A complete geography by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geography
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company;
Published: 1902-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

FiG. 308.

A cyclonic storm in Europe which came from the ocean. The lieavy black line shows the course followed by

its centre. Notice how the winds blow toward the ropC. Europe

centre. , , i , i

largely under the

ence of the prevailing westerlies ; and cyclonic storms often cross the ocean and reach far into Eurasia (Fig. 308). There, as here, the extent of the country upon which rain may be falling from the clouds of one of these storms is sometimes very great. The weather likewise is made changeable by these storms.. That is, in any particular locality it may be warm and pleasant one" day, stormy the next, then clear and cool or cold. Similar cyclonic storms develop in the pr vailing westerly belt of the southern hemisphere, where tliey bring changes of weather to southern South America, Australia, and the islands of the great Southern Ocean.

Sea and Land Breezes; Monsoons. — There is one other great source of disturbance of the regular wind belts of the earth and of

the rain belts that are dependent upon them. This is found in the difference in temperature between land and water.

Land warms and cools much more quickly than water. How hot the stones feel in summer compared with pond water ! And how quickly the ground freezes in autumn, while we are still waiting for skating on the ponds ! In the same way, the land along the seashore on a hot summer morning soon becomes warm, and the air above it is heated, as over a stove, so that it expands and grows light; but that over the water remains cool, like the sea itself. This cooler air then pushes in toward the shore; and thus a breeze from the sea, or a sea breeze^ is created. In summer, such a breeze is frequently felt at the seashore and along the shores of large lakes, and it helps to make the temperature so agreeable that many people resort to those places during warm weather. At night, the land cools more rapidly than the sea; and then the cool air from the land moves out toward the sea, forming a land breeze.

Likewise, in summer the continents as a whole become warmer than the oceans ; in winter they become cooler. And in some parts of the world these differences create winds on an enormous scale. Such winds exist in Mexico and our Gulf states; but in Asia they are far more important.

The interior of that continent is so far from the ocean, that there are naturally very great extremes of temperature. During the winter, the heavy air over the cold land settles down as drying air, and presses outward beneath the warmer air which lies over the ocean. This produces dry land winds. In summer, on the other hand, the air over the cool water crowds in, raises the hot air of the continent, and produces ocean winds and rain. This is well illustrated in the southeni part of Asia. Heated by

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