NO. 



4 TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC I75 



variation in the probable number of cyclones, at least for losses in 

 the low latitudes of the ocean, 



Big-elow claimed (1894) that the storm tracks (that is to say, the 

 tracts of high and low pressure) in the United States vary in their 

 course with the sun spots in this way that the northerly storm track 

 or northerly region of storms (" the North Low and the South High 

 belts ") in the northern states and in southwest Canada were more 

 northerly at maximum of sun spots and more southerly at sun spot 

 minimum, while the southerly storm track (" the North High and 

 the South Low belts") varied oppositely (1894, p. 445). He 

 found besides that the variations in these tracks not only showed 

 the eleven-year sun spot period, but also showed the shorter period 

 of approximately three years like the variations of the promi- 

 nences. He believed himself also to have shown that within the 

 sun's rotation period of 26.68 days coincidently agreeing variations 

 occur in the terrestrial magnetic forces and in the prevalence of 

 West Indian cyclones. But these short variations and the coincident 

 agreement cannot be regarded as well substantiated without further 

 investigations (see also Prof. Hazen's criticism 1894). 



MacDowall has shown that in Greenwich in the spring, days with 

 south wind are more frequent in years of prevalent sun spots 

 than in years of few sun spots. It has also been found that in the 

 interval 1850 to 1894. in the first three months of the year the num- 

 ber of days with north winds varies in the opposite sense to the 

 number of sun spots. The number of days of frost in the first 

 three months of the year in the neighborhood of London also varies 

 in the same sense, that is to say, there are less frosty days and fewer 

 days of north wind when there are many sun spots and vice versa. 



Prof. Kullmer (1914, and see also Huntington, 1914, p. 253) has 

 found that in a zone through the northerly United States and 

 southern Canada, where the storms are most numerous on the 

 average, the number of storms varies in almost direct agreement 

 with the number of sun spots, in the same manner as has been 

 shown for the tropical hurricanes. There are other regions, how- 

 ever, where the opposite is true. It appears as though the storms 

 when there are few sun spots move in more widely scattered 

 courses. If on the other hand the sun spots are more numerous 

 the storms have a tendency to be concentrated along a few well 

 marked paths, so that the storminess is confined to more or less 

 definite regions within which it has a tendencv to be concentrated. 



