is There a Weather Cycle?

Letter to the Editor IT is with interest that I have compared the opinions of the older residents of these Islands on the subject of weather conditions. The recent cold spell in Rarotonga has awakened memories of better days in the breasts of these old timers— days when such things as sweaters and blankets were unheard-of in this so-called tropical clime. One and all are concertedly adamant in then statements that the local weather is go ing rapidly “to the dogs”. Can this be true, or is that these olders and betters have fallen into the error of most of their ilk in saying that “there’s nothing now like the good old days?”

Yours inquiringly,

Ralph J. A. Ingram.

Rarotonga, Cl., 21/10/1940.

Editorial Note

Mr. Ingram wrote facetiously; but, actually, he directs attention to a very interesting phenomenon. One seems to see a connection between all South oeas weather, insofar that abnormality in Australia, for example, usually is bal anced by abnormality out in the Central Pacific. Eastern Australia, until December, suffered a long-continued and very bad drought: and attention is increasingly being given to the theory that Australia’s rain cycle is between 35 and 40 years.

In other words, Australia, every 35 years or so, can expect a drought that lasts from 3 to 5 years. There is much data to support this belief—including the fact that Australia’s last great drought was between 1900 and 1905. Can the old hands in the Pacific say whether the present weather abnormalities were noted by them between 1900 and 1905?