WHERE THE WEATHER COMES FROM.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1925, Page 1

WHERE THE WEATHER COMES FROM.

LONDON, .Sun,' Hv aerial soundings made by airships, as wo!! as Ly aeroplanes and in-strument-carrying Dal!non. science is now lu sook now answers to llio riddles of the weather. Kxploring liighls hv aeroplanes have lieon intuit.’ already it! ureal altitudes. Now airmen in new machines, wearing stills elect rieally warmed to which oxygon is led, automatically, are to probe still higher into the upper air. while on their lights to Kgypl and India our airships are to carry observers who will obtain data as to wind and other renditions as they exist above the earth. Itv soundings with pilotless balloons instruments are id ten carried to altitudes of 11) or I■> miles, while in one case a balloon bore its sell-recording incchanimi to a height as great at '-'.it miles. Emerging from, such higli-altitude .soundings, is the fact that the conditions we enjoy. her*- at the earth level arc made for us miles above our hoods. There is a theory, for example that our weather in this part of the world is j due mainly to a constant interplay between two great aerial currents, one, a cold stream (lowing down from the Pole, and the other, a warm current, moving upward from the tropics. When they encounter each other—and the point of contact varies—the warm air rises above the cold, and conditions are set up which occasion wet or windy wen thor. Dependable weather records go hack only about 100 years, and modern meteorology has had a Ide o! only aboiu d 0 vears. luit there is much we know to-day; and there will he a great deal more we shall know helore long. The keynote of all weather is atmospheric pressure set in motion by radiation of heat from the sun. Increases in pressure mean line weather, while decreases spell had, and the weather at ground level is governed by the distribution and variation ot pressure, and also by conditions ol lempernluro a- tl ev exist at immensely high nliit tides. What is the cause of such varintionsL This is a fundamental problem which science is now investigating. Already a system exists tor the preparation of maps .-bowing what is taking place in the air at low levels, and it this ian be augmented by an accurate knowledge of what is going on atmospherically at vast heights meteorologists should he able to forecast weather with a certainty which has been impossible hitherto. rlence the vital importance of these amplified soundings of the upper air which are now to proceed oh an energetic. widespread scale, hvoiw dux meteorology is becoming better organised. Investigations are becoming world-wide, and things which are still mysteries should, ere long, stand re- [ vealed.