THE CLIMATE OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS. 



By Alfred J. Henry, 

 Professor of Meteorology, United States Weather Bureau. 



The climate of the southern Appalachian region pos- 

 sesses some distinctive features, yet, on the whole, it is 

 rather closely related to the great continental type of the 

 middle latitudes. The pure type of continental climate — 

 cold winters and hot summers — is found immediately to 

 the westward in the Mississippi Valley and the plains region 

 beyond, up to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 Atlantic slope has a climate somewhat less severe than 

 that of the interior valleys, being oftener under the in- 

 fluence of warm southerly winds in winter and cooling 

 oceanic winds in summer. 



Intermediate in g-eoffraphic position between the two climatic 



o r L ^ ditionsvary 



great areas just mentioned the southern Appalachian ^^p°|'''*p'^''' 

 region naturally possesses a climate that partakes some- 

 what of the main features of the climatic zones both to the 

 westward and the eastward. Its distinctive features are 

 lower temperature, both summer and winter, a drier 

 atmosphere, greater rainfall and snowfall, higher wind 

 velocity, and a greater intensity of the direct solar rays. 

 These characteristics are due for the most part to the 

 greater altitude of the Appalachian region as compared 

 with surrounding levels. In a region of such extremely 

 varied topography there must naturally be limited areas 

 in which, owing to some natural advantage of position or 

 exposure, the climatic conditions are materially difl^erent 

 from those which obtain over the greater part of the 

 region. Thus, for example, a mountain slope or a valle}^ 

 facing southward would naturally possess a higher tem- 

 perature and an immunity from frost not to be found in 

 similar orographic conditions with a northern exposure. 



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