The San Francisco call., 1905-02-21
ABANDONS USE
OF OLD TERMS
Weather Bureau No Longer
to Divide State in Reports
Into North" and South"
NAMES ARE MISLEADING
California Climatic Belts to
Be Known as "MOuntain," !"
"Valley" and Coastal"
NAMES ARE MISLEADING

The United States Weather Bureau
at Washington announces that it is
planning to discard from it's reports
the terms north and south" in de-
scriptions of the climatology of Cali
fornia. Instead of these misleading
geographical terms the bureau will use
Mountain" Valley and Coastal"
as more conveniently describing the
climatic belts Of the State.
The decision of the Weather Bureau
is a result of correspondence with the
California Promotion Committee
which suggested that inasmuch as
the climate conditions in California
were different from those Of other
States, the usual nomenclature of the
bureau describing the climate in the
different States would not apply in
California. Geographical terms may
be misleading in describing California
climates. Climate in California Is not
determined by the distance north and
south as 1t is on the Atlantic seaboard.
but by the distance east and west, by
altitude and distance from the ocean.
What Is known by the Weather Bu-
reau as the "Orange-Growing Thermal
Belt" extends from San Diego County
on the south almost to the base Of
Mt. Shasta on the north, a distance of
700 miles. The mean annual tempera-
ture in this belt is between go and 20
degrees Fahrenheit. The first oranges
on the Eastern markets from Cali
fornia grow in the Sacramento Valley
The decision Of the Weather Bureau
to divide the State into valley, noun
tain and coastal districts will be of
advantage to the whole State and will
give the Eastern inquirer a correct
idea of the conditions he will find in
different parts Of California
rTNl-
ceived the following letter from Pro-
fessor Moore, dated Washington, Feb
ruary s:
Referring to your favor OF the ID inst, and
to previous correspondence regarding terms
used in California weather forecasts beg to
say that the climatic peculiarities to which you
refer, and the difficulty In covering them In a
general forecast, for even part of the State,
Is appreciated by the Weather Bureau, and a
plan will be devised to carry out your sug-
gestion to divide the State into valley, noun
tain and coastal, rather than into north and
south districts
Thanking you for calling my attention to
means by which the Weather Bureau can
improve Its service IN California MooP am very
Chief United States Weather Bureau.
An active campaign has been under
way for a year or more to secure
more extended notice of California cli-
mate In the East. The San Francisco
weather report receives a wider circu
lation than that Of any other city in
the United States except Bismarck, N.
D., and Omaha, Nebr., which are, it is
said, peculiarly situated as forecast
stations for the entire country. The
San Francisco weather report is sent
to the local weather observers in
eighty-seven cities with the direction
for publication in their weather re-
ports to their local papers.
The committee has still on hand a
few copies of "Climatology of Califor-
nia," by Alexander c. McAdie, Of
which 1000 extra copies were struck
off by the Department Of Agriculture
from the original plates for distribu-
ton by the committee. Two maps are
available for free distribution, one
showing the "Orange-growtng Thermal
Belt" and the other showing the pre-
cipitation for twenty years.