Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-03-13
How The Weather Bureau Forecasts
Storms, Frosts and Floods.


occult about the work of the Weather
Bureau in forecasting the coming of
storms, frosts, and foods. Not 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
disturbances in a business-like way,
very similar to that in which a man
who has ordered shipment of goods
would estimate the date of its ar
rival.
Suppose business man had order
ed carload of pineapples from the
Hawaiian Islands. He would know
the average time it would take the
steamer to make the trip to the Pa
cific port, the average time for I'M
loading and loading into refrigerator
cars, and the average number of days
to be allowed these cars for their
trip across the continent to New York.
His estimate, however, would be sub
ject to error, because the steamship
might be delayed by fog or the cars
might meet with an accident.
Storms, like pineapples, as a rule,
do not originate in the United States.
They come to us, some from the Phil
ippines, Japan, Siberia, Alaska, Can
ada, or he Gulf of Mexico. The
Weather Bureau gets cable, tele-
graphic, or wireless notice of for
eign storm. Station after station, or
vessel 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
storms can be forecasted 10 days in
advance.
The forecasters watch for the re-
gion of low barometer which is the
storm center around which the winds
blow. The whirl or eddy moves bodi-
ly forward with the general eastward
drift of about $50 miles a day in our
ATTITUDES. The forecaster deter
mines the direction of movement of
the storm and its velocity.
When weather disturbances are re-
ported, the forcasters know from OK
pcrience about how long it takes
them to reach our Pacific coast. and
then how long after they will reach
the Atlantic coast. For example,
if storm coming from Siberia drifts
eastward around the North Pole and
rcappears 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 refrigerator
car may be thrown off its schedule or
be shipped by accident on a wrong
road. Some of these storms deplete
themselves by running into regions
of high barometer which are of great
err magnitude and extent than the
storm itself. Some of them, however.
travel completely around the world.
To keep tab on cold waves that
come into the United States from
Canada and Alaska, the Weather
Bureau studies the Canadian weather
reports. England sends reports from
Iceland, the British Islands, and
Continental Europe, and daily reports
come from st. Petersburg on the con-
dition in Russia and Siberia.
The same business-like system in
tracing the track of a storm is ap-
piled in determining the arrival of
frosts.
. Flood forecasts are made in much
the same way. Information as to
the amount of rainfall at the head
waters of streams that cause floods
are covered by telegraphic reports
sent by local observers. AS this rain
reaches the main channel, the height
of the water in the channel is de-
termined by successive gauging sta
lions. Past records establish how
much height, say, of 20 feet at Du-
buque, Iowa, will produce at Daven-
port, another station 80 miles down
the Mississippi. This plan is fol-
lowed all the way down the river, and
at each point full allowance is made
for the effects Of water from tribu-
taries, and from additional and local
rainfall. AS result of these obser-
vations in the recent flood the people
OF Cairo had warning a week or ten
days in'advance. The Pittsburgh dis
trict can be given only twelve to
twenty-four hours notice, because a
flood is upon them within "a hours
after heavy rain storm.
OUR HOME WOMEN
HAVE BEAUTIFUL HAIR.
IANyA