The Climates of the United States

Abstract

IN this work, Prof. Ward, the well-known climatologist of Harvard, gives us not merely a compilation of statistics relating to the distribution of the meteorological elements over his country, but to a very considerable extent, also, he exercises the true function of the climatologist in presenting vivid descriptions of climate, and its effects upon economic status and national life. The twenty-three chapters of the book, abundantly illustrated with charts and curves, including a handsome map of mean annual rainfall, discuss historical matter, the geographical controls of climate, the different types of climate met with in the United States, the regional and seasonal distribution of all the chief elements, namely, pressure, wind, temperature, humidity, sunshine, rain, and snowfall, etc., together with the relation of climate to crops and of climate to health. Thunderstorms and tornadoes, hot and cold waves, which are all in their great intensity characteristic American weather phenomena, come in for special discussion, as also ‘blizzards’, Chinook winds (the föhn of the Rockies), and that peculiar phase of autumnal weather known as the ‘Indian summer’— the great beauty of which in the eastern States is expatiated upon.

The Climates of the United States.

By Prof. Robert DeCourcy Ward. Pp. xvi + 518. (Boston, New York and London: Ginn and Co., 1925.) 4 dollars.