648 



Researches on the Gale and Hurricane [August. 



Letters to denote the state of the Weather. 



b Blue sky — whether with clear 

 or hazy atmosphere. 



c Cloudy— i. e. Detached opening 

 clouds. 



d Drizzling rain. 



f Fog — f thick fog. 



g Gloomy dark weather. 



h Hail. 



1 Lightning. 

 m Misty or hazy — so as to inter- 

 rupt the view. 



o Overcast — i. e. The whole sky 

 covered with one impervious 

 cloud. 



p Passing showers. 



q Squally. 



r Rain — i. e. Continuous rain. 



s Snow. 



t Thunder. 



u Ugly threatening appearance in 



the weather. 

 v Visibility of distant objects — 



whether the sky be cloudy or 



not. 

 w Wet dew. 

 . Under any letter denotes an 



extraordinary degree. 



By the combination of these letters, all the ordinary phenomena of 

 the weather may be recorded with certainty and brevity. 



Examples. 



b c m Blue sky, with detached opening clouds, but hazy round 

 the horizon. 



g v Gloomy dark weather, but distant objects remarkably visible. 



q p d 1 t Very hard squalls, and showers of drizzle, accompanied 

 by lightning, with very heavy thunder. 



Nautical Magazine, — March, 1839. 



Memorandum respecting the Records to be kept of the state of the 

 Weather in the British Colonies. 

 The Captains of Ports, Harbour-Masters, and Keepers of light- 

 houses, or, where those officers do not exist, some other competent 

 public functionary, should be required to keep journals of the weather, 

 on the principle of the log books of ships. A column should be speci- 

 ally reserved for inserting the height of the barometer. Under the 

 head of ' Remarks/ should be entered all meteorological observations 

 considered worthy of particular notice. When the keeper of a journal 

 may hear that a vessel has encountered a storm, he will enter in it 

 any information on the subject which he can rely on, together with 

 the name of the ship, of her owner, and of the port to which she may 

 belong. With the view of tracing the course of storms, the Trinity 

 Board of London have given directions for the adoption of measures to 

 obtain a more accurate record of the weather, than has hitherto been 

 kept, at the lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland. The keepers of 

 these lights having the opportunity of taking their observations by 

 night as well as by day, great advantage may be derived from employ- 

 ing them in this manner. Officers in charge of Colonial lighthouses 

 should be instructed to keep similar journals. In noting the wind's 

 force, both in the Harbour-Master's journals and in the lighthouse 

 reports, it is desirable that the officers should adopt the numbers for 



