Arizona republican., 1912-08-16
RAIN MAKING
 EXPERIMENTS
Some Weather Bureau Data on the Result of the Un- dertaking at Battle Creek Where They "Shot" a Rain Storm

ger of Salt river valley people being deluled into spending their savings in efforts to produce artificial rain. The irrigation system of this valley bids fair to serve. the purposes of a water
 supply for farm uses too well for them to be led astray. There are more, re- mote sections of the state that might
 bite at such bait if it looked good anu the results of experiments in that line are always interesting. when such re- suits can be authenticated, which is
 the reason for publishing what follows.
 Another reason is that usually such
 results are not reported fully and scl
 entifically and the reader secures only
 added transformation.
 Some time ago it was announced
 that c. w Post of Battle Creek, Mich.
 would undertake to produce rain on q
 certain area near that city on the 23rd
 day of July. His method was the well
 known plan of firing heavy volleys Of
 dynamite in succession over a consid-
 erable area. He claimed to have made
 a partial success of a similar effort ln
 Texas and wanted to give a dem )n-
 stration of it in Michigan. He did so
 on the date named, and it ralned,
 but that is only part of the story. Sll-
 ence as to the rest of it is misleading.
 The process consisted of firing 45OO
 pounds of dynamite divided into 1500 charges. placed an eighth of mile apart over q certain area embraced within fifteen stations. or 100 charges at each station, fired in close success sion.
 The report of the rain battle was that the firing began at 10:30 A Nj ard lasted until 3:3O P NJ That . slight precipitation was noticed at 1:3) P. M. ard that it rained from 4: 30 to, s o'clock that evening. the days pre- CipitatiOn being A of an inch. It waS heralded far and wide as a successful experiment the reports calling atten- tiOn to the prediction of the weather bureau. made on the 22nd that the g would be fair weather in Battle Creek. The story told thus far looks very awkward for the weather bureau.
 Now it happens that Willis L. Moore. chief of the weather bureau. and regarded as an authority on me- neurological matters. takes little stock ! in rainmakers and the dynamite plan | in particular. according to him. has noc been a success in experiments thus far made. MT. Moore having read of MT. Posts proposed experiment issued q circular letter under date of July 21. on the general subject of rain making and dealing specifically with MT. Posts experiment in Texas the report | of which he said was misleading in | that on the date named rains were l quite general over a large area in Texas and moreover had been predict I ed bv the weather bureau. The infer l ence was that if Mir. Post secured rain | in Michigan, there would be other | cause for it than dynamite. Then Mir. 1 Moore's bureau went on predicting anu | on the 28th announced dry weather fo~ Battle Creek next day.
 | One of these circulars was seen by
 reporter for The Republican at the | office of the weather bureau here, and I being aware of the published report of | MT. Posts experiment interest was l aroused Through the kindness of K | R. Briggs the director of the Arizona | section the reporter was given an op- | portunity to study results from the | daily weather maps issued in Wash | ingtOn and sent to each station, show | Ing weather conditions all over the | continent each day, and locating the | storm centers, from which in general way, daily predictions are made. It has | been established that most of the big | storms east of the Rocky mountains | especially in the northern half of this I country, move generally from west to | east, following the Great Lakes toward l their outlet. It can also be predicted l with reasonable accuracy. how long Il will take a certain storm in the north
 west to reach a certain point in the
 east, modified by increasing or de-
 creasing velocity, due to various es- tablished conditions. -
 The weather map of July 22, g. a. m
 shows that there was a low pressure in Alberta, Canada and that rain was falling in North Dakota and Montana
 moving eastwardly of course. On this
 showing fair weather was predicted
 for the 23d in Michigan. On the morn
 ing of the 23d the rain report for thu
 preceding A hours over the area men.
 tioned. showed that the precipitatioi
 had been .22 of an inch in northe~r l Montana, 38 in western Montana; 1 | i in North Dakota. .66 in central Nort' , Dakota, and from .04 to "A in Soul | Dakota But the storm was travelini
 eastwardly just a trifle faster than ha t been anticipated and it had rained il X Minnesota from 20 to 1.14 inche
 There had been even a fall of .34 jus
 over the west line of Wisconsin.
 | Therefore-in the making of tn
 weather map that morning, July g a v 8 A M (2h hours before the rainmak e CTS began operations) this rain are e was indicated and the prediction wa ;. made for showers in southern Michi Il gan that night and probably on Wed Q nesday AS heretofare related, they oc
 cured, lasting from 4:3O to P. NJ. i Battle Creek.
 ' The weather map of the next morn
 ing, July A. showed that the rain cam
 as predicted and by the morning of til = 24th had included northern 'n5!2n . l ohio and western Pennsylvania anti a
 ! the lake region except Lake Erie. Bl ,t the rain report of the morning of Il 1 24th contains the real joke. It show v. that while Battle Creek got A of 8 n inch. it was about the dryest spot
 l the state notwithstanding it's Cannt