Omaha daily bee., 1911-11-12

they are absolutely tight, and are shipped
by freight to the various weather sta
tione.
Returning to the balloons, many Of
those which are now being sent UP are
equipped with parachutes which extend
above them. As the balloon rises into
the upper air Il finally reaches an alti-
tude at which It bursts II carries with
1t one of these boxes containing the fine
instruments. This is attached to the
, parachute, and FOR this reason 1t falls
so gently that tho machinery is not In
| jured. Attached to the box and also TO
the box kites are pieces OF writing, which
state that reward will be given to any
one who will send the box to the nearest
weather station For this reason the
| farmers watch for the kites, and care
| fully take them to the scientists when
/ they fall
FIFTY Million Dollars Year.
II is estimated that the weather
bureau saves to the people of the United
states something like $5O6OO,OOO year.
This is 80 cents for every man, woman
and child in the country II foretells
.he storms, prophecies the advent OF
heat and cold, and gives you warn
ing of the cyclone or hurricane long
before It comes. Last year we had
number of hurricanes. and the year be-
fore the air Of certain parts Of the
| country was full OF them. July q,
1909. the Galveston hurricane occurred.
About month later another great
storm struck the mouth OF the Rio
| Grande. and in September there was
/ third on the Louisiana coast. Just
about a month after that hurricane was
! felt Mt Key West. All OF these were very
dangerous, but owing TO the warnings
OF the weather bureau no lives were lost
Indeed, II is said that by the advice OF
the bureau, 5000 workmen were taken
off the Florida East Coast railroad. then
being extended, and thereby saved from
injury and loss OF life.
A great saving was made through sim
liar warnings at the time of the floods
on the Missouri and Mississippi, during
which something like sl4,OOO.OOO worth Of
damage was done. These floods caused
the overflowing of a million acres Of farm
lands and loss in crops Of more than
5000, 0O0 Nevertheless, Secretary VIII
son states that the warnings OF the flood
saved property to the value OF million
dollars or more.
FOrecasting the weather.
During my stay here at Mount Weather
have been talking with Prof. a. j.
Henry, the superintendent OF this sec
tion, and with the other scientists here
as to weather forecasts and as to tht
experiments they are making along such
lines. Prof Henry tells me some re-
markable things about the winds and
the changes which they have according
to their altitude. The Investigations are
important in view of the aerial flights
now being made. In order to get the
percentages $500 observations have been
taken of the winds In various attitudes,
resulting in tables of value The subject
is too complicated to discuss In a popular
way, except to say that there Is an
enormous difference In the winds ac-
) cording to the layers of distance above
tho earth, and that each great storm Is
5 a combination Of many winds moving this
way and that, but In the general drec-
tlon of the storm.
DR.. Willis Moore, the head OF the
! weather bureau, has recently published
a most interesting book on the science
OF the weather. 1t is enttlAdo 'Descrip-
tive MeteOrology," and it came from the
, lress of Appleton & Co. only a
few months ago. In this he takes up all
} matters relating TO the atmosphere and
how our weather is made
One Of his chapters deals with fore.
casting and the making OF the daily
weather charts which are put up in the
postoffices and public buildings all over
the country. According to this we find
that observations are taken every morn.
ing at the 200 weather stations scattered
throughout the United States and tn,
2 West Indies, and that the pressure OF
tho or he tap,naraturo Tho
the rainfall or snowfall and the cloud
2 ness at each Of these localities is tele,
] graphed to all the others. The weather
scientists have maps Of the United State,
z with these stations marked upon them
and they note at each station the cond'
Z tons there. The same is done here a
Mount Weather.
Now, these men have been studyinl
this business all their lives and know
Ing what the weather is In other places
, they can determine what that Of the
own locality will probably be. It is tn,
same with the specialists at Washington
B where all the reports are handled in
. \ division known as the forecast division
e the Washington bureau the work 1
b divided so that one clerk makes a char
p n the country showing the changes 0
! emperature in the various regions dur
> ng the past twenty-four hours. III
y makes broad red lines to separate tn
older from the warmer regions an,
7rrow red lines about those areas Il
ID which the changes Of temperature ar
more than ten degrees.
How storms Come.
Another clerk constructs chart show
ng the changes OF the barometer dur
q. 20 the asst twenty-four hours. lie sep
y lrates the regions OF rising and fallin
broad lines Of red and uses mario,
ed lines 10 enclose the areas wher
ne changes have been more than one
nth Of an inch. lie has another Sc
lines for those OF two-tenths. and TN
tesult is that one can tell In just wha