Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-15

vestigation and forecast as the
Il United States. Spending more
than a million and half dol
| lars a year to be weatherwse, Uncle Sam
| is learning many secrets of the atmos-
| phere that have never been known before
The Mount Weather station of the wealth
err bureau. situated IN the Blue Ridge
| mountains of Virginia, has been equ. pc d
with every sort of instrument human in
genuity can devise to pull down the Sc
crets of the upper air.
The weather bureau gets reports from
| more than 800 land stations, 1000 ocean
vessels and some M foreign stations
The information which comes to the
weather bureau from all these places
enables the forecaster to venture a pre-
diction about what the weather will be
for the next thirty-siX to forty-eight
hours. and in a general way for week
in advance.
1t is said that more than so per cent of
the winds. rains and storms follow beaten
paths, behaving upon established princi-
pies. and doing just the weather man
expects them to do. Sometimes. however
storm will refuse to follow the beaten
paths and 1t is then that the weather man
rails. The average man remembers the
one failure, which is a miss, rather than
the five In which the weather man cor
rectly predicts the weather. The weather
forecasts are based upon simultaneous
observations of local weather conditions
taken daily at O'Clock in the morning
and at o'clock in the evening, eastern
time. at about 200 regular observing sta
tionS throughout the United States and
the West Indies, and from the reports
received daily from various other places
in the western hemisphere. The results
OF these observations are telegraphed to
the weather bureau at Washington, where
they are charted for study and interpre-
tation by experts.
a complete Geographic report includes
data describing the temperature, atmos-
pheric pressure, precipitation. direction
of the wind, state Of the weather, wind
velocity. the kind and amount of clouds
and the direction of their movements.
From these data the fOrecaster, by COM
parison with preceding reports. is able
to trace the path Of the storm area from
the time of their appearance to the mo-
ment of observation. and approximately
to determine and forecast their subse-
| quent courses and the occurrence of other
weather conditions. Forecast centers are
also established at Chicago, New Orleans
Denver, San Francisco and Portland. Ore
Within two hours after the morning
observations have been taken the fore
casts are telegraphed from. the forecast
tributing points where they are further
disseminated by mail, telegraph and tele-
phone. The forecasts are mailed to
49,, 600 addresses day and delivered to
nearly 100000 telephone subscribers with
in an hour from the time the prediction
is made.
In addition to this service there is
what is known as the Chronological
service. which collects data with refer
ence to temperature and rainfall and
crop season conditions. During the
winter months publication known as
| the Snow and Ice Bulletin is issued,
showing the area covered by the snow,
| the depth of the snow. the thickness of
| ice in rivers and other matters reported
| upon from every section of the country.
| This publication is of special interest to
| those interested in the winter wheat
| crop, to ice dealers. to the manufac turers
| of rubber goods and other articles the
! sale of which is largely affected by the
| presence or absence of snow and ice.
The extent to which the work of the
weather bureau affects the daily life OF
the people is very great. and Is said to
| be increasing yearly. Perhaps the most
directly valuable service rendered is that
of the warnings of storms and hurricanes
issued for the benefit of marine interests.
These warnings are displayed at nearly
800 points along the Atlantic Pacific
and gulf coasts and the shores OF the
great lakes including every port and
harbor of any considerable importance.
Scarcely storm Of marked danger to