Abstract
IN discussing the records of the meteorological instruments at Canterbury (NATURE, March 15), Dr. Aitken suggests that the heavy rain which fell dragged down the higher air, and so caused the fall of 12° indicated on the thermograph curve, and he very clearly and convincingly shows the consequent effect on the barometric pressure and wind velocity. If, however, the air had been in a state of stable equilibrium previous to the thunderstorm, the effect of such a mechanical dragging down of the higher air would have been to heat by compression that air so much that the temperature would have been raised rather than lowered at the ground-level. But if, previous to the storm, the upper air had from any cause become very much colder than the lower air, the atmosphere would be in a state of unstable equilibrium, that is to say, the rate of change of temperature with height would be greater than the adiabatic rate of change due to heating by compression of descending air. In such a case the changes recorded by the various curves may have been initiated by this heavy cold air suddenly descending and displacing the lower air, which by its sudden uprising would be cooled, the moisture in it condensed, and a heavy fall of rain caused.
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OMOND, R. Interpretation of Meteorological Records. Nature 73, 512 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/073512b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/073512b0
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