Charming.] i04: [May 1, 1874. 



METEOROLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



By William F. Channing, M. D. 



{Bead before tJie American Philosophical Society/, Map 1st, 1874.) 



For twenty years I have noticed an invariable coincidence between 

 the appearance of ice in quantity on the Newfoundland Banks or neigh- 

 borhood, and an unusual, often constant rainfall in New England. This 

 rainfall appears to be in proportion generally to the amount of ice, and 

 it is followed, I think always, by a dry period, perhap? a drought of 

 several weeks, the drought apparently having some proportion to the ex- 

 cess of previous rainfall. 



The appearance of ice on the Banks or neighborhood varies in differ- 

 ent years, from April to .June, and the wet spring and summer drought 

 are early or late accordingly. Many years the quantity of ice is sn&all 

 and the disturbance of the rainfall is hardly noticeable. I am aware how 

 many observations are'required to establish a meteorological law for any 

 part of the earth's surface. I therefore only venture to a«k attention to 

 these coincidences. 



There is another obvious peculiarity in the meteorology of the New 

 England coast, due to its geographical position. The projection of 

 Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island into the Ocean may be com- 

 pared to a nose on the Atlantic profile of the country. It happens hence 

 that stoi'ms following a course parallel with the coast, but either just 

 inside or outside the coast line, will in the one case pass entirely inside 

 the projecting shore of New England, and in the other, sweep over 

 Eastern New England, without warning, while the rest of the country 

 enjoys average clear weather. From these two proceedings, Imd storms 

 passing inside, and sea storms extending over the coast from Cape Ann 

 to New London, it results that the weather predictions are more fre- 

 quently falsified over this region than perhaps on any other part of the 

 coast or interior. And yet no part of the American Coast is more densely 

 thronged with vessels in both the coasting and foreign trade. 



It would seem desirable, for the study of the ocean storms, which 

 sometimes thus touch New England, (as well probably as Hatteras), to 

 extend the Signal Service to the Bermudas (by a special cable) and also 

 to Nantucket, and generally to extreme outlaying points on the coast. 



