Bisbee daily review., 1914-02-28
WEATHER FORECASTS ARE THE RESULT OF
 COOL CALCULATION
Business Like Procedure Is
 Adopted in Arriving at Forecasts of Bad Weather

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.-Many people have an idea that there is something mysterious and occult about the work Of the Weather Bu- reau in forecasting the coming of storms, frosts and floods. Not a few think that the observers must neces- sarily get their data by reading the planets. the stars and the moon. AS matter of fact the forecaster of the Bureau foretells the coming of dis. turbances in a businesslike way. very similar to that in which a man who has ordered a shipment Of goods would would estimate the date of its arrival
 Suppose a business man had ordered carload of pineapples from the Ha. waiian Islands He would know the average time 1t would take the steam er to make the trip to the Pacific port the average time for unloading and loading into refrigerator cars, and the average number of days to be al. lowed these cars for their trip across the continent to New York. His esti' mate. however. would be subject toI error because the steamship might be ielayd by fog. or the cars might meet with an accident
 Storms. like pineapples, as rule do rot originate in the United States. They come tc us, some from the Phil ipplnes. Japan. Siberia. Alaska, Can .I sh. aF Weather Bureau gets cable. telegraph. lc or wireless notice of a foreign storm. Station after station, or yes sel after vessel reports the storms arrival in its neighborhood. so that the general direction and rate Of progress can be determined very early. In fact, the arrival of some stol ms can Ce foretoit ten days in advance.
 The forecasters watch for the re- zion of low barometer which is the storm center around which the winds Llow. This whirl or eddy move bodily forward with the general eastward drift Of about 600 miles a day in mr latitudes. As the, lines of equal press ure isobars) around the low center center crowd closer together, the winds attending the storm increase in iurce. The iorecaster determines the direction of movement of the storm and it's velocity
 When weather disturbances are reported, the forecaslers know from experience about how long it takes them 10 reach our Pacific Coast, and then Tow long after they will reach he Atlantic Coast Fer example, if a storm coming from Siberia drifts eastward around the North Pole and Ieappears in Alaska, it should appear in Washington and oregon in about two days; should get to the Great Lakes in six days and to the Atlantic Coast in seven or eight days.
 Unexpected conditions may delay storms or divert them from the straight track just as a regrigerator car may be thrown off it's schedule or be shippe5 by accident on q wrong road. Some of these storms deplete themselves by running into regions oi high barometer which are of greater magnitude and extent than the storm itself Some of them, how ever. travel completely around the world.
 To keep tab on cold waves that come into the United States from Canada and Alaska, the Weather Bu' reau Studies the Canadian Weather reports. Engiand sehus reports from Iceland, the British Islands and Cen tinental Europe, and daily reports come from St. Petersburg on the con ditions in Russia and Siberia.
 The same businesshke system used , in tracing the track of a storm is ap- piled in determining the arrival of frosts.