42 



States and a ridge in the atmosphere extended southward from Hudson 

 Bay to Bermuda. New meteorological conditions came not as a 

 surprise to the patrol as we had experienced stormy weather all day 

 of the 20th which pointed toward a forthcoming change. Early the 

 morning of the 21st, the fog rolled away before a gentle northwesterly 

 breeze, revealing in all directions a hard, clear cut horizon. This was 

 the patrol's first opportunity to scout for ice since May 9, 12 days 

 previous. High pressure and clear weather prevailed from May 21 

 to May 27, upon the latter day of which fog and mist again shut in. 



A disturbance of unusual intensity for this time of season marked 

 the days of the 25th and 26th. The storm developed from a moderate 

 depression over Montreal on the morning of May 22. The next day 

 it moved eastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and deepened to a 

 minimum of 29.66 recorded at Harrington, Quebec. It finally paused 

 in its northeasterly progress because Cape Race and ships to the east- 

 ward on the 24th instant reported pressures of 29.35 and 29.29. The 

 patrol ship, 150 miles to the southward, recorded a pressure of 29.50, 

 but no stormy conditions existed and the winds continued light from 

 the westward. Early the morning of the 25th, however, our baro- 

 graph began to rise rapidly and the wind increased correspondingly in 

 force from a northwesterly direction. At 8 a. m. it was blowing with 

 gale force and a ship northeast of Cape Race, about 300 miles from 

 the patrol, reported a barometer reading of 28.60. Situated on the 

 rear of this disturbance we experienced one of the strongest gales and 

 roughest seas for the season of 1927. Conditions slowly grew better 

 on the 26th, and the wind shifted to light southeasterly airs with low 

 visibility ensuing. That the stormy conditions of the past few days 

 had not ceased was apparent by glancing at the meteorological map 

 for 8 p. m. of the 26th where we found depicted another well-developed 

 but less deep depression than that of the 25th. It became centered 

 east of Newfoundland where it remained from the 24th until the 26th 

 and then another equally well-developed depression arrived from the 

 westward and remained in the vicinity of Newfoundland until the 

 29th. It was plain to see that for some cause the atmosphere from 

 May 26 to 31 had become unseasonably agitated. 



The outstanding feature for the month was the changeable weather 

 during the first nine days, followed by two weeks stagnation of ''highs" 

 and "lows," providing for the Grand Banks almost continuous fog 

 and summer-time directions of wind. The latter part of the month 

 was featured by increased activity in the atmosphere as high and low 

 pressure centers followed each other across the map. We experienced 

 only two days upon which the wind blew with gale force and we 

 experienced 43 per cent hours of fog and 55 per cent hours of fog and 

 low visibility. 



