Notes

Abstract

IN the Daily Weather Report of the Meteorological Office for Friday last, there appears a note of some importance on the temperature of the Gulf Stream. A comparison has been made between returns from 28 ships, containing 116 recent observations, with the data in the charts of the Atlantic sea-surface temperature (recently published by the Office), of the area which lies, roughly speaking, between the latitudes of the North of Ireland and of Bordeaux respectively, and extending half way across the Atlantic. It appears from this comparison that during the past summer the ocean temperature in the course of the Gulf Stream was abnormally high, in June the whole of the above-mentioned area being about 3° above the mean, in July the half of the area nearest to the British Isles being about 1°–5 and in August about 1° higher than the mean. It is to be hoped that similar comparisons will from time to time be given by the Meteorological Office, so that the point may be investigated which was long ago suggested by the late General Sabine, as to there being possibly a connection between the temperature of the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Atlantic and the weather of Europe which followed, and to which we drew attention some years ago (NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 142).