The Washington herald., 1909-03-11
BUREAU EXPLAINS WEATHER
Forecaster Answers Storm Of Crit
eism on Inaugural Prediction.
storm Center Went by as Declared,
but Precipitation iR the Form
of snow Occurred.

That the fOrecasters a. Mount weather
had things doped out correctly. and the
slush and sleet and snow here on fnaug-
uration day was the result Of a fare
back, burnt-out fuse. or slipped coz. is
the opinion of Willis l. Moore. CHEZ OF
the bureau. who has just issued a state
ment following the storm Of criticisms
for the generally regarded inaccurate
prediction he made for the day Presi-
dent Taft was inducted into Office The
statement follows:
Il IS not usual 10 answer criticisms q TIE foIe-
casts Of the Weather Burpau. but the hundreds q
pses clippings that have beea received stncs March
containing adverse criticisms q the bureau SEN
% call fo- this statement from me-
Forecasts q the Weather Bureau are betoTe TIE
public evsry day IN the ycsr. In the rzzt abogt
one Tzvctioa out o. each ten failed % be Eerifed
and Il may Be expected that the sane rztio q
failure VIII be maintained untn uetso-oogy car be
made, what K Is not nos. an sxact sde1ce
IL the case u the storm that visited Washington
on the 9Th oi March last The fact is that the dis
tu-haEce began here On the morning Of the Sd. and
vas accurately forec1si The day before TIE b1-ssu
auticUated that the storIn cente- uorld pzss oTe-
the Middle Atlantic States during the night q the
81 and that northwest Kinds ans falling tsaspe-s-
tUres would leave a clear day for the 4th. TIE
ccutC- passed precisely forecast the Etnd shfted
ard the teupersu1re fen but instead of the north
west WIND cicarinE the SKY O. dos IN nearly al
cases precipitation IN the forn of snow occurred
and Continued for twrlre hours after the starn
center had passed eastward No fo-ecsssr could
i0reSee this Were We 70 forecast a fzl q snow
following the passage a s-orm cCnte-s thzt move
iron the uo-thESsJ. We world have hund7e5s Of
failures charged against rs instead q a. occasional
c1r for II Il Tzre thai STOW falls IN the Middle
Atlantic States. except wiki the spproach Of a
storm from the s1uthEcst- which causes norrhesSt
wincs. ard II Is extremely rare that any storm in
TINS region that begins with rain ends with snow
oi any considerable amourt- On the cuutrary.
many storms that hCEin e. SION end as min
Ihc forecast IN QUESTION VAS made By one a. ths
most eEpcrienced f0TcC1sters Of the bEre1u. ard
was conzlrred IN b. al cf the fo7ecAstes Who were
conycrsaut With the cnditi0rs. and the sane fore
cast would be made to-day 4 S1ailar conditions
existed
The f0-ecssters Of the United States Weather Bu-
reaU are the equals. z Tot the supe1ors. q any
Others in the world ard their predictions of frosts
ccid waves. foods. and E1E1iro storms. alth1CEh
subject TO e1ro- In the propoTton q about one 70
ten. are q such value % the industries q the
nation that II one Of the newspaTsrs that nov 50
freely czlticise because two uaTered forecasts FOX
the District q Columbia have fallen o. irauErra-
ton day were 70 onit from It's pags the daily rre-
dictions q the weather It's readers would coupel Z
% restore then. snd 81 the department OF Con
gress were 20 close station ot the bEreau in any
part q the United States the property interests
would demand It's res-orstiou- This wUuid not be
the case u the hystericl abuse that is n0W bcing
INDUCED IN Was justified