Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20
q. S. AND CANADA TEMPERATURE
CONTRAST SEEN BREAKING DOWN
Noted Meteorologist Finds Gradual Change Taking
Place Over Virtually Whole of North
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Are Offered.


The rise at other Canadian stations,
like Port Arthur and Dawson. is even
greater. In Alaska the period covered
by the observations is comparatively
short, but even these show a progress
Sive advance in the mean tempera-
ture taken in 10-year averages. But
the existence of milder conditions in
Alaska is best told by the retreat Of
the glaciers ever since they were first
observed
This climatic change is all the more
remarkable because in the southern
part of the United States the trend
is the other way. AT Charleston, S.
c., the mean temperature Of the 10
years ending with 1920 Is nearly 2
degrees colder than that Of the first
10 years Of observation from 1923 to
1882, and there has been a distinct
trend downward. AT San Diego,
Calf, at FL PaSo. Tex, and at Key
West. Fla, the trends are also down
Wt~d.
Sc facts indicate that the con-
in temperature between the
.rn States and the Southern is
,.--.-.nishing.
VIII this continue with backward
GIBBS and flows like an incoming tide
until we are ushered into the mild
temperature of an interglacial period?
Or are we now on the crest of some
warmer period from which there will
be a retreat?
Questions Unanswerable.
No one at present can answer these
questions, but one thing seems GER
tain, since we are now in a long
swing of milder years in the Northern
United States and Canada, we can be
reasonably sure that there will not
be a return of the cold Winters and
cool Summers which characterized
the years around 1916, although 1t is
quite possible that the temperature of
the coming Winter or coming Summer
may be below the mean of the past 10
years.
But even the temperature of the
year 1916, which has been called a
year without a Summer, was not SO
low as one might be led to infer from
this description. The Winter was
cold, but not colder than many sub
seuuent Winters, and the mean tenn
perature of July of that year in New
Haven was 65.S degrees, which may
be compared with 60 in 1891 and 6S.e
degrees in 1914.
An aspect of cold Winters and hot
Summers which is rarely considered
IS that. if II is extremely cold or eX-
tremely warm in one part of the
United States, it is likely to be the
opposite in some other part. If the
Winter is extremely cold in the At
lantic Coast States, it is likely to be
mild in the Pacific Coast States. If II
is extremely cold in Canada and the
northern part Of the United States, 1t
is likely to be warm in the extreme
South. In general 1t is safe to predict
a cold Winter or a warm Winter
every Winter for the United States
because 1t is almost sure to be warm
or cold as predicted in some region or
the other.
Layman's Estimate OF.
The progressive slow changes OF
climate described here must not, how
ever, be confused with the rapid
changes in which many Of our older
citizens believe. Occasionally one
even hears a man in middle life say
I'VE do not have such weather OF
such SHOWS now as occurred when
! was boy Most of such opinions
are to be ascribed to the changing
! condition of the person or his en-
vironment, rather than to changes Of
| climate. A man remembers thai
| there We're occasional SHOWS up tC
his waist when he was a boy, while
| now there is rarely ever a snowfall
that reaches to his knees; but he for
gets that in the meantime he has
grown twice as tall as when he was
a boy. Moreover. the great increase
in the capacity of the public to handle
snow is forgotten. The roads and
sidewalks are now clear where for
merly II was necessary to break
bodily through the snow drifts
Again one Is at more impressionable
age when he is young and the world
is new, SO that striking weather con
ditions leave a more lasting effect or
the memory.
All these considerations need to be
weighed when discussing changes OF
climate, and 1t is better to trust tc
written records or to the records OF
the stratified clays and rocks than to
human memory.