The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-24
TALKING TO WIND
HOW THE WEATHER BUREAU is
TRYING TO LEARN METEORo-
LOGICAL SECRETS.
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS
TOLD BY WILLIS S. MOORE, CHIEF
OF THE BUREAU AT WASH
INGTON.
PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE
In Charting Weather Conditions
and in Forcasting Serious
Storms.
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS
PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE

United States.)
The development of storms are phe-
nomena that obviously depend upon
conditions existing throughout the
great masses of free atmosphere sew
eral thousand feet above the surface of
the earth. Heretofore all systematic
daily weather observations have been
made in the comparatively thin layer
of air Immediately next to the surface
of the earth. If we except occasional
observations made from balloons, all
meteorological data is related soley to
surface conditions. Further advances
in the art of forecasting weather condi-
lions upon a scientific basis demand
simultaneous observations at consider
able elevations in the free air. How to
secure these with regularity, at any
time and at any place, Is the great
problem. We believe that satisfac-
tory solution will be worked out in the
near future. The kite gives US a par
tial solution, and a large amount of
searching, scientific study has been CIV
en- by the United States weather bu-
reau to the kite, in order to make of it
q thoroughly trustworthy and eff
Client piece Of aerial machinery for Sc
curing the desired observations at
great height in the free air. Many most
valuable improvements and important
results have been brought out, and
preparations are now far advanced
towards equipping a few selected sta
lions with the necessary plant for MAX
ing observation whenever the condi-
lions permit
1t is obvious that kites, alone, are
not sufficient to enable US to make
observations every day, but we regard
this introduction of kites as a first
step in the solution Of the great prob
lem. 1t is likely that the results from
the kite observations in the free air
will prove to be of much greater value
for forecast work than surface data,
and If this is the case, we have no
doubt but that the ingenuity of our ex-
perts will be able to supplement the
kite with other apparatus, such as
captive balloons, when the air is in a
state of calm, or even some form of
self-prOpelled aerial machines which
have lately been shown to be thorough
ly practicable and possible achieve
ments of aerial engineering. The value
Of the free air observations being once
established, nature is bound to yield
up to her persistent students the means
and methods whereby to secure the re-
suits they seek.
The United States weather service
has been in existence twenty-seven
years. During the past twenty-five
years the daily synoptic charts of the
service have shown the most compre-
hensive atmospheric survey ever pre-
sented to the forecaster or to the broad
investigator of the fundamental prin-
ciple of storms. The vast region now
brought under the dominion of twice
daily synchronous observations en-
braces an area extending 1000
miles north and south, 1000
miles east and west, and so
fortunately located in the interest
of the meteorolcgist as to cut an i'm
portant arc from the the circumpoIar
thoroughfare of storms of the northern
hemisphere. The extreme points of
observation are Edmonton, in the Cana
dian province of Alberta, on the north
west; st. Johns, on the northeast: Kew
West on the southeast, and San Diego
on the southwest; and arrangements
are now complete for a cooperation
with Mexico similar to that in opera
ton with Canada, which will in a few
months extend the area of observa-
ton southwark over Mexico and Yucca
tan.
1t is a wonderful panoramic picture
OF atmospheric conditions, which. bv
the aid of simultaneous measurements
and the electromagnetic telegraph
Joining the places Of observation, by a
magic touch is presented to the train Il
eye OF the forecaster. Each twelve
hours the kaleidoscope changes and a
new graphic picture of actual condi-
tiCnS is shown. Where else can the
meteorologist find such opportunity to
study storms and atmospheric
changes?
In the middle Of the eighteenth CEN
tCry Franklin detected the rotary and
progressive motions of storms; early in
the nineteenth century Redfeld and
Espy contended over rival theories as
to the mechanical principle involved in
the formation Of storms, and a little
later Maury studied the storms of the
Atlantic ocean; still later LOOMS. Dove.
and Ferrel reviewed these theories and
ADDED much to our knowledge; but to
this late date no one has been able to
satisfactorily coordinate the forces
operative in cyclones or to assign GUAM
tttative values to the horizontal tenn
perature and pressure gradients, to the
surface and internal frictions of con-
Ventton, to centrifugence, to the latent
feet Of hemiSpherical circulation. Prob
ably the only component Of cyclonic
force that is well understood and ac-
oGrately computed is the DETECTION due
to the earth's rotation.
Our early investigators studied only
the storms of low levels and humid
airs, where convection was only need
ed to carry the moist air currents To
but slightly higher elevation before
cooling by expansion would produce
condensation, and an immediate ac-
celeration of the cyclone by the liberia
ton Of latent heat. They had never
seen the Whirling cyclones of the arid
northern Rocky mountain plateau dash
down upon our great lakes with rapid
ly increasing energy, notwithstanding
the fact that there was little or no
condensation, and hence no addition of
the latent heat which Espy supposed
was absolutely essential to a continual
ton of storms.
The widely differing elevation. topo-
graphy, temperature, and aridity of the
broad region under observation give
conditions which are unequaled any
where in the world for the adyanta ges
which they represent to the physicist
to study the mechanical phases of
storm development and progression. or
at least such as can be profitably studi-
ed with observations taken only at the
bottom of the great aerial ocean sur
rounding the earth.
Here We see summer cyclones formed
under the intense insulation which beats
down through diathermanous atmos-
phere upon the arid waste of the Rocky
mountain plateau; cyclones, which, If
they form in the northern part of the
plateau region, move eastward to our
lakes, and thence to the st. Lawrence
with scant rainfall; cyclones which, II