of air raiders dropping their bombs on helpless humans below.

Apheliotes, the east wind, is a graceful youth, with arms full of flowers, fruit and wheat. Naturally this was a favorite wind, blowing in from the sea, with frequent light showers. Some of us who dwell on the Atlantic Coast, in more northern latitudes than Athens, do not always regard with favor the east wind, associating it with chilly, damp and sombre weather. Yet it is the harbinger of good—tempering the cold of winter and the heat of summer. It is an angel of mercy in mid-summer when the temperature is above the nineties and there is no air stirring. Then it is, that we all welcome the refreshing wind from the sea.

Euros, the southeast wind, and neighbor to Apheliotes, is a cross old fellow, intent on the business of cloud making. He alone of all the winds carries nothing in his hands. In the New Testament he becomes Euroclydon, wind of the waves. He is no friend of the sailor; and the seasick traveler prays to be rid of his company.

The figure on the south face of the tower, Notos, is the master of the warm rain. He carries with him a water jar which has just been emptied. Compare his light flowing robes and half-clad neck and arms with the close fitting jacket of old Boreas. At his shrine, hydraulic engineers well might worship.

Next, the Mariner's wind, Lips, the southwest favoring breeze bringing the ships speedily into harbor; yes, into that Piraeus, famed in classic history. Incidentally it is the southwest wind which differentiates the climate of Great Britain from that of Labrador. This wind makes Northwest Europe habitable; while on the other side of the Atlantic, in similar latitudes, but under the influence of prevailing northwest winds, we find Labrador—a section certainly misnamed, for it is not the abode of farmers, as the name implies—but barren and bleak. What a difference it would make thruout this region if the Gulf Stream continued north, close to the shore, and the prevailing winds were from the east. Our North Atlantic Coast would then be the land of zephyrs, using the word in the sense of pleasant, gentle winds.

Fig. 2. Boreas—The North Wind

Zephyros, the west wind, is represented as a graceful youth, scantily clad, with his arms filled with flowers. In Greece this wind traversed the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Corinth before reaching Athens. It is quite unlike our west wind which blows across a continent, and is continuously robbed of its water vapor on the long passage. The Ionian wind is pleasantly moist and refreshing.

Last of all, but by no means least important, is Skiron, lord of gusty northwest gales. Freezing in winter, parching in summer, he carries with him a brazen fire basket and spills a generous stream of hot air on all below. His husky Highness might not inappropriately adorn legislative halls and editorial sanctums. He would displace the blindfolded lady holding scales very much out of balance. Think of the deep significance of his presence.

In our country the northwest is of all winds, except the west, most persistent. For 1600 hours in a year, this wind is with us. Joining forces with the west wind, these directions prevail one third of the time. These northwest-west winds also have the greatest speed and gustiness. The climate of the United States is essentially determined by the prevalence of the north, northwest and west winds.

FORECASTING THE WEATHER

In old days, the haruspices (for this is what the Romans called weather men in the days of Caesar) proclaimed the will of the gods by consulting the entrails of some freshly killed animal. Evidently these haruspices did not always make correct forecasts; for there were some Romans who openly questioned their worth. Cato, the Censor, is on record as saying "that he wondered how one haruspex could look another in the face without laughing!"

Fig. 3. Kaikias—The Northeast Wind

The modern professional forecaster would scorn to consult the entrails. There are however many amateur forecasters who foretell weather by their aches and rheumatic pains. Probably there is a high correlation factor between body sensations and dampness; and some individuals are quite sensitive to changes in both relative and absolute humidity. This, however, does not always mean that a storm is approaching. Humidity or dampness is only one factor and may be quite local, whereas most storms are wide-spread.

THE WEATHER MAP

The official forecaster consults a daily weather map and certain auxiliary maps which show changes in pressure and temperature for twelve hours or more. He examines closely the contours of pressure as shown on the map. The synoptic map, as it is called, because it is a glance at weather conditions over a large area at one and the same moment, is a map on which are plotted pressure, temperature, wind direction, velocity and rainfall. The lines of equal pressure or isobars generally curve and inclose what is known as a cyclonic centre, or depression or LOW. The arrows point in, but not exactly toward the centre of the depression.

On the map there will probably appear also an area of high pressure where the surface air flows leisurely outward and away from the place of highest pressure. Such an area is called an anticyclone, a word first used by Sir Francis Galton in 1863 to designate not only high pressure, but general flow of the air in a reversed or opposite direction to that of the low area or cyclone. The word cyclone was first used by Piddington in 1843 in describing the flow of the air in the typhoons of the East Indian Seas. It is from the Greek and literally means the coils of a serpent. The word cyclone must possess some special merit in the minds of journalists for it is quite commonly misused for tornado in descriptions of the smaller and more destructive storm.

THE LOW

Cyclone is simply the generic name for a large rotating air mass. It is a barometric depression or LOW and is characterized by a flow of air inward and around a moving centre. The air circulation is counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the south.

Perhaps if the earth stopped rotating and there was no planetary circulation, with the great west-moving trades and east-moving "westerlies," the arrows on the weather map would all point directly toward the centre of the LOW; but, as things are, there are some very good reasons why air can not move directly into a LOW, that is at right angles to the isobars.

Moreover, the weather map does not indicate the true flow of the air, for observations of the wind made at the ground tell only a part of the story of the balance which the flowing air must maintain under the action of various forces, such as gravitation, rotational deflection, centrifugal tendency, and the various expansion and compression forces.

The winds near the ground are modified both in velocity and direction by friction.