Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-03-24
[ For the SPECTATOR. !
DALE ENTERPRISE, Y

March 18th, 1886.
Kr. Editor: In the issue of March 10th,
the SPECTATOR comes out with another
declaration that Smiths Planetary dina
nae and Weather Guide is again incorrect
with regard to the weather it had mapped
out for the week ending March 10th, 1886;
claiming, also, that the matter had been
tested by actual observation.
Before publishing such statements, and
proceeding at once to condemn the Alma
nae as being wholly faulty, would it not
have been proper, first to compare the fore
casts with reports giving the condition of
the weather in all parts of the country, and
particularly in the districts namedP
With the astro-meteorologst it is not
presumed fair test to confine the entire
forecast within the twenty-five or thirty
mile circle that marks the horizon of Staun-
ton, for, as every intelligent student of the
Almanac knows, the forecasts for the week
in question were given for the South West,
Gulf States, Atlantic coast, and over the
Lake region,-announclng general storm
period, with heavy snow and rain accord
ing to locality.
According to notes taRen at this station,
for instance, at intervals of three times in
every twenty-four hours, the weather can
not be said to have been unusually good
for the season."
The snow that fell here ON Sunday night,
and which, when melted, registered depth
of 04 of an inch, though not claimed to be
heavy, must be considered partial verif-
cation of the forecast; also, the great rush
of air from the Southwest, between a. m.
and day break on Monday morning. At the
same time, the generally threatening aspect
of the weather, the moving of the clouds,
and direction of the wind, unitedly proved
that storm was, at the same time, centred
over the Western States, and moving to the
Lake region, and that its eastern edge
passed along the crest of the Allegheny
mountains.
The writer is in receipt of reports from
the West and North, when Prof. Smiths
forecast for drifts and bluster are said to be
going into remarkable fulfillment.
If the SPECTATOR will avail itself of a
copy of the Weather ReUier, issued from
the Signal Office at Washington, and COM
pare the storm tracks shown upon its charts
for the months of January or February,
with the forecasts for the different sections
named in the Almanac, it will be found that
from 75 to so per cent. of predictions were
strikingly verified.
| Among the grand features of this system
for foretelling the weather, stands the fact
that it is a science founded upon known
natural laws, all of which can be proven by
eighteen or twenty years of irrefutable data,
and it must be conceded that there are at
present, in no department of nature, great
er inducements held out to the persevering
investigator, than in the study of weather
science.
However, like almost every other new
venture that is calculated to prove of prac-
teal benefit, the theory seems a novel one
to most people, and. of course, is hooted at
by some, and its advocates pronounced i'm
posters, rogues, &c.
So did Gallileo's theory that '"The earth
moves" at first meet with all the opposition
of the religious and political sentiment of
his time Also, Robert Fulton project for
navigating the oceaps and rivers of the
globe by steam power, at first was pro-
nounced by his friends, "The Fulton
Folly"
From all parts of the country come IA
vorabe press notes of the Planetary Alma
mac, and the author himself testifies that
where he gets one grumbling letter he gets
five hundred of praise.
So far as we know, the SPECTATOR stands
entirely alone among the Virginia papers
in it's course of condemning this new sci
ence, which is, as yet, hardly upon its feet.
When once perfected and worked up in its
grand results, it is destined to become one
of the most practical of all sciences, and
will ultimately prove one of the greatest OF
blessings to human kind.
Respectfully,
L. j. HEATwoLE.