Abstract
THIS book is written for pilots and observers in A the R.A.F., who will find in it much useful information. It is marred by some inaccuracies, over–sweeping generalizations and dubious explanations of phenomena that meteorologists have not yet succeeded in explaining. One of the inaccuracies is probably a misprint—the reference on page 77 to a shallow depression as one above 1,100 millibars. Minor ones that might confuse a student of elementary meteorology include the statement (p. 36) that pressure gradient is usually expressed as the distance in miles between two isobars of two millibars difference in pressure, a quantity that is in fact proportional to the reciprocal of the gradient, and (p. 52) that in the British Isles it is customary to refer to northerly winds as polar winds and southerly winds as equatorial winds; apart from the absence of any necessary connexion between the direction of the wind and its past history there is the contradictory statement (p. 66) that polar air has a tendency to flow in a westerly direction and equatorial air hi an easterly direction. In the paragraph on snow (p. 97) the explanation of the formation of snowflakes is unorthodox and unlikely, nor is it inevitable to have rain on the ground when snowflakes fall through a layer of air above 32° F. (Why not sleet ?). One would like to know the grounds for attributing (p. 78) tropical cyclones and temperate tornadoes to the same cause. Weather forecasting with the aid of isallobaric charts is not as simple as the account on p. 110 implies, although the changes described sometimes take place.
The Observer's Book on Meteorology
William
Alexander
W. J. D.
Allan
By. (The Observer's Books, No. 6.) Pp. 110. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1941.) 2s. 6d. net.
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The Observer's Book on Meteorology. Nature 148, 771 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148771b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148771b0