Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation. 3,300 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1907. THE WEATHER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8196, 30 January 1907, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation. 3,300 Copies Daily. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1907. THE WEATHER.

Nkw Zealan'deh.s have had so many changes in the weather since the beginning of the year that they will

feel uncommonly interested in an article by Mr W. J. Loekyer, in which he deals fascinatingly with "Some World's Weather Problems." The changeableness of the weather is a truism which needs no emphasis, but the causes of this condition are worth studying constantly. Mr Loekyer sets them out pleasantly. The earth we inhabit is surrounded by an atmosphere of air, the height of which is known to be at least forty-five miles. It presses upon the earth with a weight equal, at the level of the sea, to about fifteen pounds to every square inch of surface. As e ascend high mountains this weight becomes less; as we go down into deep mines it becomes sensibly greater. We breathe this atmospheric air, and without it we could not live many moments. It floats round the earth, being in perpetual motion; and, according to the swiftness with which it moves, it produces gentle breezes, high winds, or terrible tornadoes. All these conditions are produced by changes in the intensity or direction., or both, of the main currents in our atmosphere. We know that these currents are dependent for the main part on the distribution of the atmosphere over the earth's surface, and we are further familiar with the fact that this distribution is not homogeneous, for by means of our barometers we are able to weigh vertical columns of air. and these weights are far from being equal. This varying pressure is at the base of all weather changes. A scientist has discovered that there are motions of a see-saw character in the atmosphere. One of these see-saws acts over the area between Siberia and Australia. In other words, when, in some years, the pressure in Siberia was extra high, that in Australia was correspondingly low. The writer of the article, with Sir Norman Loekyer, carried the investigation still further forward, and examined the pressure changes at ninety-five stations scattered all over the globe. The result of this inquiry led to the discovery that there really existed only one large see-saw, and this between nearly antipodal parts ol the earth! In fact, it seemed that the Indian region was about the centre of one area, while the Argentine and Chili formed the centre of the antipodal region. What, asks the writer, does this see-saw inform us? In answering, it must be remembered that there is a fixed quantity of atmosphere round our globe, and that il some large quantity is drawn away to any one quarter of the globe there will be a shortage elsewhere. This barometric see-saw tells us that- such :i transference of air is really in operation, and the direction of this exchange is from east to west and from west to east alternately, and not between the equatorial and polar

regions. Here, possibly, is an important cine to the close connection between the meteorological behaviour of regions which are widely separated. One to-and-l'ro motion occupies nearly, but not quite, four years on the average. There is little doubt that this pressure oscillation uominates, and is therefore responsible for, the very different types of weather that are' experienced at any one place 111 the course of three or four jeais. The writer seeks, in the article, for the cause of this see-saw of our ar inosphere, and he finds it in the sun, which, we are incidentally told, becomes hotter and colder alternately every eleven years. Ihe fact oj Jie connection between solar activity and the state of our atmosphere is by ,„»w well established in the minds of scientists.