SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 
1887 = 1936 
by 
Herbert Riehl 
The University of Chicago 
While the meteorological literature contains many allusions to rela- 
Sions between weather abnormalities and sea surface temperatures, titsie data 
actually substantiating such relations have been published. Moreover, the 
physical connection between changes oF ovean temperature and atmospheric flow 
patterns has not been demonstrated generally. In that respsst, seasonal hurri- 
cane frequencies offer a promising opportunity for study sincs these storms 
depend greatly for their maintenance on local heat transfer from ocean to 
atmospheree One may argue that if a positive anomaly eenter of sea surface 
temperatures is situated in the principal areas of hurricane formation during 
the season, hurricane frequency will tend to excesd averages 
To explore this hypothesis = copy of a collection of Atlantie sea sur- 
face temperatures for 1887 to 1956 was obtained. This collection was prepared 
by a project of the United States Weather Bureau under Wo Fo MacDonald during 
the 1930's. Though it represented an enormous effort, it is nevertheless 
fractional in that only certain areas of the Atlantis are covered and some of 
these not continuously. World War I, in particular, accounts for many un= 
welcome interruptions. According to the writer's understanding a large addi- 
tional file of sea surface temperatures is available at the National Weather 
Records Center at Renevetis North Carolina. Moreover, the analysis could be 
extended to the present. Such extension had been planned if the initial 
evaluation proved encouraging; this however proved net to be the caseec 
