ENGLAND 



291 1 



ENGLAND 



England. 



Map indicating the mean actu; 

 mperature of England and Wales 



actual annual 



tern 



Keswick are examples of settle- 

 ments where a route leads from 

 one dale to another. 



The shallowness of British seas 

 and the gradual shelving of the 

 English shore are important in re- 

 ference to the rhythmic pulsations 

 of the tides. In few countries is the 

 tidal effect felt so far up the rivers. 

 In the characteristically English 

 unconformable estuaries the scour 

 of the tides keeps open the regular 

 channels, with the result that there 

 are scores of tidal harbours round 

 the English coasts. No part of 

 England is more than 70 m. from 

 a section of this tide-swept coast. 



CLIMATE AND WEATHER. Ulti- 

 mately, the climate depends upon 

 solar insolation and upon the cur- 

 rents in the atmosphere between 

 the lower surface inhabited by man 

 and the isothermal layer about 5 m. 

 or 6 m. up. The lower faces of these 

 currents are disturbed into eddies 

 and whirls by the varied configura- 

 tion of the land surface, but the 

 general movements are steady and 

 continuous. The climate of Eng- 

 land is determined within very wide 

 limits by the intensity of the sun's 

 rays which it receives ; because of 

 its situation England is not tropical 

 like Ceylon, nor arid like Egypt, 

 nor a frozen waste like Spitsbergen. 



The limits set to its climate by its 

 latitude are very far apart. The 

 precise range of the climate within 

 these extremes is determined by 

 the atmospheric currents, which 

 move in relation to three areas of 

 definite types of atmospheric pres- 

 sure. To the S. W. over the Atlantic 



lies the Azores 

 area of high pres- 

 sures, to the E. 

 over the main- 

 land the pressure 

 is usually high, 

 to the N.W. over 

 the Atlantic the 

 pressure near 

 Iceland is usually 

 low. 



The prevalent 

 surface winds 

 are, therefore, 

 those with a wes- 

 terly direction 

 which bring 

 oceanic influ- 

 ences to bear, 

 for these winds 

 are usually mois- 

 ture-laden,warm 

 in winter and cool 

 in summer. The 

 net result is that 

 English seas, 

 rivers, and lakes 

 are never frozen, 

 that England has 

 the mildest win- 

 ters of any part 

 of the world in corresponding lati- 

 tudes. These results are chiefly due 

 to the clouds and the consequent 

 rain. The masses of moisture-laden 

 air carried to England from the 

 Atlantic are necessarily cloudy ; 

 England has usually a high per- 

 centage of cloud-covered sky. The 

 clouds are a blanket in winter and 

 a screen in summer. 



In winter when the earth should 

 cool rapidly and dissipate the 

 warmth stored 

 in summer the 

 clouds restrict 

 the radiation of 

 heat, condense 

 into relatively 

 warm rain, and 

 in so doing re- 

 lease heat and 

 bring muggy, 

 foggy days. In 

 summer the 

 clouds screen 

 England from 

 the fierce rays of 

 a sun high in the 

 sky, and supply 

 frequent rains. 

 As more water is 

 evaporated 

 in summer than 

 in winter fre- 

 quent rainfall 

 means a lower- 

 ing of the tem- 

 perature by the 

 absorption of the 

 heat necessary to 

 change the water 

 into gaseous 

 moisture. An 



English July may therefore be cool 

 and rainy. 



The isotherms, which indicate 

 corrected temperatures at sea 

 level, show that in July London in 

 the S.E. is hottest, over 64 F., 

 and that the strip of land along the 

 Scottish border is coolest, below 

 59 F. But in Jan. Land's End is 

 warmest, over 44 F., and the E. 

 coast from Flamborough Head to 

 the Nore is coldest, below 38 F. ; 

 London is no warmer than Carlisle 

 or Berwick, Liverpool is as warm 

 as Southampton. 



Effect of Winds 



The actual weather which io 

 probable at any English town is 

 determined by local conditions of 

 elevation and slope and by general 

 variations from the normal. The 

 prevalent winds usually reach 

 England as cyclonic storms which 

 follow more or less definite tracks 

 from the Atlantic ; sometimes the 

 storms are fended away from Eng- 

 land because the continental high 

 pressure extends over the S.E. 

 counties and brings clear skies, cool 

 or cold nights with a frosty period 

 in winter ; at other times the 

 Azores high pressure approaches 

 the S.W., and Cornwall has bright, 

 sunny days while the N. is cloudy, 

 cool, and wet. 



These general variations affect 

 the entire country while the sur- 

 face configuration introduces 

 purely local variations. The annual 

 temperature of England, were it 

 entirely a plain, would lie between 

 48 F. and 54 F. ; the map shows 

 that it actually lies between 38 F. 



England. Map showing the annual distribution of rail*' 

 fall in England and Wales 



