WARMER WINTERS IN LONDON

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22017, 15 February 1937, Page 6

WARMER WINTERS IN LONDON

RECORDS OF THE LAST CENTURY.

THEORY OF WEATHER CYCLES DISCOUNTED

LONDON, January 20. During the last 100 years or so London has had fewer cold winters, and those few have been less intensely cold thah in the preceding century. The heat of summer, On the other hand, has remained fairly constant.

These facts emerge from a paper on climatic Cycles read by Professor D. Blunt before the Royal Geographical Society iri Lohdoh. In it he disdUsses the possibility of the existence of cycles, and concluded that detailed examination of meteorological records do not reveal them With any certainty, , The general temperatures of London, said Pfofessor Blunt, could be described a,s a rapid rise from about 1785 to about 1785; a fairly rapid fall from about 1785 to about 1815; and a steady rise, with two relapses in 1837 arid 1887, from 1815 to the present day. Though there had been no appreciable change in summer temperature during the last 100 years; he added there had been a steady rise in the mean winter temperature. The mean temperature of autumn and spring had shown a similar but much smaller increase. The increase in mean winter temperatures was not due to any marked increase in the frequency of warm winters, but to a progressive decrease ifi the intensity of cold winters. If 1850 were taken as the middle point of the record, it was found that of the five winters with a iiieari temperature of 34 defrees or lower, all occurred before 850; and of the winters with a mean temperature of 35 degrees or loWer" 10 occurred before 1850 and only two after 1850.

"These conclusions." said Professor: Blunt, "lend no real support to the idea that the variations to which the climate of London is subject c&ri be regarded as cyclical in their nature, if we are td Use the word 'cycle' in any normal sense." Professdr Blunt suggested that, one factor in the variation of weather over the British Isles was a change in the meah pressure, which was probably to be interpreted as a change in the tracks followed by depressions coming from the Atlantic.