Evening star., 1952-11-12
Records Show Moon
May Affect Weather
Drop in Temperature Found
During FulI-Moon Phase
BY Thomos R. Henry

The moon, after all. probably affects
weather.
Study Of temperature records from
twelve observatories from California to
Australia for several years shows that
the minimum night temperatures for
each month are reached at, or about,
the period Of full moon.
This has just been reported to the
American Association for the Advance
ment of Science here by DR.. Herbert
Henstock, of the University of Wales.
He first observed this anomaly in the
temperature records for North Wales it
self for three years. During these years.
he said, there appeared regular fall In
the minimum night temperature at or
near the date of full moon for each
month. The fall was sometimes grad
ual, its incidence being as much as Q
week before and its lowest point on the
date of full moon. or generally within
48 hours Of it. Mostly. however, the
curve Of the fall was more sudden. be-
ing limited to two or three days. The
lowest point did not always coincide
with the full moon date, but happened
within two or three days before, or oc-
casionally. after it. Sometimes the fall
was continued beyond full moon.
Other Stations Record Change.
The complete weather records Of the
other stations. including those on high
mountain tops in the Rockies and the
Australian desert, showed the same phe-
nomenon. There was hardly ever an
exception over a f1ve-year period, DR..
Henstock found. In general, the fall
was greater in winter than in summer.
No explanation is offered for the
phenomenon, which appears unmistak-
able in the weather records.
Meteorologists in the past have been
loath to accept any relationship between
the moon and weather, because the SUBJ
ject is so overloaded with superstitions
which seem to have no logical basis
whatsoever. Here, however. the records
out.
Last Ice Age Had Two Phases.
There were two major glaciations in
the last ice age which made the present
area of the United States an Arctic
waste as far south as the Potomac and
southern Ohio.
Between them was an interval Of
approximately $4,000 years-or as long
period as has elapsed since the final
retreat of the ice. ...
This is reported to the American Asso-
citation for the Advancement of Science
here by DR.. Richard p. Golathwait Of
Ohio State University. The report is
based on surveys this summer over the
Ohio area by group of scientists spe.
~ al ivH fka Lad
or last ice age-period in American
geology.
The first phase, they found, may have
come to an end as much as $4,000 years
ago, to be followed by milleniums Of
relatively mild climate when a rich soil
was built up above the gravel deposited
by the glaciers. On top of this rich
level is deposited layer of glacial silt
on top of which the present soil has
been deposited. This indicates the ice
must have come again. It did not, how
ever. extend as far south.
Upper Soil Much Younger.
The layer of soil above the first gravel
layer, according to the report, is much
younger than that found on sand de.
posted by the great nlinoisian glacia-
ton, the major ice advance preceding
the Pleistocene, perhaps q million years
ago.
The last great ice advance, the struc-
ture Of the Ohio terrain shows. was not
along straight line. Rather, as the
southern limit of its advance was ap-
preached, it sent out lobes, as If the
advancing monster was exploring to
country beyond. These lobes. naturally.
were determined by the nature Of the
terrain ahead.
Presumably much the same behavior
holds for the East where the picture
probably is complicated by the noun
tain systems. There is some question as
to whether this Pleistocene ice age is
entirely over. There is a possibility Of
more glaciations before the final long.
warm inter-ice interval really gets under.
way.