Evening star., 1932-01-28
COLD WEATHER FACTORY
DUMPING GOODS ON
EASTERN HEMISPHERE
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tain well defined routes out of the
Arctic.
One of them is the Mackenzie River
Basin. The Mackenzie River flows north
into the Arctic east of the Canadian
Rockies and east Of the high mountain
range which runs east and west across
Northern Alaska. 1t forms a natural
trough into the Central and Eastern
United States The cold can't easily
overflow TO the West because OF the
Rocky Mountains. So it finally turns
eastward in the form OF a moving high
pressure area and finally disappears
over the Atlantic.
In the past a great superfuity of cold
weather has been dumped on the United
States over this route. Now it doesn't
seem to be carrying so much trathc,
Europe and Asia are reporting more
cold weather The inference is that
they are being loaded up with some Of
the surplus which ordinarily would be
carried over the Mackenzie River route.
Route Not Abandoned.
Not that this route has been entirely
abandoned, DR.. Humphreys emphasizes.
Cold weather still is coming down in
generous quantities. If all the air
routes over North America from the
Arctic were blocked, Dr. Humphreys
says, it wouldn't be long before the
countryside was reduced TO a deSolate
desert. Such probably would be the
case if the Rocky Mountains happened
to be turned east and west, like the
Alps, instead of running north and
south.
The reason for the apparent change,
says DR.. Humphreys, is far from
obvious. In weather, generally speaking,
that which it tends to persist The
longer a drought continues the less the
likelihood that it will rain. When
highs begin moving along a certain
chanQel they tend to keep it UP, like
persons following a worn path, until
something happens to induce them TO
change their route The longer highs"
continue over given route the greater
the change needed to induce them to
follow another path Nobody knows
enough about conditions in the Arctic
to say why the change has taken place
or how long it is likely to continue.
Big cold weather shipments are still
coming down and there is a more i'm
mediate reason why they are not driV-
ing the thermometer down more fire.
quently This, it is explained. is what
might be called blocked high" along
the Atlantic Coast of the United States,
the influence of which extends beyond
the AlleghenieS The existence of such
high" is well known but ordinarily
it tends TO drift eastward and become
lost over the Atlantic This Winter,
especially. it has tended to persist,
Change is Explained.
Ordinarily, it is explained, weather
change would take place somewhat
after this fashion:
A moving high would sweep down out
of the Arctic over the Mackenzie River
of the Rockies, while current or warm
air moved in the opposite direction. 1t
would sweep down over the Middle West
to the Gulf where it would be turned
northeaStward, driving the low pressure
area coming northward from the
Tropics, where all the warm weather IS
made, before it. Eventually 1t would
disappear over the Atlantic. But now.
west of the AlleghenieS, 1t bumps head
on into the edges of this blocked h1gh.'
So it simply goes to pieces before 1t has
got a good start away from the Gull
and its effect is not felt over the rest
of the country. The Gulf States, by
the way. have been experiencing espe-
eially cold weather. The low pressure
area, which ordinarily would be driven
North until it was cooled into hlgn
pressure area, remains over the country.
This, it is emphasized, Is the super
| fcial mechanism. The underlying
causes are difficult to isolate.