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744
SQUALL


between gusts and squalls is best illustrated by the traces of a Dines pressure-tube anemograph. The trace reproduced in fig. i for an ordinary steady wind shows that the force of the wind is constantly oscillating. The general appearance of the trace is a ribbon which has a breadth proportional to the mean wind velocity. The breadth of the ribbon is also dependent upon the nature of the reference; the better the exposure the narrower the ribbon; for an anemograph at a coast station the ribbon is wider for a shore wind than for a sea wind.

From the records obtained at Scilly and Holyhead, Dr G. C. Simpson concluded that a wind of mean hourly velocity v was composed of alternations of gusts and lulls ranging on the average between limits 5 +.isv and --5+761; with occasional recurrences to extreme velocities of 1-5 + 1-32; and — i-o+-65i>. In other words, the average range of the ribbon is -5 + -451; for the two


stations during the hour when the mean velocity is v, and the extreme range within the same period is 2 0+ -68"j.

The differences of gust velocity at stations with different exposures may be illustrated by quoting the breadth of the ribbon for a 30 m. wind at the following stations :—

Southport (Marshside) 10 m.
Scilly 15 m.
Shoeburyness 20 m. (from W.)
Shoeburyness 10 m. (from E.N.E.)
Holyhead 15 m.
Pendennis Castle (Falmouth) 8 m. (from S.)
Pendennis Castle (Falmouth) 16 m. (from W.)
Aberdeen 30 m. (from N.W.)
Alnwick Castle 25 m.
Kew 30 m.


Fig. 2 represents a succession of squalls occurring in an ordinary gusty wind; the squalls succeed one another with fair regularity about every twenty minutes and last in full force for a few minutes A


Fig. 1.


Fig. 2.