✍ Scribed by Tony J. Chandler
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
This is the tenth volume to be published in an ambitious fifteen volume series embracing systematic and regional studies of world climates. It is a direct continuation of Vol. 5 in the series, Climates of Northern and Western Europe. This was also edited by Dr. C. C. Wall~n, and appeared in 1970. Vol. 5 contained an introductory study of the general circulation patterns over Western and Central Europe which, though a little out of date, should be read as the climatological background to the regional studies of Central and Southern European climates in Vol. 6.
The reviewer, in his comments upon previous volumes in the series, has drawn attention to the enormous quantity of climatological information they contain in tabular and cartographic form. This volume is no exception. Those seeking reasonably up-to-date summaries of the main climatological elements, region by region, should certainly start by consulting the relevant volume and section of this series. They may well find all they need. If not, there are copious references to guide their further searches. But for those seeking up-to-date dynamic explanations of the climates, satisfaction is less certain. The quantity, style and detail of the meteorological explanations vary considerably from one part to another. To some degree this is inevitable, not only on grounds of the personal preferences of the several authors, but also because of regional variations in the form, density and period of the meteorological observations upon which the analyses axe based. Even so, though the editor in his Introduction to Vol. 6 attempts to justify individuality of approach, one cannot escape the feeling that certain methodologies are so obviously more rewarding than others, without cramping an author's individuality they should have been used throughout.
This volume is divided into four main sections, using political rather than climatological boundaries for ease of data retrieval.
The account by Schfiepp and Schirmer of the Climates of Central Europe is excellent. It is strongly dynamic in approach and treats climates as the integration of weather as controlled by four dimensional meteorological processes. Descriptions of these are generally up-to-date though they are occasionally unnecessarily and unrealistically oversimplified as in the case of vertical motions through various weather systems. Particular features of this study of Central European climates are the analyses of seasonal changes in flow patterns and the real time synoptic case studies used to illustrate the analyses of monthly characteristics. Detailed~sub-regional studies highlight the enormous variety of local climates. These studies are followed by accounts, illustrations and analyses of variations in the main meteorological elements
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