The Oskaloosa herald., 1908-06-25
HOW THE WEATHER
IS FORECASTED
METHODS EMPLOYED BY BUREAU
ARE. INTERESTING.
NOT DONE BY GUESS WORK.
Information From Which Forecasts
are Made Gathered From Wide
ly Separated Sections of
the Country.

| the first things the reader OF the daily
| paper does when he receives his paper
Is to turn to that portion of the pa
per which contains the weather pre-
| dictons for the ensuing twenty-four
hours. No item is read day after day
with greater interest and concern
than is this forecast of the weather.
| Business houses in all parts of the
| country do not wait for their paper,
but secure the forecast at the earliest
possible moment, while in many COM
munities the farmers are governed
| almost entirely in their days work by
| the predictions made for the day.
The building of rural telephone lines
has made it possible for them to secure
these forecasts early in the morning,
and in many communities the securing
of this information is the first duty
of the day after chores have been fin
ished and breakfast dispatched.
How information is Secured.
But while hundreds of thousands
scan these forecasts each day, plan
their business operations, their work
/
lively few persons have any definite
idea of the mode of the government
weather bureau in collecting data for
forecast of the weather Most people
! have a haZy conception that the di-
| rector of the bureau INDUCES n mo-
mentary trance each recurring day,
during which he closes his eyes, deep
ly meditates and conjures with the
| planets Mars, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune. The truth is that gathering
information upon which to predict
the weather twenty-four hours ahead
is quite prosaic. To have telegraph
tolls, which are quite heavy, much as
the bureau may economic, reports
are wired in cipher. Each morning
| observers at stations so widely separ-
ated as to cross national boundary
| lines, wire to Washington weather Of
| flee meteorological conditions in their
| various localities. They give the bar
ometic pressure, the direction and vel
ocity of the wind; weather cloudy
| clear or partly cloudy; raining or
| threatening, the precipitation of mois-
| ture, etc. If there is a higher barome-
ter in the vicinity of Calgary, in nrit-
| ish Alberta, and the wind is blowing
southeast, the indications are for cool
err and stable weather. If there is a
receding pressure on the barometer, a
| low prevails, and should it move fast
enough to overhaul the high" the
| prospect is for rain. These condi-
tons apply to the spring and summer
| season.
If it is raining in Dakota and low
barometer prevails with the wind east
| it is quite probable the rain will pass
over Minnesota and Iowa. kilograms
| giving local conditions are sent to
| Washington from Medicine Hat, AS
sinaboin, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Calgary, Winnipeg, New Orleans, Mo
bile, Galveston, Denver, st. Paul, Mil
waukee, DEVILS Lake, Nogalese, st.
Louis, and a score of other cities wide
ly dispersed over the continent. By
considering these reports the Wash
/ ington bureau is enabled to make a
reasonably accurate forecast of the
/
hours in different portions of the coun-
try.
| Sometimes is Erroneous.
Frequently the forecast proves err
roneous because the high" low" or
jack and the game do not perform as
the weather man would have them.
Sometimes high" barometer moves
swiftly eastward from the far west,
apparently headed directly across Ne
braska and Iowa The weather d.
rector forecasts clear skies and cooler
But at point in Nebraska tie high"
collides with low" that covers an
area of many thousands of miles.
The "low" is so dense and immense
that the high" is unable to dis
place it quickly. In the event the
high" moves around. gong north or
south, ard the clear skies predicted
for Iowa are realized in Minnesota,
while Iowa is deluged with moisture.
to the great disgust of the patriots
who chance to abide in flooded sections.
Again, low barometric pressure will
collide with an area covered by a
high" The latter is possessed OF
great resisting power and the low
is forced to one side. The air cur
rents appear to be responsive, in large
measure, to the laws that govern water
currents, Unable to move large areas
of 'high" or low" aside, the one APP
preaching the other moves about the
resistance and ita dirantnp 10 daAantad
In the middle west the weather bu-
reaus have to do generally with con-
ditons in the far northwest. Never.
ending professions of high or low bar
ometic pressures move east and sou,n-
east out of the mysterious region adj
jacent to the pole. Why they come Is
a sealed mystery to the weather men.
Every Little Bit Helps. -