ANTARCTICA AND THE WEATHER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11227, 26 March 1897, Page 4

ANTARCTICA AND THE WEATHER.

Exceptional weather has been experienced throughout Australasia during the summer that has just closed. “Heat waves” have been succeeded by floods in some places, and there has generally been a visitation of severe and unseasonable cold, which has had a' bad effect on agriculture. In some parts of Victoria and Hew South Wales there were falls of snow and heavy showers of cold rain , in the very height of summer. To-* V! day’s cables tell of a very severe hailstorm in Queensland. Coincidently with these experiences on shore, there have been unwonted phenomena at sea. A number of ships traversing these southerly latitudes have, encountered vast fields of floating ice; several ships were actually in collision with immense bergs, and narrowly 'escaped destruction. The conviction that these unusual occurrences are referable to a common J cause, and. that such cause is closely connected with meteorological condition in the South Polar regions, has been forced upon most students of the weather in this part of the world, Hence the daring proposition of Mr Wragge, the Queensland meteorologist, to establish an observatory on Victorialand and connect it by cable with these colonies, must not be hastily characterised as wild and visionary. It would be a terrible isolation to which those in charge of the far-away station would be condemned; but if the interests of agriculture and commerce would be served by a foreknowledge of approaching disturbances from the south, the cost of the station and cable, and the inconvenience to the observers would probably not be insuperable obstacles to the adoption of the project. Mr P. Baracchi,, the Victorian • Government Astronomer, recently expressed the opinion that the extraordinarily cold and wet weather experienced was due to the prevalence of Antarctic cyclones. Advancing from the south-west, and travelling in a north-easterly direction;’, these usually during the summer months pass away to the south of Tasmania, This year; for some cause which meteorology cannot determine, the cyclones have come a good deal further north, and have struck Tasmania and Victoria. Mr Baracchi holds that Australian weather is largely dependent on the conditions prevailing withiu the Antarctic circle, and to offer satisfactory explanations or to supply accurate forecasts he would require ah assistant V occupying a commanding position on the South Pole, and communicating with tbe Melbourne Observatory daily. ‘ Ab that has so far been ascertained with any degree of certainty is that somewhere in Antarctica there is a permanent depression—that term denoting a low barometer —the result of thin, rarefied air, and that a pressure of denser atmosphere creates a cyclonic movement northwards. Mr Wragge’s proposal is one that ought to be taken, up by federated Australia, as all the colonies are interested in bavin;!' accurate forecasts of the weather. Something may be added to scientific knowledge on tbe subject by one oi other of the pending expeditions to • the Antarctic regions. Our own colony, as lying nearest to the Pole, and as being the probable terminal point of any cable line that may he laid from the Antarctic Continent, ought to take deep interest in the matter, and help to bring it to a practical issue.