Abstract
Symon's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, July.—Meteorological extremes: Pressure. Mr. Symons has undertaken to give, in alternate numbers, a list of extremes of the various meteorological elements. The task is by no means easy, as the information is scattered, in many books and languages, and some of the statements will no doubt lead to useful criticisms. The highest recorded barometric pressures (reduced and corrected) are 31˙78 inches at Irkutsk, January 14, 1893; 31˙72 inches at Semipalatinsk, December 16, 1877; and 31˙62 inches at Barnaul, December 14, 1877. Dr. Woeikof doubts the accuracy of the first reading, inter alia, because the temperature for reducing up to the freezing point had been taken at - 51°˙34 F., and had been assumed to prevail from Irkutsk to the sea. He maintains that the reading of 31˙62 inches at Barnaul is really the best established barometrical maximum as yet on record. The reduction to sea-level from stations some thousands of miles from the nearest sea renders the statements more doubtful than readings taken near the sea-shore. The highest readings in the British Isles are 31˙108 inches at Octertyre, and 31˙06 inches at Fort William, both on January 9, 1896. The highest reading in the neighbourhood of London since 1858 (the date of commencing observations at Camden Square) is 30˙934, January 9, 1896. The lowest pressures are those referred to in NATURE, vol. xxxv. p. 344, viz. 27˙135 on September 22, 1885, at False Point on the coast of Orissa. In the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, vol. xiii. p. 212, Mr. C. Harding pointed out that for comparison with English standards a further subtractive correction of 011 inch has to be applied, which would make the lowest reading 27˙124 inches. The next lowest reading occurred at Octertyre on January 26, 1884, viz. 27˙332 inches. The lowest reading at Camden Square is 28˙295, December 9, 1896.
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Scientific Serials. Nature 60, 308–309 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/060308a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/060308a0