[Short Notices]

Abstract

THE previous edition of this useful handbook appeared in 1926. In the present edition the most important change occurs in the section on clouds, which has been revised in the light of the new “International Atlas of Clouds and States of the Sky“published in 1932. There are also modifications relating to observations of the state of the ground and to the scale of velocity equivalents of the Beaufort numbers as derived from records of anemometers exposed at abnormal heights above the ground. Like the “Meteorological Glossary”, the “Observer's Handbook“in its special function of giving instructions for the taking of routine observations, both instrumental and non-instrumental, at climatological stations is encyclopaedic in scope. We are not sure that the various kinds of precipitated or deposited moisture are in every case so clearly defined as could be desired. Thus though it is implied that ‘drizzle’ is fine rain, that is, rain consisting of very small drops, and may be heavy, moderate or slight, there seems to be a tendency in official practice to look upon drizzle as a distinct species of precipitation from rain, instead of as one of many varieties of rain which it really is. Snow also may fall in fine ‘drizzling’ particles. Then surely the most obvious difference between hoar-frost and rime is that the latter, which is frozen fog-drip, collects copiously on leafless twigs and branches of trees.

Air Ministry: Meteorological Office. The Meteorological Observer's Handbook, 1934 edition.

(M.O. 191.) Pp. viii + 152 + 32 plates. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1934.) 5s. net.