Winter Quarter Lightship (Figure 13, Table 13) 
From March through July surface temperatures exceeded both 
the mean and the 1956 record. The maximum occurred during the last ten 
days of July, followed by a drop and a second slight increase in mid- 
September. Autumn cooling was slightly slower than the mean and com= 
parable to 1956. 
Minimum temperatures of less than 1°F, both surface and bote- 
tom, occurred in early March, and were slightly above the 1956 minima. 
As in 1956 the thermocline started to develop in April; warming, how- 
ever, of the entire water column had begun a full month earlier. 
The bottom maximum of 66°F occurred in early October at the 
same time as the autumn overturn and was 2° warmer than the 1956 bot- 
tom maximum. An intrusion of relatively cold bottom water occurred in 
September and there is evidence of a similar intrusion during July. 
(The site of this station is apparently over a steep slope and the maxie- 
mum depth of the BT trace changed when the regular lightship was re- 
placed by the Relief.) 
Surface salinity showed a minimum of 31.79 °/oo in mid-May and 
a maximum of 33.29 °/oo in mid-March. These values are higher than those 
in 1956. Freshening through runoff was later and less extreme than in 
the previous year. 
Ut 
