Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1899: Volume LIV, No. 3, January 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, January 1899: Volume LIV, No. 3, January 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Virchow, at a meeting presided over by Lord Lister on an occasion
commemorating Professor Huxley, left only one thing to be desired--the
presence of the latter. For a biologist, or in fact a modern scientist
of any description, one can not imagine a more delightful occasion.
=The Climate of Cuba.=--Systematic records of weather appear to be
wanting in Cuba. The meteorological observations kept up for several
years by Andre Poey are not accessible, no need of their being
published having been found. The chief source of information on the
subject is the observations which have been kept up at Belen College,
Havana, since 1859. From these and a few scattered observations of
brief periods at other towns, and by comparison with notes taken at
other West Indian stations, W. F. B. Phillips, of the United States
Department of Agriculture, has attempted to describe the climate of
Cuba. The average annual temperature of the past ten years at Havana
was 77° F., and the difference between the highest and the lowest
yearly means was only 1.1° F. The warmest month is July, with an
average temperature of 82.7° F., and the coldest is January, with an
average temperature of 70.3° F. The highest temperature recorded was
100.6° F., in July, 1891, and the lowest 49.6°. Brief intermittent
records at Matanzas, more than sixty years old, give a mean annual
temperature of about 78°, with 93° as the highest and 51° as the
lowest. At Santiago the annual mean appears to be about 80°, and the
difference between the warmest and coldest months about 6° F. Records
of temperature in the interior, such as they are, give annual means of
from 73.6° to 75°, apparently showing lower temperatures than on the
coast. The average daily range of temperature is about 10°, the
highest occurring between noon and two o'clock P. M., while sudden
variations in the temperature of the day are not unknown. The average
yearly rainfall at Havana is about fifty-two inches. The season of
heavy rainfall begins in the latter part of May and first of June, and
lasts till October, and during this period about sixty-three per cent
of the year's rain is precipitated. Rain occurs on about one day in
three, in heavy downpours of short duration. Notwithstanding the
frequency of rain during the summer months, these do not present the
greatest number of cloudy days. The days on which rain does not fall
are usually perfectly cloudless, and, in general, no clouds are seen
in summer except while the showers are falling; while in other months
cloudy days sometimes occur without rain. The average velocity of the
wind is about 7.5 miles an hour, with variations, according to the
season, from 8.5 miles in winter to 6.5 miles in summer. The diurnal
variation in wind velocity is much more pronounced than the seasonal
variation.
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