Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-13
SPREADING WEATHER WARNINGS

Compared with establishments which
produce stick candy, papers of pins OF
other commodities. 1t may
Millions seem of less Importance,
p.lI but when compared with
producers of information
the weather bureau can take rank with
any of them, issuing $4,000 weather flores
casts each day. reaching 6,00O,000 people
by telephone and telegraph. to give them
the information: sending out $4,000 wealth.
er maps, and furnishing approximately
5000 newspapers with either bulletins or
charts. In addition. whistles and flags
are used to disseminate information. To
run this office costs more than $500. 0C0
a year, of which amount 100000 goes for
| telegraph messages. Constituting what
might be termed the regular force are
some 800 people, but including the num-
Der of special observers doing work
throughout the country the total reaches
about 5000 Statistics at the bureau show
4 the number of inaccuracies to be only
eleven in every 100.
The watchword of the weather bureau
| is rapfdity In issuing forecasts the es-
sentlal point is to have them reach their
destination before the time covered in the
forecast has passed. and as they usually
cover period of only about thirty-six to
forty eight hours, no time can be lost At
s O'Clock. eastern time, morning and even
! ing observations are taken at each of the
2D stations in this country and the West
! indies. The current minimum and maxi
mum temperature is taken. the barome-
| ter read the velocity and direction of the
wind recorded, the kind and extent of
clouds noted. and observations made in
connection with rain and snow fall. The
temperature is noted from thermometers
| located holt in tlcb
position, generally several feet above
the top of the building, as to be COM
pletely surrounded by a free current of
air. Other observations, except rain and
snow fall and cloud conditions, are OBJ
tanned from apparatus located in a spe-
cial room.
! The observations are then put into spe-
cial telegra phic code and sent to the
| bureau here. The time for sending the
message is set. so that at a certain hour
night and morning the telegraph lines
| are thrown open to the weather bureau
exclusively. and every weather observer
| Is at the key sending his own cipher and
! hearing those of every other observer
within his territory. 4 code is used
merely as means of saving money and
not as safeguard for secrecy. a.z
| In the code from three to seven words
are sufficient to tell OF conditions which
III ordinary EnSHSn HHgnt
Messages require twenty. For in
i hv I'll. stance, message might
i ~ 0ouo' read this way York sid
ney nenagh bank kindle." The first word
gives the name of the station, New
York" The second word denotes the
thermometer and barometer readings. the
third the direction of the wind and state
of weather at the lowest temperature
during the night. The fourth word shows
| the velocity of the wind and the fifth
the change I'm barometer in the last two
| hours. Received here. the reports are
translated back into English again and
then charted on weather maps, after
which expert weather forecasters study
the maps and fOretell the weather for
the next thirty-six or fOrty-eight hours.
AS soon as the experts have made out
| the forecasts for, the various localities
they are Immediately telegraphed, this
time in plain English, to more than 1900
principal distributing points. including
the stations from where they originated.
| All this has been done within two hours
| from the time the observations were
taken. Six large centers for the distri-
button of these cards exist-at Chicago,
News Orleans, Denver, San Francisco,
Portland and Washington. Forecasts are
Sent from these points by mail. telephone
| or telegraph
The of the telephone in issuing
| forecasts makes 1T possible to reach q
| large number Ofqpeople who otherwise
would not get the Information in time to
be of any use. Several methods are used.
In rural communities, for instance, at
stated time central connects as many
phones as possible and then gives what
| has come to be known as the weather
| forecast ring. Those who are DESTROYS of
| knowing the probable condition merely
| take down their receiver, and central, at
one time tells them ALL On ong-distance
H. t.S11 49,, H..
| to give it to those asking, thus lessening
| long-distance calls. In some parts of the
| still almost "uncivilized" west the tele-
phone wires are not noticeable, as the
| wire fences have been insulated and used,
| thus serving two purposes.
Maps are sent out by about 100 fore
cast stations as well as from the six fore
cast centers. Those issued from the lat
ter points are general, while the station
maps are local.
The methods used by the weather bu-
reau in the distribution Of the forecasts
| show a close study of human nature. In
| small towns. for example. where the in
habitants are accustomed to foregather
at some central point, flag system is
| used in giving, the forecasts white
flag denotes fair weather; blue. rain or
snow; half white and half blue local
rain or snoV, stationary temperature.
The temperature flag is black, and as i.
is flown above or below another flag de-
| notes a rise fall in temperature. The
cold wave flag is white with black CEN
ter. In large cities this same method in
"A modified form is employed. Instead OF
the flags kiosks are placed as points
where the traffic is heavy. In agricultural
centers a cold wave is predicted by
blowing whistle three short blasts.
Other conditions are also given by
whistle code familiar to the farmers.
All these are methods used in distribute
ing forecasts taken in the morning
Evening forecasts are taken at the Wash
ington. San Francisco and Portland Of
fees, and from these the newspapers get
the reports contained i'm the morning edi-
tons Weather maps used by the papers
are also made up in the evening.
An economic value is at least supposed
to attach to all enterprises of a character
such as this. and this is true of the
weather bureau The real value, how
ever is not gained from the ordinary
run of forecasts such as those issued
In large cities. They have value, in
that for example they indicate to milady
whether or not she can risk wearing a
handsome evening gown without fear of
etting wettng. But the real i'm
portance of this work lies In saving the
agricultural crops of the country and the
shipping interests, work which In the
heart of big city is scarcely realized.
The 200 regular stations, each repre-
senting about Zoo square miles of ter
ritory. furnish complete data. In addition.
however observations are taken at inter-
mediate points to insure the perfect study
of the climate of the country This
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