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Moderate Than That of New England, Ographies Either of All War Thea- Warm Winters and Relatively Cool Ters Or of Certain Ones

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Moderate Than That of New England, Ographies Either of All War Thea- Warm Winters and Relatively Cool Ters Or of Certain Ones World Climate and World War V. CONRAD Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. INTRODUCTION THE CLIMATE OF CENTRAL EUROPE' will not be described. It is much more IT is NOT INTENDED to give climat- moderate than that of New England, ographies either of all war thea- Warm winters and relatively cool ters or of certain ones. Only those summers prevail; precipitation falls climatological peculiarities may be all the year round. Neither cloudi- emphasized which influence warfare in ness nor wind show extreme or sur- an extraordinary way. prising values. I. THE HIGHER LATITUDES OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN SYNOPSIS Ice, fog, and wind conditions of the higher latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean, crossed by the U. S. N. supply route are discussed. The Atlantic air route which rounds Iceland is advantageous, especially in spring, owing to the easterly winds in the surface layers and the westerly winds aloft in the high latitudes. Regarding the AEF in Iceland, some char- acteristic climatic features of this island are described and in an appendix numerical cli- FIG. 1. Average monthly air temperatures at matic tables are given for four places on the Vardo (7y2°N) ( ), and at Archangel (641/2°N ) ( ). north, east, south and west coasts of Iceland. Norway. But also in Russia there is The main supply route from the Alexandrovsk, at the mouth of the United States to U. S. S. R. runs Kola River, which is more advan- across the North Atlantic, passes Ice- tageous than Archangel as far as land, rounds the European North the ice conditions are concerned. Cape, and reaches Archangel on the * • • coast of the White Sea. This course The ice is not only prejudicial for is open only in summer because the reaching the goal of the supply route White Sea is ice-bound from about but also forms a danger for ships November to April, more than half near the American coast in the region of the year (190 days). The Murman of the Newfoundland Banks. The coast and the coast west of it are peril is the greater here as this region much warmer, an effect of the North is also very foggy. The two phe- Atlantic drift. In some years no com- nomena are caused by the oceanic cir- pletely closed ice cover exists there culation and in the last analysis by and only in the coldest years has the the general distribution of pressure. coast been ice-bound for as much as In this part of the sea there are two five months. oceanic currents:—the Labrador Cur- In this connection the average rent from the polar basin and the monthly air temperatures of Vardo Gulf Stream with its tropical warm (70y2°N) and of Archangel (64y2°N) waters. are of interest. (Fig. 1.) Figure 2 shows the stream lines of The average winter temperature of the Labrador Current and the average Vardo is 13 F° higher than that of distribution of the pack-ice of New- Archangel in spite of its location foundland according to the observa- 6° lat. farther north. Vardo is in tions of the International Ice Patrol Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 10:01 AM UTC great and the little Karayak glaciers alone push off 1200, the Jacobshavn glacier 1350 icebergs a year. A num- ber of these icebergs drift by current and wind into the Polar and the Labrador currents and thence to the Newfoundland region. FIG. 2. Distribution of packice about New- foundland and the streamlines of the cold currents (after Smith). of the United States Coast Guard. FIG. 3. The average annual course of the The boundary lines show the area number of icebergs at Newfoundland, (after covered by ice at the time of the maxi- A. Defant). mum. Here the ice fields and icebergs The diagram, Fig. 3, gives a good place ships in imminent danger. In idea of the average number of ice- time of peace the ice patrol service bergs which arrive there and of the offers an excellent protection against great variation of the monthly num- this peril. In war time such a service bers. The period from the middle of is restricted. The source regions of March through the middle of July is the pack-ice of the Newfoundland the season of icebergs. The number Banks are in the main: Baffin Bay and of icebergs in the individual years is the eastern coast of Labrador. If a subject to great variations. In 1924 thickness of the sea ice of about 5 feet the ice patrol counted only 11 icebergs is assumed, it can be calculated that but in 1929 there were 1300, according the sources mentioned above produce to E. H. Smith. The icebergs, especi- an amount of about 750 cubic miles ally in combination with fogs, are an of ice per year. A good portion of imminent menace to navigation. The these masses is transported southward shipwreck of the steamer "Titanic" of by the Labrador Current and is pre- the White Star Line is still well re- served by the low temperatures of this membered. On the night of April 14 polar current so that parts of these to 15, 1912, the giant new steamer ice fields extend to the south of the sank by collision with an iceberg just Newfoundland Banks where they are at the most southerly point of the finally melted by the more intense Newfoundland Bank. More than 1500 insolation and especially by the warm people were the victims of that catas- waters of the Gulf Stream. trophe and property of immense value Scattered amongst the pack-ice, are was lost. This disaster gave rise to the icebergs also drifting in the Arctic organization with which the U. S. waters of the Labrador Current. They Coast Guard, now of the U. S. Navy, originate in the main from Ellesmere is charged. As long as this service Land and from the glaciers on the warns the ships by radio messages west coast of Greenland. Seven thou- about position and drift of the bigger sand five hundred icebergs are pro- icebergs, and also destroys some of duced there in an average year. The them, navigation in the region men- Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 10:01 AM UTC tioned is well protected. Submarines too are endangered because of the great draught of the icebergs. A rather low iceberg of 100 feet high, has a draught of about 600 to 800 ft. The risk to the allied ships can be diminished by suitable forecasts while the enemy is fully endangered. The entire mass of the icebergs there is negligible in comparison with the huge masses of the pack ice, which offer eventually a sort of protection to the attacking submarines. The mass of the pack ice reaches its maximum south of the Newfoundland Bank in February. The minimum, practically zero, occurs FIG. 5. The different sorts of water at New- foundland (after Smith). sometimes separated from one an- other only by a narrow strip of mixed water. In Fig. 5 the distance is only 50 miles at the southern point of the tongue of the Arctic water. FIG. 4. Relative numbers which characterize the mass of packice south of the Newfound- land Bank in the course of the year. from September to December. Fig. 4 gives an approximate representa- tion of these conditions in relative numbers. The difficulties of navigation caused by ice are intensified by fog. Fig. 5 shows the three different sorts of water lying side by side in the Newfoundland region. There is the Arctic water of about 34° F which originates in high latitudes and cov- ers the shelf from Baffin Land to Newfoundland. These Arctic waters drifting southwards represent the core of the Labrador current. Turbu- lence of air and water cause a zone of mixed water of about 45 °F. This oceanic region is bordered by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream of about 61 °F. This and the Arctic water are FIG. 6. Number of hours with fog in the area 40/50°W and 45/50°N for the months. Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/27/21 10:01 AM UTC FIG. 7. Frequency (%) of fog on the North Atlantic Ocean (after Schott). Thus great differences of tempera- to take drift measurements on the ture in small distances occur. The sea surface, to sight landmarks and to cold Arctic water gives rise to dense get into and off of airports are diffi- fogs when warm, moist air masses culties not to be minimized. When blow over them, chiefly in summer the fog is near a cyclone the flying and fall (advection fog). Observa- conditions aloft may also be very bad. tions show this summer maximum However, in the Newfoundland region (Fig. 6). the frequency of storms is not too The diagram is related to the area great in winter (22%), and rather of 40-50°W and 45-50°N. This area small in summer (4%). is practically identical with that of the Arctic water east of Newfound- land, and the most fogginess is found there. The two small maps of Fig. 7 show isolines of frequency of fog in the North Atlantic. This representation indicates too the difference between winter and summer and the relatively restricted area with a very great frequency of FIQ. 8. Isolines of the probability of storms fog in summer. Therefore a steam- (% ) on the North Atlantic Ocean in winter (after the "Segelhandbuch fur den Atlanti- ship course somewhat more south schen Ozean", Deutsche Seewarte). avoids the area of greatest frequency The map in Fig. 8 shows the fre- where the probability of meeting a quency distribution of storms over foggy hour exceeds 30% in summer the North Atlantic Ocean in the (only 1 i% in December).
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