112 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 



the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream opposite the southern coast of Florida 

 and distant abont 60 miles. 



CLIMATE AS A WHOLE. 



The geographical position of the Bahama Islands is such as to give to 

 them many of the essential features of an ideal winter resort. The latitude 

 of the group, from 23° to 28° north, insures a moderately high temperature 

 throughout the year, with an average for the winter months very close to 

 that which physicians regard as a most healthful temperature. The Islands 

 are in the midst of the slow northward surface drift of the Atlantic waters, 

 with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream just to the west of them, insuring 

 at all seasons of the year an equable temperature free from marked and 

 sudden changes from day to day, whatever the direction of the wiad may be. 

 The occasional cold northwest winds which sweep over the United States dur- 

 ing the winter months, and constitute our cold waves, are greatly modified 

 in temperature before reaching the coasts of our south Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, and are still further tempered in passing over the narrow but warm 

 waters of the Gulf Stream before striking the central or eastern islands of 

 the group. Only rarely do these cold waves retain a vestige of their conti- 

 nental severity upon reaching Nassau. The temperature of the surrounding 

 ocean waters changes but a few degrees from season to season, and as a result 

 the Islands are practically free from the marked and rapid changes in tem- 

 perature which constitute so trying a feature of the continental climates. 



One of the first and most marked impressions made upon a visitor from 

 the north to these Islands in the summer months is the intense power of the 

 direct rays of the sun. While the increased heat of the sun was very notice- 

 able to all of our party, the effect was not apparently harmful, nor did it 

 cause any serious discomfort with ordinary precautions. The greatest heat 

 of the day occurs somewhat earlier than with us. The sun's power seemed 

 to attain a maximum as early as ten or eleven in the morning, although this 

 is only an impression and was not verified by instrumental observations. 



With an average humidity quite as high as that of the Atlantic Coast 

 States, there was even in mid-summer less of the intensely oppressive weather 

 so common during the warm months in the States bordering the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Oppressive heat there was, and at times it was excessively so, but the 

 almost constant presence of a breeze, though frequently light, was sufficient 



