The Republican journal., 1902-09-11
MR.. WEATHER MAN.
How He Knows " hen 1t Is Going to Storm
Clear.

| Evening red and morning gray
| Sets the traveller on his way;
| Evening gray and morning red
Brings down rain upon his head.
Such was the way in which our grand
parents foretold the weather.
II it was noticed that the old tabby
washed herself by rubbing her paw over
r her ear, OF that the little tree-toads
trilled their mournful little songs, OF
the firetiies lifted low among the flowers
and the vines the old folks shook their
heads and spoke of rain; OF if grand
mothers feet ached the little folks grew
very sorry-not because grandmother
had pain, but because it meant bad
weather on the morrow
Strictly speaking, our Weather Blu
reau Is made up of a great many build
ings scattered all over the [ nited States
and the one at Washington is the CEN
trial station that governs and directs the
smaller ones and to which they send in
their daily reports; for it is by getting
reports from all the different sections
OF the country that [ ncle Sans wealth
er-makers are able to make their pre-
dlctlons. There are one hundred and
eighty towns and cities in the Cnited
States where there are observation
stations, having the same instruments
and apparatus as the Washington bu-
reau. Now. the observers at these one
hundred and eighty stations do not
spend their time waiting for spiders to
crawl out of their holes OF looking at
the sky to see whether it is red or gray
i'll the evening. They look at their
thermometers, barometers, anemomet-
ers, and 50 on, which are far better
guides than all the other signs put to-
gtther.
At eight O'Clock in the morning and
at eight o'clock in the evening of every
day the observer at each one of these
weather stations from Maine to Cali
fOrnla looks at his different instruments
and carefully notes what each of them
marks. Then he takes a look at the
sky. to see whether it is fair or raining
OF showing, and to see what sort of
clouds may be sailing about Accord
ing to the Weather Bureau. there are
seven different kinds of clouds. and it
is important that the observer should
see what particular kind is lowering
| around, for each kind means some
| special sort of weather or some particu-
lar state OF the atmosphere. When he
| las finished his observation and noted
| all the indications, he telegraphs his re
! port to Washington. In that way. then,
! the Washington station receives an ac-
count Of the weather at all parts Of the
country at the same time and, As you
may easily believe, it keeps the four
| telegraph operators busy receiving the
! messages that come pouring i'll soon
| after eight O'Clock. AS each message
is received in the telegrapl-room it is
carried by a messenger across the hail
to the t0recast-rOOm, or room where
| predictions are made, and handed to the
translator. As the translator reads
aloud the cipher reports from the diff
! ferelt stations, other men in the room
mark what he reads upon map OF the
| | nted States, SO that when the last
! message has been translated the map
/ shows Just what the weather is at each
| one OF the one hundred and eighty sta
| tons The map is then turned over to
the official who IS to make the predlc-
tons. In order to get his bearings, he
| traces across the map the different
places throughout the country where
the temperature is the same and the
places where the barometer is the same.
The one he marks with red lines and
the other with black lines, and if you
| Will look at weather map you VIII see
these red aud black lines wriggling and
twisting all over the country
When the reports from the North
west show a great fall III temperature,
he knows that a cold wave has started
on a Journey through the nited States
and lie keeps a lookout to see how fast
it reaches the different stations i'll the
West Then he calculates how rapidly
it is moving and what kind of weather
it has to encounter, and perhaps when
lie has worked out the problem he will
telegraph the following bulletin: Hoist
cold-Waye flag; thermometer Will fall
thirty degrees III next tWenty-tour
hours, and sure enough, by next day
Jack Frost has got hold Of our noses
and toes, ard the cold-Wave flag is al
most tearing itself to pieces with de-
light. But sometimes the cold wave
does not come as was eXpected--lt is
switched off on a siCe-track or it melts
ON the Way-and then the cold wave
flag droops in shame.-CEtford Howard
in the September st. Nicholas.