THE KANSAS WEATHER SERVICE. 627 
half pass to the north and half to the south, so that the mean direction is about 
equally divided. Places considerably south of us have the wind so generally 
from the south that their temperature is far above the average produced by 
actual heat receiving conditions, while in British America, to the north, the 
opposite effects are produced. These tracks are lower over America than over 
the Atlantic Ocean, where they go very far to the north, either from Gulf stream 
influences or other causes, and a higher temperature prevails on the same par- 
rallel, than over this continent. 
The line of mean temperature is also affected by local causes so as to form a 
very irregular curve. Take the May mean, for example, which at Erie for 1883 
was 54°, This passed through Portland, Maine, and west of us, Cleveland, 
Toledo, south of Chicago, Dubuque, Yankton, and then in a southwesterly curve 
to Santa Fe, a point nearly 5° south. 
The isotherm of June included Burlington, Vermont, Oswego, Erie, Port 
Huron, Chicago, St. Paul, Huron, Dakota, Bismarck, and Fort Buford. It was 
colder both north and south of Dakota than in Dakota itself, during that month. 
In July the mean temperature was the same at Newport, Rhode Island, 
Portland, Maine, Albany, Erie, Detroit, Chicago, LaCrosse, St. Paul, Huron, 
Dakota, Fort Bennet, and down to Denver. 
It may well seem almost impossible to average such variable lines, and yet, 
taking these for a number of years, there is seen to be a tendency to a slight 
northerly curve west of Erie, and then, beyond Chicago, a northwest direction 
in summer and a southwest direction in winter. 
In other words we have during the summer temperature similar to Dakota 
and in winter that of Colorado. 
Taking the charts of the mean temperature lines for any month we have a 
partial guide for determining what temperature we will ourselves experience; for, 
generally, the temperature that is reported west of us, upon the line appropriate 
to the special month considered, reaches us in due time, (three or four days) 
with a fair degree of regularity, through all seasons, — interrupted, of course, by 
those areas which override these general rules and come with actual wind veloci- 
ties from exceptional distances. 
REPORT FROM OBSERVATIONS TAKEN AT CENTRAL STATION, 
WASHBURN COLLEGE, TOPEKA, KANSAS. 
BY PROF. J. T. LOVEWELL, DIRECTOR. 
The first ten days of January gave the coldest weather of the season to this 
date. The very low temperature of -22,5° was recorded on the morning of the 
5th, and the effects of this were greater owing to the low temperature which 
prevailed through the last eight days of the previous month. 
Robins have been seen here in the latter part of December and during the 
first decade of January in spite of the cold weather. 
