"INVIGORATING"

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 5

"INVIGORATING"

WELLINGTON CLIMATE

AUCKLAND MORE EQUABLE

EXPERT COMPARISON

Climate is such an indefinable thing that there is always plenty of room for argument about it. The staunch Wellingtonian will maintain that the capital city, in spite of its draughts, has the best climate of any place in New Zealand, while the Aucklander is equally emphatic about the claims of his city. Professional meteorologists, if appealed to, are usually not much help in settling any dispute of this sort: they can produce any number of statistical tables about temperatures, sunshine, rainfall, wind, and all the other factors which go to make up climate— and leave the disputants to draw their own conclusions. But something of a new note as regards New Zealand's climate has been struck by Dr. W. A. Macky, of the Wellington Meteorological Office, in a bulletin which has recently been issued by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In this he makes some comparisons of the invigorating effect of the climate in different parts of New Zealand, and among other conclusions reached are that, in so far as the year during which observations were made was typical, Auckland has a more equable climate than Wellington, and Wellington a more invigorating climate than Auckland.

Adopting what is termed a "comfort classification," Dr. Macky records that in 1936 neither Wellington nor Auckland had any days which were overhot. During that year Wellington had 12 relaxing days, whereas Auckland had 57. COol or rather bracing days numbered 99 in Wellington and 215 in Auckland, and very cool or very bracing days 130 in Wellington and 84 in Auckland. Wellington had 89 overcold days and Auckland only 10. Wellington, too, had 33 very cold days and 3 bitterly cold ones, whereas Auckland had none of these.

From these comparisons Dr. Macky draws the conclusion that Auckland has the more equable climate of the t two cities and Wellington the more invigorating, but he points out that { one year's figures cannot be taken as ' final and conclusive: they are inter- J esting arrd useful for a starting point j for further studies. J THE AIR-COOLED BODY. < To the layman unversed in meteoro- ] logical jargon, much of Dr. Macky's bulletin is largely an unintelligible maze of graphs and tables dealing with . "dry kata-thermometer cooling rates," ( "mean cooling power in millicalories { per square centimeter per second," * and similar awesome-sounding things, ] but the figures which have been quoted above translate all this into terms of ] human comfort. How human comfort is directly related to the cooling power . of the atmosphere Dr. Macky explains a s follows:—"So far as the human body ; is concerned the atmosphere has at ( least two main functions. Firstly, it , provides the oxygen necessary to enable the body processes ■to continue, j and secondly it removes the heat which . is produced as a result' of these pro- ] cesses. . 1 "The proportion of oxygen in the air ; is practically the same at all parts of the earth's surface, and, furthermore, , remains sensibly constant from day to day in any one place. Consequently it is only under very exceptional cir- : cumstances that alteration in the oxygen content is sufficient to cause any difficulty in the functioning of the body or to affect adversely our sense of well-being. "The ability of the air to cool the body, however, varies considerably from place to place at the earth's surface, and at any one place from day to day, and even from hour to hour. Upon the cooling power of the air depends almost entirely our appreciation of climate and weather and our general feeling of well-being or otherwise under the prevailing conditions. When the cooling power is insufficient to remove the heat produced within the body we become excessively hot. If it will just remove the heat produced when resting we feel pleasantly relaxed. When the cooling increases, the rate of bodily heat production must rise also if we are not to become cold, and since heat is produced by the expenditure of energy we are led to take physical exercise, and the conditions may be described as bracing. With a further increase in cooling the conditions become very bracing, and then cold. Ultimately when the cooling is such that the body cannot produce heat sufficiently rapidly, even with vigorous exercise, we have to take means for example, by extra clothing—of conserving the bodily heat. Hence a knowledge; of the cooling power at different places can give us a reliable indication of what may be termed the human climate at these places. The cooling power of the air depends mainly on' its temperature, speed of movement, and water-vapour content. Of these the first two are much the more important under normal conditions of comfort." local rivAlkies. Having provided ammunition for an Auckland versus Wellington climatological dispute, Dr. Macky in another bulletin provides further ammunition for those who uphold the claims of i Lower Hutt or Eastbourne against Wellington, and vice versa, in the matter of climate. A summary of his meteorological observations at Eastbourne, York Bay, Lower Hutt, and Kelburn provide some interesting comparisons. Eastbourne, he finds, is on the average 2.1 degrees warmer than Kelburn varying from a probable minimum of about 1.5 degrees in winter to a maximum of 2.7 degrees in summer. Between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. it is at its coldest relative to Kelburn, not getting the early morning sun. From 9 a.m. the temperature rises more rapidly at Eastbourne than wit Kelburn, until between 3 p.m. and 4 n m. it is usually 3 degrees warmer at Eastbourne. There is a slight decrease during the next two hours, but especially in the spring and summer the temperature difference rises again in the late afternoon due to cooling at Kelburn, while Eastbourne is kept warm by the sun shining on the hills behind. On the average, the maximum daily difference between Eastbourne and Kelburn is 3.5 degrees. The mean daily maximum is, however, only 2.2 degrees higher at Eastbourne than at Kelburn. The average minimum temperature on the grass was 2.7 degrees higher at Eastbourne, but during the period considered there was the same number of frosts at each station. York Bay was, on thp average, 1.6 degrees cooler than Eastbourne and only 0.3 degree warmer than Kelburn. The maximum temperature at York Bay was, on the average. 0.2 degree higher than at Kelburn, but during the summer it was 0.3 degree lower. The mean minimum at York Bay also was, ' on the average, only 0.3 degree higher

ii than at Kelburn, while in the autumi e it was apparently slightly lower, a Comparing Eastbourne with Thorn 2 don reclamation, Dr. Macky says tha it the evidence suggests that Eastbourn is slightly warmer in the afternoo s and cooler in the early morning, e Observations made at Riversmeac e Lower Hutt, which is close to the foa of the hills near the Wainui-o-mat 6 Road, show that the mean temperatur d is 0.4 degree higher there than at Ke 1.1 burn. The maximum was 2.9 degree k higher and the 2.2 degree e lower, the daily range at Riversmea e therefore being 5.1 degrees greate e than at Kelburn. The grass minimur i, averaged 3.4 degrees lower at Rivers x mead and there were more frost*