638 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1357 



can be spared will be welcome, even though 

 they may be of the older dates. The publica- 

 tions should be sent to the Czechoslovak Lega- 

 tion, 1732 ]Sr St. l<i.W., Washington, D. C, 

 from where they will be forwarded to the men 

 and institutions most in need of them through 

 the International Exchange Bureau of the 

 Smithsonian Institution; or they may be sent 

 or delivered to the writer. 



A. Hrdlicka 

 U. S. National Museum, 

 Washington, D. C. 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



hurricanes 



We have been told by those who have 

 visited the West Indies, that the natives have 

 named the hurricane warning flag, which is 

 displayed by the Weather Bureau, " el panuelo 

 del Diahlo," or the devil's handkerchief. Such 

 a name conveys a fair impression of the 

 natives' opinion of the hurricane. We are 

 also told that the various hurricanes are 

 named after saints of the church, and birth- 

 dates, marriage-dates, and death-dates, are 

 reckoned from them. In other words, the 

 hurricane is decidedly an event in the lives 

 of those who experienced it. But the native 

 West Indian is not the only one who has a 

 respectful regard for the hurricane, for the 

 vessel masters, whose ships ply the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and those residents of the United 

 States who inhabit the cities along the Gulf 

 Coast have learned by sad experience to be- 

 take themselves to places of safety upon the 

 approach of these interesting and destructive 

 storms. 



The West Indian hurricane, or tropical cy- 

 clone, is an area of low barometric pressure; 

 but it differs in several respects from the es- 

 tratropical lows which cross the United 

 States from west to east in unending pro- 

 cession. The isobars of the tropical cyclone 

 are circular and the distribution of meteoro- 

 logical elements about the storm center is 

 symmetrical, whereas the estratropical low 

 usually is elliptical in form and displays a 

 marked lack of symmetry in the distribution 



of temperature, precipitation and cloudiness. 

 The tropical storm which affects the West 

 Indies and the United States, usually has its 

 origin in the doldrums, or low-pressure calms 

 which in mild-, and late-, summer lie along 

 latitude about 10° IST., in the region of the 

 Caribbean Sea and eastward. Its course is 

 first toward the northwest, or west-northwest, 

 and later, usually in about latitude 30° N., 

 curves northward and finally northeast. After 

 entering the mainland the effect of the storm 

 is soon lost; and, while it may be very de- 

 structive in the immediate vicinity of the 

 coast, its further progress is characterized by 

 a diminution of intensity and an acquisition 

 of the characteristics of the extratropical low. 



One of the most troublesome features of the 

 hurricane, from the meteorologist's point of 

 view, is that the main part of its course lies 

 over water, and, since ships make every effort 

 to escape the storm, the forecaster is left in 

 utter darkness as to the exact location of the 

 disturbance and its direction of movement. 

 When a warning is once given of the presence 

 of such a storm in the Gulf, all vessels in port 

 refrain from sailing until the danger is 

 passed. While this is decidedly profitable for 

 the vessels, it makes the meteorologist the 

 victim of his own efficiency, for it deprives 

 him of observations of clouds, pressure, etc., 

 which are so valuable to him in forecasting 

 the part of the coast where the hurricane is 

 most likely to strike. For this reason, it is 

 necessary to utilize whatever observational 

 data can be obtained along the coast, and 

 Dr. Cline, of the New Orleans office of 

 the Weather Bureau, has recently published a 

 paper'- in which he states his belief that the 

 tides are a reliable criterion of the direction 

 of motion of the hurricane while a consider- 

 able distance at sea. 



Dr. Cline, after a' brief mention of the 

 wave-producing powers of winds, takes up all 

 the hurricanes which occurred between 1900 

 and 1919. In their chronological order, he 



1 Cline, Isaac M., ' ' Relation of Changes in Storm 

 Tides on the Coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the 

 Center and Movement of Hurricanes," Monthly 

 Weather Review, March, 1920, pp. 127-146. 



