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Aviation History
1911
1911 - 1066.PDF
(/JJGHT DECEMBER 9, IQII. DECEMBER WEATHER. THE AVERAGE OF IOO YEARS, By T. F. THE last month of the year is the worst, or second worst, month of the whole twelve for flying. It runs neck to neck with January, which has slightly longer days and fewer fogs but more gales and far more snowfalls than December. December is the second stormiest month of the year. It has three times as many gales as Tune, but they are mostly warm winds coming from the south and south-west. As a rule a very stormy period of ten days beginning about the 12th, is followed by four or five days of calm—the halcyon days—just before Christmas. But with the dropping of the wind come the fogs. The three days before Christmas have had 65 fogs in a hundred years, and, if we take the whole week from the 22nd to the 27th, the caances of a fog are 4 to 3, but against a really dense fog the odds are 3 to I. During the whole month there is an average of five fogs of all kinds and one dense fog. Still, this month is a trifle less foggy than November. In frequency of snowfalls December comes only fourth. The average of snow days is three, and a fall is nearly twice as probable during the second than during the first half of the month. It will be seen from the table that snow is much more likely immediately after Christmas Day than before it. In this month we have one-eighth of the whole year's gales, one- sixth of the snow, and nearly one-sixth of the fogs. December has the shortest days, the least amount of sunshine (only one-sixth of the sunshine of July), and the largest percentage of cloudy and overcast skies, of all the months. The humidity of the atmosphere is at its highest point for the year, and, although the rainfall is comparatively low, rainy days are very numerous. Towards the end of the month the coldest period of the year sets in and there is little improvement until the end of February. Usually the third to the ninth is a singularly warm period. It may be of use in this last article to sum up the characteristics of the months in tabular form. It will be seen that, unceitain as the weather may be in any year, there is, over a long period, a gradual and regular increase and decline of the various phenomena, so that one may foretell with some probability the relative prevalence of gales, fogs and other adverse conditions in any month. This table gives the number of gales, &c, occurring in each month during a period of 100 years :— In 100 Years. M =0 o «h £ 0 tn "H X c H '3Q Si Is. is o e JOT January February ... March April May June July August September October November... December ... 253 203 223 121 97 76 89 89 ' 112 ibi 194 236 11,854 398 298 273 151 76 75 64 121 374 84 bi 42 17 9 7 6 21 66 502 97 524I130 508:107 3,364 647 396 38: 324: 6o| 312 116 129 148 14 89 °j 33 01 14 o| 15 2 18 IS1 17 74 23 247 1,500 29 619 6 17 73 138 197 275 207 100 36 20 11 i,47i 1,238 1,312 1,201 1,232 1,156 1,238 1,295 1,235 1,504 1,395 1,417 8838 4839 52:41 57;47 9ii53 0459 4062 346i J557 7850 2243 «:, 39 42 56 106 149 201 196 208 6 189 •2 141 •o; 93 •5; 50 •9; 36 Year From this it appears that in an average year we are to expect 18 gales, 34 fogs, of which 6 are dense fogs, 15 snowfalls, 6 hail storms, II thunderstorms, and 157 rain-days. Comparing December with the preceding and following month Hydro-aeroplanes on Lake Windermere. IN its initial flight on Saturday week, the Curti*s-type hydro aeroplane, built for Capt. E. W. Wakefield by Messrs. A. V. Roe and Co., pel formed very successfully, wi h Mr. Stanley Adams at the wheel. Start'ng fiom Capt. Wakefield's headquarters at Hillot Oaks, between Bowness and Newby Bridge, the machine made eight runs of varying lengths, the distance covered beic g between four and five m les. On the following Mor day a number of people assembled by invitation to see some trials with the machine and witnessed two pretty flights. In the first, an oval of about 5 miles round was traversed, at heights varying up to 40 ft., while the subsequent trip was a circular one of 2\ miles over the lake, the altitude ranging up MANNING. we get, in a period of ten years, the following numbers of gales, fogs, &c. :— Ten years' gales fogs dense fogs snow-falls rain-days hail-storms thunderstorms... Average rainfall (Greenwich) Mean temperature (Greenwich) .. Hours of sunshine (Greenwich) .. Degree of humidity (Greenwich).. Nov. »9i 52 13 7 139 2i 2 2'22 in. 43-5 50 87-3 Dec. 24 5i io£ 25 142 3 1 1 "83 in. 39 9 36 88-6 Jan. 25i 40 8£ 40 147 4 I 1-88 in. 38-6 42 88-0 Daily Table of Weather Phenomena in December. The figures show the number of each event in one hundred years. a d 8 a s£ 40-6 40-6 408 41-1 4i-3 41-3 41-o Day. 1 .. 2 .. 3 •• 4 •• 5- 6 .. 7 •• 5 13 8 S 6 7 "3 OX! 0 15 10 8 & c.o P 2 4 1st week ... 60 10 13 15 9 86 * 0 a OT 4 5 8 4 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 £ 5 52 38 48 52 65 55 54 4' 364 — 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 2nd week .. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 3rd week .. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 4th week .. 29 30 3i 9 8 6 4 8 8 7 50 10 7 11 . 8 7 12 7 . 62 • 7 2 • 5 8 8 • 5 10 — • 45 • 7 . 6 . 6 18 17 23 23 17 20 18 136 16 IS 20 12 12 14 '5 I04 24 21 20 18 15 18 17 133 15 16 18 4 3 4 7 3 5 2 28 3 2 4 3 4 3 2 21 7 4 5 3 5 4 4 S2 5 4 7 6 7 9 7 4 4 4 41 5 7 II 7 12 sS 8 58 12 6 9 10 14 16 14 —— 81 . 7 9 10 2 - 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 — 6 — 1 4 1 - I - - — 7 — 1 1 1 1 - - - - - ~ 1 - - - - 1 2 - — 3 — - - - - - - 1 — 1 — 1 1 _ 51 44 43 43 46 48 49 324 49 46 46 58 38 39 41 317 44 29 32 33 40 48 52 278 '• 49 44 41 40-6 40-3 39'9 39-8 39 '9 40-i 40-2 — 40-3 40*2 40 "o 397 39'3 39 0 38-8 • 386 38-4 38-3 38-4 38-4 38-5 — • • — 38-6 38-6 38-6 Month 236 508 107 247 29 11 1,417 ®' ® ® 39'9 and to 75 feet. The next day the machine was out again, difficulty was experie ced in rising to a height of 300 ft. A 50-h.p. Gnome engine is fitted, while the float consists of a three-stepped hydroplane, built by Messrs. Borwick, the framework being of mahogany, and the covering of Willesden canvas. Mr. Gnosspehus also had his hydro-monoplane out on Saturday week at Cockshott, but the machine had only been going a minute or so when it was caught by a gust of wind, and capsized. The pilot was thrown out, but fortunately escaped with nothing worse than a ducking. The damage to the machine consisted of a broken wing and splintered propeller. This machine, which is the second built by Mr. Gnosspelius, is fitted with a 50-h.p. Clerget engine. 1074
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