Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
THE WEATHER BUREAU
How the Messages Received
Tell the Story.
MAKING DAILY MAPS
EVENING FORECASTS OF THE
EAST MADE HERE.
What the Strange Jargon of Words
Mean to the IN
initiated.

milwaukee,, January 22.-Songful Hyp-
motto Lunel Doffea Daddock.'
A plain concise statement, if you please,
involved as it may seem. Prof. CARROT,
chief forester of the weather bureau,
showed 1t to a Star reporter yesterday with
some satisfaction. 1t showed, according
to the professor, the complete manner in
which the United States government keeps
tab on the weather throughout the country.
The weather bureau people were proud of
that dispatch, and hundreds like it that
were received yesterday and are received
twice daily the year round. Prof CARROT
showed it with that smile of satisfaction
that comes to a man whose work is we'll
done. He knew what 1t meant The re-
porter did not But that was small mat
ter AS long the weather bureau knows
what meaning attaches to the utterly alb
surd conglomeraton' of words it receives
from its 125 observation stations through
out the United States, the general public
has no reason to worry. 'Songful' told
the weather bureau man that the barometer
registered 29.SS and the thermometer 30;
Hypnotic and "Luner dealt with the
rainfall; "Doffea" meant that the wind was
northeast and snow was falling and Dad
Dock showed that the wind was blowing
twenty-five miles an hour. The simplest
sort OF a thing after it is explained, but
rather blank to the ordinary person. In
this connection it can be seen that the
weather bureau experts are required to
know the meaning of a number of appar-
emily foolish words and combinations of
letters as we'll as a great deal about me-
teorology. physics, astronomy, etc.
The men who have charge of the weather
predictions for the United States are one
and all Woodworking scientists. who take
great pride in the results obtained through
their observations. They claim that fully So
per cent of their fNrecasts are correct in
every detail and that every one of their
storm warnings have been verified by
the events that followed. The organization
of the weather bureau has brought about
the. decentralization of every detail con-
nected with the forecasting of the kind of
atmospheric conditions that will exist in a
given time in given area.
To the general public the weather bureau
is perhaps best known through the medium
of it's daily forecasts and weather maps.
These forecasts are based upon simulta-
neous observations of local weather condi
tons taken daily at I'm. and pm, sew
enty-fifth meridian time. at about $50 regu-
lar observing stations scattered throughout
the United States and the West Indies.
Each of these stations is operated by one
or more trained observers, and is equipped
with mercurial barometers, thermometers,
wind vanes, rain and snow gauges, ane-
mometers, sunshine recorders, paragraphs,
thermographs and devices which register
automatically a continuous record of the
local weather conditions and changes as
they occur. The results of the daily obser-
vations are Immediately telegraphed to the
central Office at Washington, D. c., where
they are charted for study and interpreta-
ton by experts trained to forecast the
weather conditions which may be expected
to prevail during the following thirty-six
to forty-eight hours.
A complete Geographic report includes the
following data: Temperature, pressure (re-
duced to sea leveD, precipitation, direction
OF wind state OF weather, current wind We
locity maximum or minimum temperature
since last observation, and kind and amount
of clouds, with the direction of their move
ment. From these data the forecaster, by
comparison with preceding reports, Is able
to trace the paths of storm areas from the
time of their appearance to the moment of
observation, and approximately determine
and forecast their subsequent courses and
the occurrence of other weather conditions
Weather services similar to that of the
United States are maintained by the Cana
dian and Mexican governments, and. by a
system of interchange. reports are received
from number of stations in these coun-
tries, so that the field represented by the
daily reports extends over the greater por-