The Alaska daily empire., 1917-02-14

ldata from authorized observers on
 the ships of the high seas through
 out the world, for use in the prep
 aration of ocean pilot charts, These
 are some of the activities through
 which the public benefits directly.
 In addition, the Bureau maintains a staff of scientists whose whole time 1 is devoted to the investigation of
 unsolved problems pertaining to the
 various phases of the subject of ! Meteorology such as the thermo-
 dynamics of the atmosphere; upper
 air temperatures, pressure and move
 ments. and their relation Go surface
 conditions; ca, thQuakes; the relation
 of the various weather elements to
 crop growth; etc, From these inves- | tigations the sum total of the worlds meteorological knowledge is being in.
 creased, and future, if not the pres.
 ent generations will reap the fruits
 of labors that ma be of no direct
 benefit to the general public at the present time,
 Cost of Weather Bureaus Work
 But. some one may ask, what is the cost of the Weather Bureaus
 work2 And does the country at large receive benefits commensurate
 with the expenditure?
 The annual appropriation by Con.
 gross for the maintenance of the Weather Bureau is approximately $1, ,SOO, ,OOO-less than one-tenth of the
 cost of one super,dreadnought A single warning by the Bureau of severe storm on the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts has in several in-
 stances saved shipping to value far in excess of one years appropr!a ton. Shippers of perishable goods, such as fruits and vegetables, have learned 10 rely implicitly on the Bu- reaus forecasts of temperature chang es and the annual saving to these in- terests clone by reason of the fore casts is many times the total cost
 of the entire service Forecasts of. flood stages in the large rivers of the country likewise effect a saving that some years Clepending on the number and severity of the foods) runs into many millions of dollars. 1 Then there are the benefits that can
 not be measured in dollars and cents, as exempliIicd by the records Of eli matic data tat the Bureau collects land Iiggpmiugfpg
 Many Weather Stations
 To carry on it's work thc Bureau maintains about 200 regular meteor Oligical stations in as many cities and towns in the States, besides sta
 tons in Puerto Rico. Hawaii, and AL aSka CJuneauO All these are oQuipp- eI with a full complement of instru- mcnts for making weather Obserya- tions and automatic records of the various weather elements. These stations as well as about a score of Canadian stations, telegraph Obserya-
 tions to the central office at Wash. ] ingtOn twice daily-at a. m. and 8 D. m, 75th meridian time, and it is
 from these stations, chiefly that data
 for forccasting are obtained. However.
 there are about fifty special meteor Ological stations, of which eight are located in Alaska, that also tele- graph observations to Washington
 for forecasting purposes. Then there are about two hundred river stations that telephone or telegraph daily the
 river heights and rainfall to certain river stations. Other special stations in corn, wheat, sugar, rice, tobacco, fruit, and cranberry regions make
 daily reports by wire during the growing seasons so that special and 1 detailed forecasts can be made for those sections,
 Cooperative Stations Aid 1 However, the source from which Ithc Bureau obtains the bulk of it's climatological data is not the regular or special stations, but from about 4OOO cooperative stations. These are equipped with standard self-register. l ing thermometers, and rain guages The observers are as a rule public ] spirited men or women who take an interest in that kind of word and who, in many cases, would make weather records for their own pleas lure and satisfaction even if there
 were no weather service with which to cooperate and supply the equip
 met The regular stations are nearly all located within the limits of cities
 or towns where there is more or less artificial heat, and, while their rec. ords represent urban conditions, they are not in many instances represen- tative of the surrounding country.
 For this reason the cooperative sta tlons, which are nearly always in 1 the small towns or in the open Coun- try, are the better situated to record the natural climatic conditions. The Bureau, and the public ingoneral, owes a debt of gratitude to these unselrish observers who devote the necessary few minutes of time each
 day to the work of recording weather
 conditions in their respective locali-
 ties. In the States it is no longer necessary for a person to move into distant State, ignorant of climatic
 conditions that are to be encountered
 in his new home, for, except in the 1 arid regions of the west, there is a