WEATHER— A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE 1926 ICE 



SEASON 



Edward H. Smith 



As we sit down to write a worth-while, instructive report on the 

 subject of weather, as it concerned the ice patrol of 1926, and in 

 a sense as it probably concerns future patrols, we believe it most 

 important to survey first only the principal features which were 

 responsible in characterizing the 1926 season as a whole. Under 

 this category comes foremost the steepness of the barometric gradients 

 and the consequent great intensity of the winds that blew so con- 

 stantly from the daj^ we left Boston, March 25, until well along in 

 April. It is impossible, of course, to place one's finger upon any 

 definite date when a meteorological phenomenon such as we call 

 "wintertime" conditions change to "summertime" conditions. 

 This spring on the Grand Banks, however, we are convinced, that 

 wintertime conditions prevailed longer than usual, and it was not until 

 the latter part of April that we began to notice a slackening in the wind 

 force, a dropping off in the frequency of storms, and a lessening in the 

 tendency of great anticyclones to build up and spread eastward from 

 the North American Continent. It also can be stated with con- 

 siderable assurance that the atmospheric envelope was in a violent 

 state of agitation from March 29 to April 20. During this period of 

 22 days the wind blew with gale force on 12 days, and there were 

 only 2 days on which it did not attain a fresh to a strong breeze on 

 the Beaufort scale. Before passing on from the remarks on winter- 

 time meteorological conditions we should like to familiarize everyone 

 with the general scheme of the air streams under which the ice 

 regions come. 



THE TWO MAJOR WEATHER TYPES WHICH PREVAIL IN THE ICE 



REGIONS 



The ice season extending as it does from March to Juty bridges two 

 main tj^pes of weather which standing at either end of the gamut we 

 have termed wintertime and summertime conditions. This all 

 important seasonal effect is of course superimposed upon the funda- 

 mental planetary system of circulation and is directly due to the 

 thermal seesaw which is continually in process between land and 

 water masses. In the North Atlantic (and controlling the weather 

 of the ice regions), we have three great centers of action, triangularly 

 located and with the relative condition of each determining the 

 consequent behavior of the air: (a) the Icelandic minimum; (6) the 



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