Cartographical survey: Atlas of Australian resources, Third Series. Vol. 4

Ingrid Cranfield reviews the 1986 Atlas of Australian Resources, Third Series, Volume 4, Climate, edited by Geoff Parkinson. She praises its balanced account of rainfall, sunshine and cloud, temperature, humidity and wind, and its extensive “Climate and People” section. Her examples highlight extreme heat, human comfort, drought, bushfires, dust storms and cyclones, alongside maps rating climatic suitability for outdoor recreation. She considers the maps and tables’ preference for medians and percentiles more informative about extremes, but notes that these measures require concentration and that some percentages are harder to grasp than counts of days. She praises the clear, uncrowded maps and apt, well-reproduced photographs, while criticizing the omission of the Tropic of Capricorn. She concludes that the volume maintains the series’ high standard of content and presentation.