It's Sunspots , not

Razy Weather

It's Sunspots , not Atom Bombs

i LMOST all over the world— L certainly throughout the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand— e climate seems to have gone aywire” over the past year or so, id atom bombs are getting the ime, almost certainly wrongly.

Atom bombs make a better story an sunspots in the popular press, t quite recently a panel of entists gave it as their firm inion that atom bomb explosions ild have nothing more than a T local effect on the weather, ereas it has long been known it radiation from the sun, which ncides with sunspot activity, has definite effect on climate, jong range forecasters, such as ; late Inigo Jones, of Brisbane, i his successor, base their pre tions on past weather cycles, and se cycles coincide with regular ispot cycles. it the present time the sunspot le is approaching its maximum, ich should coincide with the In tiational Geophysical “Year”— 18 months period commencing y, 1957. o for the next couple of years, ither conditions should continue

disturbed, while radio reception except for intermittent black outs, should generally improve in the higher-frequency short-wave bands which are of particular in terest to Island listeners away from local broadcasting stations.

According to Swiss observatory figures, the daily average of sun spots in June, 1956, was 116.7, and the predicted daily numbers for the remainder of this year are July 138- August, 146; September, 152; October 157; November, 162; and December 165.

There may be more crazy weather ahead for the next three years with an increase in the frequency of hurricanes not unlikely.

After that, weather conditions might return to “normal”— whatever that is—until the next sunspot peak in HI years time. Meanwhile, don’t blame the bombs—but prepare for hurricanes.