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Whether Rain or Shine: Weather Regimes from a New Guinea Perspective
Author(s) -
Sillitoe Paul
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1994.tb02467.x
Subject(s) - geography , climatology , weather patterns , new guinea , perspective (graphical) , meteorology , climate change , history , environmental science , geology , ethnology , oceanography , artificial intelligence , computer science
The climate of any region is of interest to those who live there, impinging as it inevitably does on their lives. This paper explores the interest evinced in the weather by some Wola speakers, living in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It is an attempt at an ethno‐meteorology, a scarcely researched but creditable field of enquiry. It compares and contrasts observations of the climate and records of the weather with local people's comments and thoughts on these phenomena. The paper covers both daily weather patterns and annual seasons, with a detailed investigation of rainfall patterns, cloud cover, wind and pressure, and temperature and humidity variations. It concludes on the management of climatic perturbations, notably infrequent frosts.