688 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 881 



mation concerning the approach of these de- 

 structive storms. 



Throughout the greater part of the United 

 States and Europe the excessive heat of the 

 past summer will be long remembered, new 

 maximum temperatures having been observed 

 in many vpidely separated places. Unprece- 

 dented temperatures of 98° and 99° F. were ob- 

 served at Blue Hill Observatory (635 feet 

 above sea-level) on six days during the early 

 part of July, while the mean temperature for 

 the month, Y4.5° F., was the highest experi- 

 enced in the vicinity in 63 years, which is the 

 length of the record. At the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, new records have also been 

 established. There the mean temperature for 

 the six months, April to September, inclusive, 

 was 60.7° F., the highest since 1841. The 

 mean for the three months June, July and 

 August was 66.1° F., which is 4.9° in excess of 

 the average for the past 70 years, and 1.0° 

 higher than any previous summer on record. 

 On August 9 a temperature of 100° F. was ob- 

 served at Greenwich, this being 3.0° higher 

 than any previous record at the Royal Ob- 

 servatory since 1841. The mean maximum 

 temperature for August was 81.1° F., another 

 new record. On July 22, August 4 and 9, a 

 black-bulb thermometer exposed to the sun's 

 rays showed a temperature exceeding 160° F. 



Under the supervision of its director, Pro- 

 fessor R. F. Stupart, the Canadian weather 

 service has recently been carrying on experi- 

 ments with registering balloons. These ascen- 

 sions, the first of the kind in Canada, were 

 made from Toronto and Woodstock. Of the 

 balloons sent up enough were recovered to 

 make the experiments successful. Several of 

 the balloons entered the region of the upper 

 temperature-inversion, and uniformly good 

 heights were attained, the balloon sent up Sep- 

 tember 9 reaching a height of more than 14 

 miles. On July 5, the day on which new 

 maximum temperature records were estab- 

 lished in many places, the meteorograph on 

 leaving the ground at Woodstock recorded a 

 temperature of 81° F., while at a height of 

 9.4 miles it was — 93° F. Above the latter 



level the temperature increased slowly with 

 height. 



" Die Winde in Deutschland," by Dr. Rich- 

 ard Assmann, director of the Lindenberg 

 Aeronautical Observatory, is a volume pre- 

 pared at the request of a German aeronautical 

 society. Based upon more than a million 

 ground and free-air observations of wind 

 velocity and direction, it was designed to 

 serve as a meteorological guide book for dirig- 

 ible balloon transportation in that country. 

 Tables and diagrams set forth in great detail 

 the varied wind data of which an aeronaut 

 must have a knowledge. For Lindenberg, 

 where a kite flight or a balloon ascension has 

 been made every day without a single excep- 

 tion since 1905, the velocities and the frequen- 

 cies of winds for each of the various directions 

 at every 500-meter level up to 4,000 meters 

 are shown by means of wind-roses. From a 

 meteorological as well as from an aeronautical 

 point of view the volume is a valuable book of 

 reference. 



" Weather Science," an " elementary intro- 

 duction to meteorology," by Mr. F. W. Henkel, 

 has recently appeared. This volume, consist- 

 ing of 336 pages, is not designed as a text- 

 book, but as a popular work it is very readable 

 indeed. The few slight inaccuracies which oc- 

 cur will doubtless be overlooked by the average 

 reader. This is the first contribution to 

 meteorology made by the author, who is an 

 English astronomer. Dr. Shaw, the head of 

 the English weather service, has also com- 

 pleted a book, now in the hands of a publisher, 

 called " Forecasting Weather." This volume, 

 written primarily for aeronauts, is based upon 

 the results in dynamic meteorology obtained 

 by the Meteorological Office during the last 

 ten years. A second edition of Mr. H. G. 

 Busk's " What will the Weather be ? " has also 

 made its appearance. 



Forest Service Bulletin No. 86 contains a 

 paper, " Windbreaks : their Influence and 

 Value," by Mr. Carlos G. Bates, which deals 

 with a problem that is of interest from the 

 point of view of meteorology, as well as of 

 forestry and agriculture. Windbreaks, he 



