Abstract
A CAREFUL examination of the interesting communication by Mr. Alexander Buchan to the Scottish Meteorological Society, on “The Temperature of the British Islands,” based on observations for the thirteen years ending 1869, fails to support his conclusion (NATURE, vol. xv., p. 450) that the proximity of London does not appreciably influence the temperature as recorded at the Royal Observatory, and that the temperature of Greenwich during recent years has not been in excess of that of surrounding districts. The evidence is quite the reverse. Extracting the figures, given by Mr. Buchan in the paper referred to, for all the stations within a radius of sixty miles of the metropolis, sixteen in number besides Greenwich, it appears that their mean is 50°.1, that of Greenwich being 50°.6. Allowing for elevation, the values are respectively 50°.68 and 51°.13. Omitting, however, several stations such as Camden Town, which, forming part of London, is clearly inadmissible for the comparison, and Maidstone and Canterbury, where observations were made on two years only of the thirteen, the temperature of the ten remaining stations is 50°.59. Thus, according to data furnished by Mr. Buchan himself, Greenwich is warmer than the southeast of England generally by more than half a degree (0°.54). It may be added that, from the same data, the temperature of the district under consideration north of the Thames is 50°.5, and south of the river 50°.8.
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EATON, H. Greenwich as a Meteorological Observatory. Nature 15, 489 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/015489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/015489a0
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