TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29380, 6 December 1960, Page 15

TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER

World’s Experts At London Conference N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, Dec. 4. Experts from 30 countries including Australia, Canada, South Africa, but not New Zealand are meeting in London to discuss Britain’s favourite topic of conversation—the weather. The chief object of the conference—the Commission for Climatology of the World Meteorological Organisation—is to achieve a better pooling of weather information in order to predict seasonal trends. The Commission’s president (Mr R. G. Everyard) explained that “over large parts of the world there are meteorological trends which show the pattern the weather may take in a given season hundreds of miles away. This could help to solve flying, farming, food and epidemic problems all over the world.” The Minister for Science (Lord Hailsham) opening the conference, which will last for a fortnight, gave delegates an idea of things people blamed for bad weather. “When I was a boy, it was shelling on the Western Front. “More recently, until • the fine summer of 1959, it was atomic fall-out due to atomic test explosions and, more recently still, it has been Sputniks. “It is surprising ihow many in-

telligent people approach me and say: ‘Do you suppose there is anything in it?’ ”