August 15, 1919] 



SCIEi^CE 



165 



the situation, and a number are planning new 

 or extended courses. In aid of this encourag- 

 ing tendency and to meet the demands for 

 such information, the Weather Bureau has 

 published a group of articles on " Meteorology 

 as a subject for study." The titles and brief 

 discussions of the contents of these articles 

 follow : 



In discussing, " How meteorological instruc- 

 tion may be furthered," Professor K. DeC. 

 Ward of Harvard shows that the pressure of 

 the students' desire for increased facilities for 

 instruction in meteorology, and the enthu- 

 siasm of the instructor will probably be m.ost 

 effective in promoting meteorological train- 

 ing at each institution. The second paper is 

 a rather detailed discussion, of, " Collegiate 

 instruction in meteorology," by C. F. Brooks, 

 treating particularly of the methods used in 

 the large classes at the Signal Corps school of 

 meteorology at College Station, Texas. In the 

 third article. Dr. O. L. Fassig has discussed 

 the purpose, organization and results of this 

 school. Following this, a group of the most 

 important new meteorological books have been 

 reviewed to aid the student or teacher in 

 selecting such general publications as will be 

 of most immediate use. Professor W. J. 

 Humphreys' " Some recent eonti'ibutions to 

 the physics of the air," is an abbreviated 

 edition of his vice-presidential address at the 

 Baltimore meeting of the A.A.A.S.'^ It is 

 introduced with the other papers here to in- 

 dicate to some extent the present-day trend 

 of meteorology.^ Finally, to direct research 

 to some of the most important problems now 

 confronting meteorologists, a list of fifty sub- 

 jects for research in meteorology have been 

 compiled by th^e scientific staff of the central 

 office of the Weather Bureau. 



This group of papers, which was published 

 in the December, 1918, Monthly Weather Re- 

 view has been reprinted, and copies have been 

 sent to several hundred colleges and univer- 



7 Published in full in Science, February 14 and 

 21, 1919, pp. 155-163, 182-188. 



8 Annual reviews of the progress of meteorology 

 and climatology in the United States are published 

 in the "American Year Book." 



sities. A limited number of other copies may 

 be obtained on application to the chief of the 

 Weather Bureau. 



THE MILD WINTER OF 1918-1919 



In the eastern United States, and over most 

 of the Missouri Valley the past winter was so 

 extraordinarily open in contrast to the winter 

 of 1917-1918, that a Detroit newspaper was 

 led to say we had both winters together in 

 tkat cold one. Except in the south, the mean 

 temperatures of last December and January 

 were generally 15°F. higher than during the 

 same period a year before. The snowfall was 

 practically negligible as .compared with the 

 great accumulations of the previous " old- 

 fashioned " winter. The accompanying table 

 shows some of the marked contrasts in the 

 weather at representative cities. Perhaps the 

 most extreme reversal is shown by Cincinnati 

 weather. There tlie mean temperature of De- 

 cember and January, 1917-1918, was 19.3° F., 

 while that for December and January, 1918- 

 1919, was .38.5° F., 19.2° F. higher. The snow- 

 fall in the two cold months was 36.5 in., but in 

 December and January, last winter, only 1.2 

 in. Considering together the daily tempera- 

 tures and snow on the ground, it seems evi- 

 dent that the heavy snow-cover of the cold 

 months made them still colder than they other- 

 wise would have been.° 



The warm weather and lack of snowfall was 

 a great economic advantage to the country, 

 for transportation was practically unhindered : 

 in striking contrast to the conditions a year 

 earlier. The snowfall in iNew York City, 0.4 

 inch in December, 0.3 in January and 0.7 in 

 Februai-y was so slight as not to require any 

 expenditure for snow-removal — truly an extra- 

 ordinary occurrence.^" 



9 For detailed discussions of the meteorological 

 conditions of the cold winter, see The Geographical 

 Seview, May, 1918, Vol. 5, pp. 405-414; Science, 

 1918, Vol. 47, pp. 565-566, and particularly the 

 article by P. C. Day, on "The Cold Winter of 

 1917-18," in the Monthly Weather Review, De- 

 cember, 1918, Vol. 46, pp. 570-580, 4 figs., 24 

 charts. 



10 See article in New YorTc Times, April 6, 1919, 

 pt. 2, p. 2. 



