PACIFIC WEATHER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 2, 27 August 1943, Page 4

PACIFIC WEATHER

THE weather is proving- to be the ally of the Japanese in the Pacific war zone, and it will continue to help the enemy until the Allied forces establish bases north of the Equator and are in a position to attack the mainland of Japan itself. The advantage at present held by the Japanese is due to the fact that storms in the North Pacific usually move from north-west to south-east or from west to east. This enables "he enemy to move his striking- forces along with the weather, as he did in April, when a large convoy was sent towards New Guinea under cover of a prolonged tropical storm. On that occasion the weather broke before the convoy reached land, the ships were spotted by Allied aircraft, and the Battle of the Birmarck Sea resulted. The usual weather trend in the South Pacific zone has proved to be a heavy handicap to Allied airmen. Disturbances in the equatorial regions frequently continue as high as 50,000 feet —a height too great to be surmounted by aircraft — and Allied striking forces have, on more than one occasion, been compelled to turn back before reaching their targets. According to the senior aerological officer on Admiral Halsey's staff, the Japanese will continue to hold the weather advantage until the Allies break into the western North Pacific. These hurricanes and tropical storms move up from the Japanese mandated islands in the direction of the Japanese mainland. Had the Americans been able to hoM the Philippines, Allied fprces could have sailed from bases there under cover of such storms to attack Japan. Unfortunately ' the disturbances in the North Pacific are infrequent and the weather there will never be the constant ally to the United Nations that it has been to the Japanese in the southern zone. The enemy has an excellent meteorological service and is credited, with the Germans, with making more use of it than any of the other warring nations. German methods were studied by the Japanese who, before the war, carried out much original research. They were the only people Avho refused to co-operate with every other "country in the world by supplying daily weather reports. The Allied meteorological service in the. South Pacific has now been greatly strengthened and is staffed mainly by Americans who say that weather forecasting in the equatorial regions-is the most difficult meteorological job in the world.