Abstract
THE Deutsche Seewarte, Hamburg, has undertaken to produce on behalf of the International Meteorological Organisation, daily synoptic weather charts covering the whole of the northern hemisphere. It is not intended to produce a synoptic chart differing from those published daily by the British Meteorological Office merely in the size of the area dealt with—the British charts cover only a small portion of the large area between the equator and the northern tropic—but one which shall contain the maximum possible amount of detail. For this purpose, it will be necessary to use more material than is provided by the ordinary international exchange of weather reports by wireless, and consequently these extended weather maps will not be available soon enough for direct use in daily short period weather forecasting. Their indirect value in forecasting may, on the other hand, be very great. It is the view of many meteorologists that an understanding of the causes of long spells of abnormal weather can only be arrived at by the study of charts of this kind, a study which can be pursued at leisure, working on past weather situations. In the future such extended charts will be available in time for direct use in daily forecasting, but meanwhile the knowledge gained from the study of those now to be prepared should prove valuable in interpreting existing charts in much the same way that knowledge gained from a study of the synoptic weather charts of Europe and the North Atlantic solved some of the difficulties of forecasting from charts covering only a portion of Europe such as were used in most countries until recent years. But it is in the further development of long range forecasting that they are likely to be of the greatest utility. Seasonal forecasting of rainfall has been carried out with some measure of success in India and some other countries by means of equations derived from the theory of correlation, the future rainfall being correlated with various antecedent values of meteorological elements in distant countries. It is possible that the new charts may cause this method to be replaced by other more scientific methods based on a better understanding of the general circulation of the atmosphere.
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Weather Charts of the Northern Hemisphere. Nature 130, 748–749 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130748b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130748b0