Waterbury Democrat., 1903-02-04
THE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Governments New Mode of Prophecy
 ing Coming Weather.

Insurance building on Chapel street yesterday afternoon and piled high on either side, papers pertaining to the weather predictions from headquarters at Washington and from cities cover ing all available spots in the country, Leonard M. Tarr, New Haven's weath- CT man, was found, says the New Ha- ven Leader.
 Although very busily at work, MT Tarr when asked to describe the
 weather conditions and how they were told by the weather men, replied that
 he would do so as briefly as possible.
 The atmospheric conditions" said MT Tarr, have up to few years ago been
 confined to the surface of the eanth, but two years ago in 1900 several of the larger countries. including the United States, France, Germany, Eng land and others, formed what was
 called the international weather com bInation. to study the clouds. The
 bright clouds were studied as were the
 black ones as well as the ones which hung near the earth and those which
 we see miles over our heads. The na- tions conducted systematic study of the clouds at attitudes and this seeming to help them greatly in prophecying the weather conditions the United States bureau commenced to sturdy conditions of pressure at different heights
 "At first the distance of $500 feet
 was tried and the weather men gradu- ally rose higher until they could find
 conditions at the enormous height Of 10.5OO feet and consequently the read ings of the baronneters was reduced to these attitudes, and it was found that
 conditions prevailed at attitudes com
 pared with surface conditions.
 Through experiments with kites and balloons observations have been made to obtain data for these reductions and
 at studying at attitudes at times we can understand the movements of the
 storms
 The local weather bureau is situated
 on the top floor of the Insurance build
 ing and in the rooms are kept instru-
 ments of the finest nature which with connections on the roof keep the wealth
 CT man and his assistant well posted
 on what is going on in the atmosphere. By system of electrical currents 1 small pens on the wind machine, so
 called as it is attaehed to wind gauge showing the velocity of the wind marks in various spaces the speed of the wind. By other machines tel egraphy for instance reports from cities in every part of the country send in | their reports of the weather condition | thereabOuts and by figuring the rate e speed the storm passes each obser- | Vation point the local weather man tells us what the weather will be fo4 two
 days and sometimes three, although
 not often
 The storm is likely to change it's
 course or lose in speed. thus making the weather mans prophecy incorrect. Since 1870 the federal government has
 maintained service, for it's object the
 forecasting of weather conditions
 throughout the United States. AL r though originally designed for the ben l eft of navigation alone, an ever broad
 ening recognition of the practical utH- 1ty of such service soon necessitated
 It's material extension in the interest of both agriculture and commerce. Dur ing the first twenty years of it's devel-
 opment the work was conducted by the signal corps of the army under the direction and controI of the war depart l ment but the final demand for q strictly scientific bureau hampered by regulations of military character re- I suited in the reorganization of the ser 1 vice in 1891. and the establishment of | t1
 branch of the United States depart
 ment of the agriculture
 To the general public the weather
 bureau is perhaps best known through l the mediums of the daily forecasts and l weather maps issued in the morning. l These forecasts are based upon stimuli taneous observations of local weather l conditions taken daily at 8 a. m and 8 p. m. The results of the daily obserya- tlons are teaegraphed to the central l office at Washingt where they are i chartered for study and interpretation 1 Dy experts trained to forecast the
 weather conditions which may be ex-
 pected to prevail during the coming l tWenty-four hours. From data which
 IS received by the weather men on l these reports they are able to trace the paths of storms, comparing with pre-.
 ceding reports, from the time or their
 appearance and approximately deter mine the forecast their subseouent l course and occurrence of other wealth 1 CT conditions. Weather services sirn-
 liar to that of the United States are
 maintained by the Canadian
 and Mexican governments and 1 Dy system of interchange reports l are received from a number of SIduOllS III these countries so that the
 field represented by the daily reports
 extends over the greater portion of the
 North American continent having teIe~
 graphic communication
 Within the two hours after the
 morning observations have been ta-
 ken, the forecasts are telegraphed to. l forecast centers to about LOGO principal
 distributing points whence they are
 disseminated by telegraph telephone
 and mail. Tn this manner the fore
 casts reach about 80,OO0 addresses
 daily, the greater part being delivered
 early in the morning and none later.
 as a rule. than 6 D. m. of the day is.
 sued The weather map is mailed l immediately after the morning fore cast is telegraphed. On this map the
 salient features of the weather condi
 tions throughout the country are
 graphically represented accompanied
 by synopsis of these conditions, fin
 addition to which is a complete report
 from all the observation points pre-
 sented in tabulated form Although @