Transcriber's note
Cover created by Transcriber, usingan illustration from the original book, and placed in the Public Domain.
A tornado near Elmwood, Nebraska. A painting made fromwhat is probably one of the most remarkable photographsever taken of a tornado. The original photograph was madein two parts, as the photographer was too close to get thewhole funnel cloud into the field of his camera.
(Photograph by G. B. Pickwell)
Popular Science Library
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
GARRETT P. SERVISS
AUTHORS
WILLIAM J. MILLER HIPPOLYTE GRUENER A. RUSSELL BOND
D. W. HERING LOOMIS HAVEMEYER ERNEST G. MARTIN
ARTHUR SELWYN-BROWN ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
ERNEST INGERSOLL WILFRED MASON BARTON
WILLIAM B. SCOTT ERNEST J. STREUBEL
NORMAN TAYLOR DAVID TODD
CHARLES FITZHUGH TALMAN
ROBIN BEACH
ARRANGED IN SIXTEEN VOLUMES
WITH A HISTORY OF SCIENCE, GLOSSARIES
AND A GENERAL INDEX
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME ONE
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright 1922
By P. F. Collier & Son Company
MANUFACTURED IN U. S. A.
METEOROLOGY
The Science of the Atmosphere
BY
CHARLES FITZHUGH TALMAN
Chairman, Committee of Public Information,
American Meteorological Society
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY
NEW YORK
PREFACE
Meteorology is the science of the atmosphereand its phenomena, including weather.
Nowadays, when we speak of a “meteor,” we generallymean a shooting star; but formerly this termwas applied (and it still often is in technical literature)to a great variety of phenomena and appearancesin the atmosphere, including clouds, rain,snow, rainbows, and so forth. That is how thescience of the atmosphere came to have its presentname.
Meteorology is not a branch of astronomy. Thesetwo sciences are as different from each other aszoölogy is from botany. They are both founded onphysics, and they “overlap” each other to some extent,just as every science does certain others; butif you want information about the atmosphere,weather and climate, an astronomical observatoryis not the place to seek it; while if you wish tomake inquiries ab