The primary object of this study is to analyze the specific character of the American urbanization for which the term “open-country suburbanization”, more specifically “open-country suburban residential development”, could be used, in relation to the transportation network well characterized by the combination of radial and gridiron road patterns. It is the author's hope that some characteristics of American medium-sized cities such as Lansing having nearly a population of 100, 000 within its municipality, and, in addition to that, having also approximately 100, 000 people within the area 35 kilometers from the downtown outside the municipality.
The open-country suburban residential development is one of the most significant aspects of the American urbanization at the mid-twentieth century. For a Japanese observer, it is an almost entirely novel experience to see it. Analysis of such a phenomenon might contribute to the understanding of present-day American regional structure at large.
Figure 1 shows the general pattern of highways in the southern peninsula of Michigan. Figure 2 illus trates how non-farm residences are located in so-called rural areas. Figure 3 was designed to show thedetail of all public roads together with some other major characteristics of transportation. Figure 4 is the map revealing the urban spread of Lansing, especially its open-country suburban residetial development, in relation to the road network. This map was made by counting the numbers of farmsteads and non-farm residences respectively for each section that appear in the General Highway Maps of Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, Shiawassee, and Ionia Counties.
It is quite easy to see that the open-country residences are distributed in all directions almost equally, although there is a general tendency for them to cluster along the major radiating highways. Railroads do not play an important role in the selection of their sites. Notable is the relation of such residential devel-opment to the road network including minor public roads constructed in a gridiron pattern for the most cases according to the General Land Office survey.
Figure 5 was constructed by drawing concentric circles around the downtown of Lansing five kilometers apart, and counting the numbers of all farmsteads and non-farm residences respectively for each zone. In order to substitute this diagram, Table 1 was made, in which (A) is the number of non-farm residences and (B) is that of farmsteads. It is worth noting that the non-farm residence ratio decreases until the 20-km, circle, is reached beyond that it levels off. If the 20-km. circle should correspond to the outer limit of urban Lansing, this urban complex would cover 1256 square kilometers. Even if the urban Lansing is limited merely to the area delineated by the 5-km. circle, in which nearly 100, 000 people reside, it covers 80.5 square kilometers. These figures make a sharp contrast to Japanese cities such as Shizuoka having about 200, 000 people within its central urbanized area of slightly over 10 square kilometers. Practically no non-farm suburban residences are found in rural areas outside this compactly urbanized area, although there are many commuters living in farm houses or in urban residences in smaller towns.
This kind of immense suburban development is recognized in different parts of the United States of America today where a tremendous urban spread as what Jean Gottmann called Megalopolis or what Allen K. Philbrick has revealed in a map form. This is not an extreme character of American urbainization, but an ordinary or common nature of it. The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to Fulbright Commission for their financial assistance that enabled him to conduct a series of field work in America.

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Der Zusammenhang zwischen Niederschlagsverteilung and Oberflächengestaltung ist nicht immer so stark wie man gewönlich annimmt. Abb.1 u. 2 zeigen Beispiele, wo die Neiderschlagsverteilung völlig unabhängig von der Oberflächenform ist. Diese Niederschläge sind durch Fronten verursacht. Ein Beispiel far den stärksten Einfluss der Oberflächenform wird in Abb. 3 gegeben. Damit versteht man, dass die Niederschlagsverteilung nicht von den einzelnen Bergen, sondern von der grossräumigen Oberflächengestaltung, wie die Gebirgszügen, abhängig ist. Die Achsen der einzelnen niederschlagsreichen Gebiete von mehr als 50mm/Tag wurden in einer Karte dargestellt. (Abb. 5 u.6) In Nordjapan sieht man wening nieder-schlagsreiche Gebiete, in Südjapan hingegen viele, am Fuss der Gebirgszügen. Diese Tatsache ist durch Richtung der Zyklonenbahnen and Häufigkeit der tropischen Luftmassen zu erklären.

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A method of meso-climatological analysis using temperature data available in a great number is presented in this paper.
The changing rate of temperature variation at a given place may be expressed by the following equation.
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where the first term on the right denotes horizontal advection and the second is the changing rate due to the heat transfer from the ground. When an area with a meso-scale horizontal extention of the order of 10⁴-10⁵m and also a uniform surface condition is entirely included in a macro-scale disturbance such as an anticyclonic cell, the areal differences of temperature changing rate due to the first term may be negligible. In this case temperature differences within this area are considered to appear in connection with advection by meso-scale disturbance.
On the assumption mentioned above, the author prepared 183 daily maximum temperature distribution patterns of summer half year in 1958 using about 170 climatological stations in and around the Kanto Plain (dots in Figure 11 show their locations). During this season the advection effect by meso-scale sea. breezes was predominant. Three typical distribution patterns, diurnal temperature records, and wind data at the three-hour interval are shown in Figures 1, 2, and Table 1 respectively. According to these, it is possible to recognize clearly that the lower temperatures along the coasts on May 31 st are the result of the sea breeze invasion and on the other two days its effect is not conspicuous because of the general wind. Similiar tendncies appear on almost all the fine days, but on rainy or cloudy days no marked pat-terns develop.
Temperature distribution patterns were classified into five groups, i. e., sea breeze-, SSW-, S-, ESE-, and E-type, according to the conditions of general wind. Then ten typical patterns were selected for each of the five groups, Table 2 shows the dates and the wind conditions for these selected 50 days.In order to clarify the above-mentioned advection effects quantitatively, the author constructed a chart showing the mean temperature gradients ∇ T using the data from the above-mentioned ten patterns, and the same procedure was employed for all other four groups, resulting in five charts. The calculated mini-mum value of the temperature gradient was 1/20°C/km, and its direction was counted on a 16-point scale. The results obtained are shown in Figures 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9, where the width of arrows is proportional to the magnitude of vectors and the direction of arrows is towards higher temperature.
The vectors were calculated at 308 points as shown in Figure 3. The pattern of these 308 points was. made by a following special method. Then lines were first drawn all parallel to the coast lines at the interval of 7km. except for the first line nearest to the coasts. The 308 points were then plotted on these lines at the same interval, This interval 7km, was determined empirically.
Figure 10 is the simplified and comparative presentation of Figures 4, 5.6.8. and 9. It may be possible to recognize the influence of the sea for representative general wind conditions respectively. In case of sea breeze-type, i.e., on fine and calm days, the sea breeze effect is marked until 10-15km. inland from the coasts. The effect of Tokyo Bay is clear in the case of prevailing Sor SSW-general wind, In fur. they detail, topographical effects on temperature distribution also can be found.
As a result of a precise examination of the two maps in Figure 11, standard deviation of daily maximum temperature may be proposed as an appropriate parameter for expressing well the meso-climatological characteristics.

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