Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-05-12
sOLvINs wEATHER PROBLEMS.

Recent statistics show that the issuing of
weather forecasts and the posting of caution
signals at seaports are producing valuable
results. The number of shipwrecks has
been decreased. British reports show that
during the year ending June, 1877, 1905
wrecks occurred, attributable TO weather; in
1873 the number was 1929; in 1879, 100;
in 1880, S9l. Within four and a half years
during which weather forecasts have been
made, the shipwrecks have decreased more
than one half, and the consequence is that
seafaring people are paying every year
more attention TO the bureaus warnings of
coming storms. Year by year, also, the
forecasts become more accurate, and that ac-
curacy will reach a higher and still higher
I~sI~sA. jusl Ia proportion tLe .AlIIabA-- Oh
points at which observations are made are
increased. The English are taking steps to
secure such by having regular observations
taken upon the Atlantic ocean. As there
can be no fixed stations that deficiency will
be Offset by securing great multitude Of OBJ
servations. Blanks will be issued to sea
captains, to be filled out when making up
the ships log. Observations will be taken
each morning at eight and at noon, of the
hight of the barometer, the temperature of
the air on deck, and of the water at the sur
face, the direction and force of the wind, and
the nature of weather, with the ships posi-
ton; also remarks on gales, and storms, and
special phenomena. These observations are
to be carried on during the twelve months
ending with August 1888. The greater
number Of storms that visit the British Isles
come from the Atlantic, aud the first news of
their approach is generally received from
Stornoway in the Hebrides, or from Valentia
on the west coast of Ireland. Russia has
stations in North Siberia at the mouths OF
the Lena, and second near the sea of
Kamschatka. Austria has a station in Nova
Zembla; Norway and Sweden are represent
ed respectively at Hammerfest and in
part of Lapland, between the White sea
and the northernmost termination of
the Gulf of Bothnia; Germany has its
observers in Cumberland Island; Dem
mark has a station in Davis's Straits;
Barrow Point and Grinnell Land are occupied
by United States observers; France has
station near Cape Horn, and will report the
differences between arctic and antarctic
weather, and in Hudson's bay territory, near
the Great Slave lake, English observers are
at work. Weather observations are SO ex-
tending that they will, at length, encircle the
globe; and in many instances the course Of
storms, and their behavior, will be known
from their start to their termination. The
science OF meteorology is yet in its infancy,
but already it has made the sea less dreadful
by unwilling to the mariner, when he starts
out, the kind of weather that lies before
him. The marine observations The British
are making will induce other countries TO
make similar efforts. American vessels are
net behind in the work, and the time is APP
preaching when the meteorological will have
before him a complete picture of the worlds
weather changes, and that will be step to-
ward the discovery of at least a portion of
the causes of them; and SO the power to pre-
dict what weather is approaching, and what
seasons the agriculturists may be prepared
for, will become more and more complete.