German investigation of the climatology of Central Europe has long been justly celebrated. This new volume in a well-known series forms the second edition of a work which first appeared during the war, and was thus not easily available elsewhere. Coming as it does from the pen of one of the best known German meteorologists, it will therefore provide for many an indispensable up-to-date summary of a vast amount of vigorous research; it is moreover an exposition of the newer “dynamical” attitude in climatology, although paying proper attention to the place of the older assemblages of averages. Over many years German meteorologists have been much concerned with the problems of forecasting, or at least foreshadowing, an expectation of weather beyond two or three days; here the reader will find a compact and very thorough introduction to the doctrine of “broad-weather-situations” (Grosswetterlagen) and their development through the year, and to current inquiry into the factors governing the variations in the character of the seasons in Central Europe. The text is closely written and characteristically sound; references to the great German workers of the past abound; agreeable attention is paid, too, to the value of “folk-memory” expressed in weather lore. In a brief notice it is impossible to comment on the many enlivening features of an attractively-produced book whose arguments are illustrated with the aid of twenty-seven folding diagrams covering numerous aspects of Central European weather. This is not primarily a work for the pure glaciologist or glacier physicist; but those who know the Alps will find much to interest them in the summary of recent researches on foehn which, since Alemannic times, has indeed been an appropriate concern in those parts. The continued utility of the long-established mountain observatories (Zugspitze, Brocken, Schneekoppe) will also be noted by many who will recall that 1954 is the jubilee of the closing of the Ben Nevis Observatory.
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