The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-09-03
BRANNENBERG ON
WEATHER REPORTS
Entertaining Talk by Noted
Director on Atmospheric
Conditions.
HE SAYS THE TRIBUNE
is DOING GREAT WORK
Mr. Brannenberg Is En- Route
to Boise to Present
Papers.

mountain Sectlon, lnclNQlnS Gnc SCaIeS
and Territories OF Colorado, Utah, Wyo-
ming, Arizona and New Mexico, with
headquarters at Denver, passed through
Salt Lake Saturday, en- route to BOISE,
Ida, where he goes by the direction of
Willis J.. Moore, the head OF the eli
ma tological department at Washington.
Mr.. Brannenherg will read several pa
pers at the congress, which VIII prove
of unusual interest The subjects upon
which he will have papers are as fol
lows: 1.-The Western Limit of Sutli-
cient Precipitation for Successful
Farming Without Irrigation -; "Wind
Power for Irrigation Plants -; "Irriga-
ton as n Protection from Frosts ~;
Relation Of Weather Conditions to
Stream Flow.
Mr., Brannenberg was for several
hours the guest OF his old friend and
co-worker, DR.. Hyatt, of the local
weather bureau, and when seen by a
i ribune representative, was loud III his
praises OF Salt Lake and her apparent
prosperity.
Being one of the Oldest men in the
department, in point Of service, having
the experience of daily observation of
climatic conditions in the West for 2
number of ears, Mr.. Brannenberg is
we'll fitted to speak authoritativeiy
upon weather conditions as they have
been recorded from year to year.
AS to Climatic Conditions.
When asked for his opinion as to the
climatic conditions of Utah, and as to
whether or not they were undergoing
any change, Mr.. Brannenberg said:
"There is no question about the fact
that the precipitation for the entire
West has been increasing in average
for the past several years. We.are get
ting more rain and more temperate
weather in the whole West than we
used to. / do not think, however, that
this is due to irrigation or to any other
human agency. We must not lose sight
OF the fact that when we deal with
weather conditions, we are dealing
with a question which has its vnri-
ous phases affected by currents and
changes far beyond the earth, far out
OF the range Of humanity, far beyond
the power of the scientist with all Of
his wonderful and delicate instruments,
to observe or even to interpret, even
though it were possible for him to make
the observations.
1.-The idea that the greater the irri-
CATION, the more precipitation, is en-
tirely erroneous, for, when the whole
situation is summed up, we find that
all Of the water brought into the coun
try by irrigation is but infnitesimal
when compared to the great field which
is taken into consideration. These
changes take place, the wave of varia-
ton sweeps around the cycle, as it
were, and again returns. In the course
of comparatively few years the weather
conditions OF the West will have re-
turned to their old averages, and to
their old characteristics once more, and
again will they change, these changes
taking place from time to time, grad
ually, but surely, until the end of
time.
Conditions in Utah.
"Do you believe that the climate of
Utah is the equal or superior of other
Western States?' was asked of the
forecaster,
eyes, 1 do was the reply. "I
speak advisedly, of course, and while
some other Western States have ad-
vantages that Utah does not, believe
that, taken as a whole, the climatic
conditions of your State are as good
as can be found in the West anywhere,
and the superior of some
80 far as you can tell, Mr.. Bran
nenberg, what influences the precipita~
tions and the temperatures Of this por-
tion of the country9'
"Well, while 1t would be impossible
TO answer that question with any great
degree of accuracy, cur observations
| have been that far across the Pacific,
| every winter, for instance, there is
| low barometrlc pressure of lmmeasur
able area which prevails. This finally
breaks up into smaller lows, as we call
! them, and it is these drifting lows some
Of which reach this country, which give
| us our precipitations. The storms for
! this portion of the country come mostly
| from the northwest, although a low or
| high pressure from the southwest, NOV
| ing eastward, may dip unusually far
| north.
"It is these lows that produce your
rain, 1t is not far to the mountains
| from here, and many lows are retarded
| by contact with the mountains. If
or southeastward by a high, and are
pursued too closely by this high, it
makes it impossible for the low to cross
the mountain range or the great divide,
and, getting caught between the noun
tains and the pursuing high, the low
must of a necessity fill and give pre-
! cipitatlon.
Public In the Dark.
"There are many things which the
| general public does not know, which
cause Utah and Colorado, from
weather standpoint, to be closely re-
| lated. For instance, when you have
low pressure or wet weather over
! here, If it is sunny weather or cool.
with low temperature and high barome-
ter on our side of the mountains, we
know almost to surety that we will
have rain within twenty-four hours.
| The same thing is true in winter. If
we have a warm day on the eastern
slope OF the mountains, and you people
in Utah are having cold weather. we
begin to look out for cold spell within
| the twenty-four hours.
"On the other hand if we have pre-
| cipitations over there. and you have
cool weather on the western side of the
mountains, you may, within the same
period look for the precipftatIons; the
same of the cold weather and so on.
This is due to the fact that the high
pressures, which produce the cool, de-
lightful weather which is so much ap-
preciated in the summer by the popu-
lace, and the low pressures. which pro-
duce the precipitations which gladden.
the heart of the farmer. are forced up
and over the mountains by pursuing
pressures. The highs, of course, have