Abstract
MR. A. J. STARR's little book is a useful introduction to weather study, well illustrated and, on the whole, clearly written. It opens with a description of the composition, pressure and temperature of the atmosphere, and of the principles of mercury and aneroid barometers, though the description of the aneroid is rather confused. The next chapter deals with wind, including the Beaufort scale, but there is no mention of gustiness ; a photograph of the record from a pressure-tube anemometer would have been a useful addition. The chapter on clouds is well illustrated by photographs ; those on weather and visibility call for no comment. Then follows a short account of observations and measurements, with some rather crude descriptions of instruments. As the Fortin and Kew barometers are mentioned by name, it might have been worth while to explain briefly the difference between them, and a simple illustration of a vernier would have been useful. More serious is the complete omission of any reference to maximum and minimum thermometers ; although a table of frost-days is included, no indication is given of how they are defined, and the reader is left to infer that a frost-day is one with a deposit of hoar-frost. This section might have been expanded at the expense of some of the information about the synoptic code and plotting, which is of less direct interest to the beginner. The chapters on pressure systems and weather forecasting are good and useful.
A First Book of Meteorology
By Arthur J. Starr. Pp. 86. (London: George G. Harrap and Co., Ltd., 1949.) 5s. net.
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A First Book of Meteorology. Nature 164, 87 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164087b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164087b0