THE RELATION BETWEEN RAINFALL AND METEOR SHOWERS

Abstract

Examination of rainfall figures for a large number of stations shows that there is a tendency for more rain to fall on certain calendar dates than on others. There is a close correspondence between the dates of the rainfall maxima in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and this is difficult to explain on a climatological basis. The effect might, however, be due to an extraterrestrial influence. The rainfall peaks occur approximately 30 days after prominent meteor showers, and it is suggested that they are due to the nucleating effect of meteoritic dust falling into cloud systems in the lower atmosphere, the time difference being accounted for by the rate of fall of the material through the atmosphere. The hypothesis is tested for a particular meteor stream, the Bielids, which is known to have a 6.5-year period. The rainfall 30 days after the meteor shower is found to have a similar period. Furthermore, the phase of the rainfall periodicity is almost identical with that of the meteor shower. The data examined are confined to the month of January, and it is proposed to extend the investigation to other months in future papers.