40 MAIIION EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 



Meinardiis, by Breimecke. by Wiese, and by I^rooks and Queiinell 

 Mith the object of deteriuininf; Avhat effect variations in these ice 

 areas have on the weattier of Enrope. Meinardus (1906, p. 151) 

 compifed a table giving the deviation and severity of tlie pack on 

 Iceland from 1801 to 1904, and since that time similar data have 

 been compiled monthly by the British Meteorological Office. The 

 basis of Meinardus 's figures were the number of days that ice was 

 sighted from the coast of Iceland — when the masses Avere particu- 

 larly heavy the values received double weight. The investigation 

 discloses a very clearly marked periodicity in the character of the 

 east Greenland jiack of -liX) years. -'^' The annual variations in the 

 ice off Iceland are associated with similar variations in the wind; 

 for example, in a winter with unusually strong, fair winds more ice 

 than normal is to be expected to drift past Iceland. The data 

 selected by Meinardus to demonstrate this were the difference in 

 atmospheric pressure between Stykkisholm, Iceland; and Vardo. 

 Xorway, which, if large, forecasts more ice than usual in the east 

 Greenland current the following spring. Wiese (1924, p. 289), in- 

 de})endently investigating the variations in ice conditions in the 

 Barents and Kara Seas, found an excei)tionally high correlation be- 

 tween autumn air temperatures there and the volume of pack ice 

 along east Greenland 41/0 years later — a low temperature presages 

 much ice and vice versa. The well-marked periodicity of 4io yeare 

 is explicable when we realize that it represents the interval necessary 

 for the ice to complete the journey to Iceland from its sources. 

 Brooks and Quennell (1928, p. 3) have collected a long series of 

 statistical data on sea-ice conditions in the following regions: Off 

 Iceland; (xreenland Sea; Barents Sea; Kara Sea: and Arctic Ocean. 

 The work of these meteorologists constitutes the most thorough inves- 

 tigation to date on the effect of northern ice on European weather. 

 More ice off Iceland, or in any one of these several seas than normal, 

 causes in the same months an excess of pressure around Iceland and 

 a deficiency of pressure from Paris to the Azores. One of the most 

 interesting discoveries was that heavy ice conditions during sprinji 

 in northern waters are liable to be followed by a deficiency of pres- 

 sure the following autumn around the British Isles. The cause is 

 in the liberation of more water than normal, by melting, to mix 

 with the Gulf stream during the sunnner. The regional variiitions 

 in sea temperature j^roduce corresponding thermal variation> in the 

 atmosphei'e bringing stormy weather to northern Euro})e. It seems 

 well established, therefore, from the foregoing that variations in 

 the pack ice of the northeastern North Atlantic exert an important 

 control over European weather, the effect of the ice on the atmos- 

 ])heric pressures for the countries north of the l^ritish Isles bein},' 

 stronger even than that of the Gulf stream. 



Thk Eastkun Nokth Amkuicax Tack 



One of the largest streams of ice that emerges out of tlie north 

 follows a path ah)ng the east side of Baffin Land, along the Labrador 

 coast, and eventually spreads out ])ast Newfoundland. (See HiT- !!'• 

 p. JiG.) The geographical positions of the North American lands ami 



-"Brooks and QuenneU (19281, p. Ci recalculating make this lisure 4.7G years*. 



