NO. 4 TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 255 



air pressure gradients show themselves first in the air temperature 

 of Scandinavia and somewhat later in the water temperatures along 

 the Norwegian coast, as we should, of course, have expected. 



Considering now the curves of figure 93 we see that the agree- 

 ment of the curve for the air pressure gradients over the North 

 Atlantic Ocean with the curves for the Danish fields is less good 

 with regard to individual peculiarities than that found in the above 

 mentioned curves. But here also there are many cases of agree- 

 ment and when we consider upon what slight material our tem- 

 perature curves for the Danish fields rest we could scarcely have 

 expected better. 



It seems to be shown with great distinctness that the temperature 

 variations not only in the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, but in the 

 air temperature over north Europe follow even in the smallest 

 details from month to month in general the variations in the air 

 pressure gradients over the North Atlantic Ocean, which is to 

 say, with changes in the circulation of the atmosphere as a whole. 



AIR PRESSURE IN STYKKISHOLM AND TEMPERATURE IN STOCKHOLM 



The above described series of air pressure dififerences over the 

 North Atlantic Ocean extends over only a relatively small time 

 interval from 1884 to 1910. In order to study the air pressure 

 variations during a longer period of years and compare them with 

 the temperatures in Scandinavia we have made the experiment of 

 employing the air pressure observations in Stykkisholm in Iceland. 

 This station lies near the usual position of the Iceland pressure 

 minimum. J. Hann (1904) has collected the air pressure anomalies 

 there for the time 185 1 to 1900. We have computed consecutive 

 twelve-months means from these anomalies and show them in curve 

 I of figure 95 together with curve II for the temperature anomalies 

 of the corresponding period for Stockholm. The reader will see 

 that these two curves show a remarkably complete agreement, de- 

 scending in a considerable degree even to the smallest details. This 

 shows particularly clearly what a close dependence exists between 

 the air pressure distribution over the North Atlantic Ocean and 

 the temperature variations in Scandinavia. 



VARIATIONS IN THE AIR PRESSURE GRADIENT AND IN 

 THE SOLAR ACTIVITY 



The question which now naturally arises is, whether there exists a 

 dependence between the variations in the air pressure distribution of 



