Cyclones

Abstract

MR. DEELEY'S suggestion (NATURE, January 16, p. 385) that the cyclone is caused by the high temperature of the stratosphere does not seem to me to be feasible for the following reason:—Owing to the temperature inversion, or, at least, to the cessation of the lapse of temperature with height, the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere is, in general, perfectly definite, as definite almost as the boundary between layers of oil and water would be. If, then, any sort of sucking action—to use an incorrect but convenient expression—were exerted by the lightness of the air above the boundary, it ought to draw up the boundary itself as well as the air below it. This is exactly the reverse of what happens; the boundary bulges out downwards in the cyclone and upwards in the anticyclone.