Arizona citizen., 1878-11-09
About Weather.

Until recent years meteOrOlogy has been one of the most obscure and least
 understood of the sciences. The varia-
 tions of weather and atmospheric con- .ditio1s, outside, of course, of those
 caused by the regular sequence of the seasons, were looked upon as phenOm-
 enal, uncertain and arbitrary. By con-
 tinuous observations however, extend
 ed over considerable periods of time
 and large extents of the earth's sur
 face and careful comparisons of re
 suits, the science has taken a more eX-
 act shape, and climatic events are fore
 told with truthfulness that is sur
 prising.
 The Signal Service Office in Wash
 ington issues daily statements of the
 weather, telling what conditions ob- tain in various sections and the prob able weather of the day or perhaps of the week. The marked and univer- sally accepted correctness of these statements, has given them great value in the Eastern States, so much so in fact that when Congress attempts to reduce the force of the Signal Service, the Boards of Trade throughout the principal cities immediately protest that the action would be directly. against the interests of commerce.
 Not as much attention has been pald by government to the climate of :heI Pacific Coast, and it is pity that such is the case, because for a rare variety and an uncommon quantity of climateI the Pacific Coast stands without rival. Eastern people say every season in California is an unsual one" How ever, among many other good things it does, tbe Central and Southern Paci- fic Railroad Company keeps a regular series of weather observations alongi its entire line. By collecting and these observations, Mir. B. B. Bedding, has succeeded in educingl many important and interesting facts some peculiarities of Cali fornia. For instance, he maintains that the Gulf of California, to large extent determines the rain question by | affording a channel for the rain winds. These sweep up the coast of Mexico, the gulf and on over Call fornia until climate sufficiently cold is met to condense the vapor of the air and precipitate It as rain. This bappens to the best degIee, along the coast of Oregon and Washington. The great California desert is caused, he says, by ils being just at the point where the returning wind from the north, dry and harsh, strikes the earth on it's course sOuthwards. All great deserts are found in the same attitudes and there is no way to fix that desert ;o as to increase the rainfall. If
 t were turned into an inland sea, the thief effect would be that the great -ains of Oregon would be transferred ;outhward into California. Referring O the large rainfall of southeastern rizona he says it comes from the Iulf of Mexlco: part of the great !, ain clouds that water the Southern States. escapes up the Rio Grande val ey and the water is precipita'ed when he mountains are first met with. and his happens in southeastern Arizona This theory may be right, but the com non opinion hereaway is that our rain C comes from the southwest passing over he State of Sonora. It is certain, any low. that the rain winds at Tucson are generally southwest winds, and that lry year in Sonora IS dry year ID Arizona, and wet year there cor [ wet year here. v,