METEOROLOGICAL RECORDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 100, 30 March 1937, Page 2

METEOROLOGICAL RECORDS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The meteorological records for Palmerston North are apparently seldom published and, even then, are not very edifying because unreliable. I refer particularly to rainfall and temperature. It too frequently happens that a sharp shower is experienced in one part of the city, while the other remains quite dry. Then again regarding temperature. It is wellknown that the largest buildings are the coolest during a hot day, other things being equal; therefore the temperature in the shade register is absolutely worthless for comparative purposes unless taken in structures of a standard size. The minimum temperature. if taken on a plot of grass one foot in area, apparently fulfils the department’s requirements. This is absurd because, as frequently happens, it may be surrounded with a big area of bare soil which lacks the insulating qualities of turf by absorbing the heat of the sun during the day and throwing it off during the night. If this soil be at a slightly higher level and continues to slope upward from the grass plot, it will not affect the grass temperature, as the heat arising will follow the incline. This rule applies only to absolute calm, but, unless guarded against, tlie minimum reading may be several degrees higher than actual. A wind quickly equalises the temperature in all situations. The only, apparent remedy is to have at least three recording stations vyhere only one at present exists. They should be about a mile apart, on open spaces, and their mean reading taken as the record for that particular district The river gauge, published daily, provides a reliable indication of tire rainfall for the whole province: vet there is always the probability of the bed of the river being raised or lowered by the action of floods and by instituted protective works for flood control. An accumulation of lupins on the banks of the river, which during flood periods previously provided much additional space for less obstructed flow, tends to narrow and deepen the main channel and the shingle to he deposited on a wider channel lower down stream. —I am. ol ‘ " C. H. MASON. Palmerston North, March 27, 1937.

The monthly weather reports published in the “Standard” are furnished from the records specially kept by a master of the Boys’ High School for the Meteorological Department.