The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1916-03-12

F." (Wntten tE Ths Washtngton Herald py WILLIS
Luther Moore. D. &c. Professor MstsorOlosy. Georss
Warrington University; formerly ehief. Weather
Buean)
For eighteen years as chief of the
United States Weather Bureau sought,
with all of the facilities Of q great gov
eminent institution. to solve the problem
Of the law that know must be back
OF the initiation Of storms.
constructed the weather research OBJ
servatories at Mount Weather; flew kites
carrying self-recording Thermometers and
barometers daily to attitudes Of from
two to over four miles; sailed free bal
looms with instruments frequently to
nineteen miles altitude and received the
instruments back again under parachutes
after the balloons had exploded; measured
the height and velocity Of clouds by
means OF theodlite observations; daily
plotted observations collected from
around the entire Northern Hemisphere
so that might locate all the storms OF
land or ocean on any given date and
trace the sequence of storms and cold
waves from their beginning to their end
ing, and colIated and discussed the avail
able data which might be expected to
show the relation that subsists, II any.
between solar activities or planatory po-
sitions and the weather OF the earth-but
all without definite success until I be-
came associated with w. 3. Carothers, of
Houston, Tex, who has undoubtedly dis
covered the central law of the weather,
which makes It possible to make forecasts
two and three weeks in advance with
higher accuracy than can be made from
an ordinary meteorological chart for two
days in advance.
VIII Save Millions.
When this new system Is adopted by
the government or other institutions for
the making Of predictions there will re-
suit a saving of hundreds of millions to
the farmer and to the man who works
out of doors. While the forecasts will
not be perfect, they Will have but a small
percentage OF error, and will enable one
to know weeks in advance the general
character Of the weather, and to get de-
tailed forecasts that will have a higher
degree OF accuracy than he has had here
tOfore.
BY this system every one Of the
cyclones and anti--cyclones that consti-
tUte our weather may be traced back to
certain activities OF the sun that it is
possible now definitely to measure. The
splendid work Of c. G. Abbot, OF the
Smithsonian Institution, has shown the
variable character of the suns heat and
that certain spots radiate more than
other parts of the surface OF the sun.
There are hot, luminous, metallic clouds
surrounding the sun, called the photo
sphere. Here and there the pent up heat
Of the interior bursts through these
clouds and creates a rift or opening
which emits heat in excess Of the hot
adjacent philosophers.
These riffs. by sending out shafts of
extra heat disturb the otherwise orderly
processes of the seasons and create tur-
bulent gyrations in our atmosphere that
we call storms and cold waves. Caroth-
ers has discovered a most wonderful and
ingenious way OF locating these riffs
through the action that they exercise on
the morning rise of the barometer, which
between and 10 a. m. each day at the
equator and for some degrees north and
south. He has also determined them by
direct observations of the sun.
Twenty-nve-day Rotation.
Most investigators have been confused
and lost in an interminable Jungle by
with twenty-seven day rotation period
which the photosphere seems to have
and to trace the relation Of spots, promi-
nences and faculae and variations in
magnetic conditions to storms of the
earth.
Carothers found that the sun, at least
at the equator and beneath the photo
sphere, rotates in twenty-five days and
not twenty-seven; that there are never
less than five nor more than eight of
the heat riffs previously referred to-;
that they may retain their position and
existence for many months, or moro than
a year, at a time, with varying degrees
Of intensity; and that each crosses our
central meridian every twenty-five days.
They may pass away and others form;
but, as previously stated, each one of
our storms and cold waves can now be
traced back to one of these heat pulsa-
tiOns of the sun, and It is found that their
intensities are directly proportional to
the strength OF tn solar riffs. Mr..
Carothers has discovered the length OF
the interval between the passage Of a
rift and the appearance of a cold wave
in the western part of the United States.
1t is nearly three weeks In length
A working hypothesis that satisfies the
requirements of science with regard to
these discoveries may be stated as fol-
lows:
That the passage Of the earth through
shaft of extra heat expands the lower
air at the equator much more than it
does at high lattudes, causing the air
in the tropics to bulge upward until huge
masses, somewhat like avalanches of
snow on a mountain side, break loose and
slide down the incline towards the poles