Sur la Distribution des Éléments Météorologiques autour des Minima et des Maxima Barométriques

Abstract

WITH the publication of the first synoptic weather-maps in Europe and America about the middle of the present century, the scientific study of the great movements of the atmosphere and other phenomena of weather may be considered as having commenced. This method of inquiry soon taught us that in different parts of one and the same barometric depression or cyclone, very different climatic conditions prevailed. In the front part of the depression the weather is warm, moist, and clouded, whilst in the rear it is cold, dry, and clear. Further inquiry showed equally distinct types of weather characterising different parts of high-pressure areas or anticyclones. So close indeed are these relations that the study of weather resolves itself very much into an examination of the phenomena attending cyclones and anticyclones. If we could certainly prognose the distribution of atmospheric pressure over North-Western Europe on, say, Saturday next, we could for the same time forecast pretty correctly the weather over this part of the earth. Similarly, if we could forecast that the easterly tracks of the cyclones of the coming winter were to be south of the Channel, we could forecast a severe winter for the British Islands; and on the other hand if the path taken by these cyclones would be to the north of these islands, an unusually mild winter would certainly follow. Hence the supreme importance of any accession to our knowledge respecting cyclones and anticyclones. This is what Prof. Hildebrandsson's laborious and able paper does in various directions.

Sur la Distribution des Éléments Météorologiques autour des Minima et des Maxima Barométriques.

Par H. Hildebrand Hildebrandsson. Présenté à la Société Royale des Sciences d'Upsal le 10 Mars, 1883. (Upsal, 1883.)