New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-12
New- York. July IA, 1891.
sUOPT CYCLE IN WEATHER.

The arrival of this last hot spell just al the
eYaot time at which 1t came will tend to strengtheh
the belief that there is moro or less well dehheu
cycle in the weather, nearly or quite correspond
ing TO the period of the suns rotation. AS long
ago as 1881 so sound an authority IN meteoroiogS
as BUYS Ballot discovered a heat huctuaUloh III
the temperature observations at Danzig, Harlem
and Zwanenburg, through intervals OF twenty
seven or twenty-eight days. Professor Herman"
Fritz, of Zurich, whose studies OF perloolcaI pAe
nomena in weather and other cosmical events are
among the most valuable Of recent Contributions
70 science. examined this matter more fully, ex-
tending his inquiry over much OF western EUROPE
and even to the Arctic and Equatorial regions
He found at Point Barrow, Fort Rae, Godthaao
Jan Mayen and Vivi on the Congo this same
tendency of heat maxima to recur at an average
distance of 27.6s days apart, with cool period
about half way between two hot ones. Greely's
data from Lady Franklin Bay were probably not
accessible to Fritz at the time he compiled tho
table with which he illustrates this fact; but
The Tribune has made the comparison and hnds
tbat the recurrence of extremes of heat and cold
at Fort Conger, from July 26, 1882, to August
1888. agrees quite as closely with frltzs hgures
and as Fritz's figures for five stations do among
themselves.
Fritz had already examined all the data that he
could obtain relating to sunspOts, reaching from
1910 to 1888, and therefrOm computed period
Of frequency in these phenomena Of 27687 days :
and further in the fifteen temperature cycles In
cluded in the table already referred to, the times
when sunspOts were most abundant roughly cor
responded with the observed heat maXima, which
freshly suggests the probability (which scientists
have long been trying with poor success to prove
or dsprOve) that the seasons of spot-a6undance
were seasons of increased differentiation from the
sun.
Not IN this immediate connection, but elsewhere
in Die Wichtigsten Periodischen Erscheinungen, p
Fritz discusses some of the many influences which
must mask the effect of regular uctuation In the
SUMS heat npon our atmosphere; The constant
mobility Of the air, the varying wind directions,
different degrees Of humidity, coudineSs ana pre-
cipitation, the distribution of land and water
on the globe, and the existence Of mountains.
He thus leads one to accept these discovered Co
medicines with much reserve on the one band,
and on the other to wonder that they should ever
be- observable at all, especially in the Temperate
zones
Without claiming any more significance for the
following figures than the critical reader is in
cned TO concede, we venture to offer a little
recent local data like Fritz's: The warmest day
records, was the gath; in March, the oath; tho
central day in that very remarkable hot spell
April 13-May 1. was April %; the central point
in the warm period of May 11-22 was May lG,
itself cold day. the middle day Of that famous
hot trio, June 10, 10, II, is the next landmark !;
July Is was the hottest day of the following
month, and August 10 may be Professionally
designated as the crest of the latest hot wave.
Here we have intervals varying from "a to 81
DAYS, and averaging a scant 2S There were cold
waves, eliminating January 10, February AL .,
and March IA, 1891, although they were not
the severest of those months; but April >, May
:. June and July and 81 mark actual minima.
These dates span periods va:ying from % to 33
DAYS. but averaging about 70. and alternating
rather regularly with the hot spells already men
toned II is not proposed TO make any forecast
here: hut it is TO be readily seen that should
there be a repetition of this cycle in the next four
weeks there would come first a generally cool
period central about August "a, and then a
rise Of temperature TO about September 4-S.
But even though there be a tendency toward
such sequence, there are several possibilities
| lone of which is the interpositon of n West India
cyclone and it's following chilli, which may easily
override it and thus disappoint expectation.