METEOROLOGY 



Mr. Murray's notes for a comparison of the temperatures 

 observed by us and by other Antarctic expeditions. 



Winds. — These may be divided into surface winds and 

 high-level winds. 



As regards surface winds, we found in Ross Sea that 

 these were controlled to a great extent by the presence or 

 absence of ice over Ross Sea. Once McMurdo Sound 

 and the Ross Sea to the north of it became firmly frozen 

 over, we found that we enjoyed calmer weather conditions 

 than we did when the sea was open. Evidently the 

 presence of a large surface of comparatively warm water 

 at plus 28° Fahr. acts as a disturbing factor in the local 

 atmospheric circulation. The surface winds at our 

 winter quarters were either gentle northerly winds, whose 

 speed seldom exceeded twelve miles an hour, or gentle 

 winds from the south-south-east or south-east. If these 

 latter winds become strongly developed they pass over 

 into a definite blizzard. One of the rarest winds at Cape 

 Royds was a north-westerly. 



On the southern journey it was noted that south-south- 

 east winds predominated on the surface of the Great 

 Barrier. These sometimes swung round to between south- 

 south-west and west-south-west. The Southern Party ex- 

 perienced a violent south-south-east blizzard at a point 

 just beyond latitude 88° South. At the furthest point 

 south attained by them, latitude 88° 23', the sastrugi were 

 large and high, and trended from south-south-east to 

 north-north- west. There was much soft snow on this part 

 of the plateau at an altitude of over 10,000 ft. 



On the journey of the Northern Party to the South 

 Magnetic Pole it was found that the chief winds on the 

 coast, as well as on the high plateau, are from south-south- 

 west to west, with occasional blizzard winds from the 

 south-south-east and south-east. Both the Northern and 

 Southern Party kept specially careful records of the direc- 



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