On Australian Storms. 

 By MR. JOHN TEBBUTT, JUN. 



[Read 7th September, 1864.] 



THE public for the past few months have been rejoicing in the 

 acquisition of another lunar theory for the prediction of weather, 

 which, like all its predecessors, will, I fear, be eventually thrown 

 aside as useless. But, there is a weather system in full operation 

 in England, which, though not so ambitious in its pretentious 

 as the various lunar theories, is nevertheless logically deduced 

 from observation, and therefore of great value. I refer to the 

 method of forecasting weather, as daily practised in England 

 by Admiral Fitzroy. His theory does not profess to determine 

 months beforehand, when and where storms will occur, but a 

 storm having once begun in the vicinity of the British Isles, it 

 fixes, with a very tolerable approach to accuracy, its velocity and 

 the course it will pursue. These desiderata being obtained, it is 

 an easy matter to forewarn by the electric telegraph those places 

 on the coasts which will probably feel the effects of the storm. 

 The general principles on which forecasts of weather are drawn 

 by Admiral Fitzroy, and the way in which these principles have 

 been discovered, are soon explained. For some time before the 

 system of weather warnings was established, the Board of 

 Trade had maintained a system of simultaneous meteorological 

 observations throughout the United Kingdom. The regular 

 observations of the astronomical establishments and the light- 

 houses were supplemented by those of a large corps of earnest 

 and devoted private observers. These observations were regularly 

 forwarded to a central office for correction and discussion. Very 

 little insight into the law of atmospheric changes could be obtained 

 by the mere inspection of a mass of tabular records, but when the 

 simultaneous observations were exhibited in a series of curves 

 and charts a very interesting fact was elicited. On a careful 

 comparison of the diagrams during periods of marked atmospheric 



