northerly winds, cold weather and fre- 

 quent snows prevailed from Pennsylvania to Nova Scotia, 

 la the same manner, unusually warm water passing through 

 the Straits of Florida in October, llovember and December 

 1925, paradoxically favored storminess and coldness during 

 these and later months in the eastern United States, 



Recognizing the importance of a knowledge of the sur- 

 face temperatures of the western Atlantic, from the 

 m3teorological vier.-point, the U,S. 'leather Bureau, the 

 Canadian Meteorological Office, the International Ice 

 Patrol, Clark University, and the American Meteorological 

 Society have, within the past three years, installed_ eight 

 se?water thermographs to record several surface profiles 

 regularly across the area from the G-rand Eanhs, Bermuda 

 and Porto Rico westward to Canada and the United States and 

 south-westward to Cuba, Honduras and the Canal Zone, A body of 

 accurate sea surface temperature data is thus being assembled 

 for comparison with seasonal weather abnormalities and for sLudy 

 to reveal s'ach progressive movements and persistence of sea 

 surface temperature departures as there may be in the Gulf 

 Stream and Antilles Current, 



The regular recording of surface temperatures should be 

 extended, and regular determinations of the heat storage 

 in the top 35 to 100 m.eters, and of the horizontal move- 

 ments of these waters, should be made. Investigations 

 should be made of the dependence of atmospheric humidity, 

 temperature and pressure' distribution, on the tem.perature3 

 of the ocean surface, and atter.pts to relate the results 

 to seasonal weather abnormalities in ve.rious parts of the 

 world. The em.pirical seasonal rainfall indications cautiously 

 issued by the Scripps Institution, from the results of the . 

 investigation of the Pacific, and the forecasts of seasonal 

 rainfall issued by the governm.ent bureaux of India and Java, 

 all depend on oceanographic studies for their advancement,, 



7e may also point out that oceanographic expeditions to 

 the less travelled seas offer excellent opportunities, at 

 little estra cost for obtaining a wide variety of meteoro- 

 logic data. 



