May 31, 1912] 
recently been placed under the supervision of 
the U. S. Weather Bureau. This institution, 
the first in the country to be equipped with 
self-recording meteorological instruments, was 
founded by Daniel Draper, Ph.D., in 1868. 
The expense of conducting the work of the 
observatory was provided for by municipal 
appropriations, while the founder remained 
the active director until his retirement a year 
ago. The meteorological record, exceeding in 
length that of the Signal Service and Weather 
Bureau, has been constantly referred to by a 
variety of interests in the development of the 
American metropolis. Under the new ar- 
rangement the Weather Bureau has two ob- 
servatories in New York City. At the Cen- 
tral Park station observations are taken for 
the city by the federal officials just as was 
done when it was entirely under city super- 
vision. 
ICE STORMS 
WHEN rain falls while the temperature of 
the lower air is below freezing the drops 
solidify immediately after striking solid ob- 
jects, and we have an ice storm—a frequent 
occurrence in the northeastern part of the 
United States. The precipitation continues 
in the form of rain when the temperature of 
the air near the ground is sometimes as low 
as 9° F., showing that there must be an inver- 
sion stratum but a short distance aloft, other- 
wise the condensation would result in the 
formation of solid particles rather than liquid 
drops. Im New England, where these storms 
are particularly frequent, it is not uncommon 
for the ice to accumulate to a depth of an 
inch on all exposed objects, and on one occa- 
sion, February 14-16, 1909, ice was thus 
formed to a thickness of three inches in the 
suburbs of Boston, and did not disappear until 
four days after the storm had ended. The 
supposition that there is a relatively warm 
stratum aloft during an ice storm was verified 
by means of a kite flight at Blue Hill Ob- 
servatory on March 7 last. In that flight the 
auxiliary kites added to lift the line became 
so heavily coated with ice that they pulled the 
leading kite down instead of aiding in its 
SCIENCE 
871 
ascent, thereby rendering the maximum height 
reached during the flight considerably lower 
than usual. It was found that the air was 
practically isothermal from the summit of 
Blue Hill (200 meters above sea-level) to 625 
meters above sea-level, the temperature being 
about 30.8° F. Beyond the latter level, how- 
ever, the temperature increased steadily with 
height, and was 36.8° F. at 874 meters, the 
maximum height reached by the meteorograph. 
Raindrops falling from this relatively warm 
stratum were undercooled by their passage 
through the colder air below, and immediately 
changed to ice upon striking solid objects. 
EXTREME COLD IN THE UNITED STATES 
In persistence and severity the cold experi- 
enced in the central and eastern parts of the 
United States during January and February 
is noteworthy, as is seen from the following: 
At Grand Forks, N. D., the temperature fell 
to zero or below every day of January except 
the last, the lowest temperatures for all the 
days of the month averaging —20.0°F. At 
Washta, Iowa, — 47° was officially recorded 
January 12. At Chicago, Ill, where the 
average daily deficiency was 11.9°F. the 
month was the coldest since the establishment 
of the Signal Service station there in 1871, 
and in unofficial records prior to 1871, extend- 
ing back to 1830, the coldest January was 1.4° 
warmer than that of 1912. The mercury fell 
to zero or lower on 13 days, 10 of these being 
consecutive, and was continuously below zero 
for 79 hours during the 3d—7th, the longest 
period on record there. At Washington, 
D. C., usually a place of mild winter weather, 
—14° was recorded January 14, this reading 
being within 1° of the lowest temperature 
officially recorded there in 42 years, which is 
the length of the record. Some results of the 
extreme cold were unprecedented. For the 
first time since white man has lived in its 
vicinity Lake Superior was frozen over from 
shore to shore, the ice being of sufficient thick- 
ness to allow moose to cross from Canada to 
the American shore, according to press dis- 
patches. For the first time in 28 years ice 
completely spanned Lake Michigan in places 
