Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-12-17
Our Unreliable weather Durcou.

ouf nfcilaDIc weather bureau.
The daily reports of the weather bureau
have become, under the present admins
tratiOn of the signal service, a standing
Joke with newspaper men and with the
public. They are often ridiCulOusly in
definite; and when made definite they are
too often wholly unreliable. The New
York Times published, the other day,
some statements by an indignant CORES
pendent, which describe, in rather
amusing manner, some of the recent
guesses of the weather bureau and the
neat and expeditions manner in which
nature disposed of the Washington clerk
of the weather. Says the TimcSS CORES
pondent
fair sample of the predictions issued
was that of saturday, when far weather
was promised for Sunday. The storm
which prevailed was one of the severest
of the year, and the ice embargo ON the
Hudson between here and Albany was
us sudden as it was disastrous 10 the
pecuniary interests of steamboat com
panes and the owners of all - rts
of sailing craft One day boats were
running to and from Albany; the
next navigation was closed between
this port and Troy. Boatmen point out
that the signal service gave no warning
or the coming nllL HGN. l ne lIN tdId els
who are frozen in on the Delaware aud
Hudson between ROudput and l}arrNVlle
aud the schOOners and sloops who are fast
frozen in the Hudson between here and
C1cymans are Wrathful, and they express
decided opinions rs to the unrellabllllN Of
the predictions made, as far as this section
Of the state at least is concerned. They
say the service might be worse, but not
much. For to-day light snow, followed
by fair weather, was predicted, and the
scVerest blizzard of the season has pre-
vailed.
The above are by no means exceptional
instances of the inaccurate work of the
weather bureau. Those who have kept
watch of the daily bulletins for the New
England States Tor the past six months
have had plenty of evidence of the unre
liable character of these reports. Unable
TO furnish reliable probabilities the
weather bureau officers attempt to word
their bulletins in such an ambiguous man
ner as to answer for almost any sort OF
weather They fortell winds that travel
entirely round the compass, skies that
range from fair to foul variations of
temperature that are wholly indefinite,
aud predictions of rising or falling baro-
meter which come half true, unless the
barometer proves to be stationary
Gen. IIaZcn suggests in his annual re
port to the secretary of war that the
bureau ought to be entirely reorganized
and the powers enlarged. 1t would be
well, however, before charging the pow
er- of the weather bureau, to have an in
ve,tigatlon of its present methods. If
these are unreliable, it certainly would do
no good to extend them. The weather
bureau is quite Il large expense to the
government as it is, and it would hardly
be the part of wisdom to increase the
funds at its disposal without some definite
assurance that the service would be much
improved. If, as is asserted by meteoro-
logical observers, who have for years
made systematic observations of the
weather, % per cent of the indications
sent out from Washington fail of fulfill
ment, the government cannot afford to
continue the service under its present
methods There have already been no
small number of disasters to life and
property, and great inconvenience to the
general public, from putting confidence i'll
the signal service reports frem Washing
ton. If these reports are to be nothing
more than official guesses, it will be
cheaper and just as profitable, to let every
man do his own guessing.