The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-01
In FIVE MINUTES
Weather Forecasts Can B.
Made Quickly, Says Flora.
Local Observer Gives Interest.
ing Talk to Topeka Club.

A weather forecast can be made in
five minutes. but it takes twenty
years to learn to do 1t well, accord
ing to 8. D. (Sunny) Flora, the local
government weather observer. who
gave between fifty and sixty persons
In attendance at a meeting Of the
Central Y. NJ. c.. A. Current Topic
club Monday night an insight into
how the work of the department IS
carried on.
Observer Flora said:
AT precisely $40 q. m. an observer
begins the morning observation at
each one of about $50 weather sta
tons in the country. He records the
reading OF the barometer, the current
temperature. the direction Of the
wind, the highest temperature yes
terday, the lowest last night. the We
locity of the wind, the rain or snow
fall, the amount of cloudiness and the
direction from which the clouds are
moving. He can do this within
instruments at every weather bureau
office that record most II these things
automatically.
By means of a very ingenious code
these observations are reduced to
about 4 or words and filed at the
telegraph office precisely at 700 a.
m. The Western Union has already
over certain trunk lines for it. 1t
and $50 others like it from the rest
OF the country. and Canada. are tele-
graphed to the weather bureau offices
in practically every important city In
the country.
In All Parts of Country.
Each weather office receives at
least Is or 100 reports and about
seven weather bureau offices called
tpA nGk@ Ill te
reports that are telegraphed. Here
| they are translated and charted on
| large base map Of the United States
SO that the forecaster can see at a
| glance just what kind of weather pre-
| vailed over the country that morn
| ing. He can tell what the temper
| ature is at every station, just where
it has rained and how much and just
which way the wind is blowing in
| each state and how fast. He can do
| this better even than if he went up
in a high balloon and had a telescope
powerful enough to see from Maine
| to California This man is the dis
trict forecaster and he has many
times proved his ability to understand
making weather forecasts. He is a
| specialist in his particular line. 1t
| takes him five minutes to make the
forecast probably took 20 years
experience to learn how to do it well.
The forecasts for Kansas and all
! other states between Colorado and
Ohio and between Oklahoma and
Canada are made at the weather bu-
reau office at Chicago. Within an
hour and a half Of the time the OBJ
| servations were made and telegraphed
the reports have all been received,
| charted, the forecast made at Chi
cago and a thousand kilograms sent
to points within the states to which
| the forecasts apply. In another hall
hour 100 of these kilograms have
| reached their destinations in Kansas
and are being mailed and telephoned
to half a million people here.
! Forecasts Carefully Worded.
These forecasts that you glance ovel
so carelessly sometimes are SO care
fully made and worded that you cal
not only read between the lines-yol
read between the words if you ar,
especially interested.
i For instance, IL the forecaster il
confident the weather will be nice ant
Tuesday" BY the way. fair doesn'
necessarily mean clear. 1t means nj
measurable rain or snow Is expected
If he is just little doubtful OF thu
says, Generally fair II the outiool
|, is still more uncertain the forecas
will read, Unsettled weather." If i
seems that in spite of all rain nigh
fall, the forecast will read, ''Unsettle'
weather and probably showers" ant
so on down the gamut till the fore
cast read, Rain Cor possibly it
} snow) tonight and Tuesday" A fore
cast like that means keep your UNI
brella in sight and your automobile of
the mud roads 1t also means pros
perity in July when the corn crop i
suffering. There is not one chance il
fifty that such a positive forecast will
fail.
| So much depends on the weathe
forecasts in crop growing weather tina
no one connected with the weather bu
reau is allowed to speculate in an.
product of the soil on penalty of dis
missal from the service.
| If the forecast makes no mention O