Iditarod pioneer., 1917-05-26
MOON HAS NO INFLUENCE
 ON WEATHER CONDITIONS

The moon is "dead' satellite; that is, 1t is not in gaseous state, but IS solld sphere, without axlal rotation. The light that it radiates does not come from itself, but from the sun The light IS, therefore, reflected and the quantity that reaches the earth is found to be less than one hun dred thousandth part of the amount we receive from the sun--a quantity that IS inappreciable when compared with our sup ply from the latter source. It IS argued that the moons influence on our weather is exerted by gravitational pull in the form of aerial tides That there is such 2 pull must be admitted, but its effect Is so slight that investigators have not been able to connect it with weather conditions, much
 5 to use it as factor in forecastlng. If
 tidal effect were such factor we should expect 1t to be felt every SIX hours, the same as the tidal effect Cn the ocean. It should also have a progressive westerly movement, making the circuit of the earth l in little more than twenty-four hours. As matter of fact our weather types move in the opposite direction-frOm west to east, 1 in accordance with the direction of the earth's rotation on its axis.
 It seems, however. that the belief that is most prevalent in connection with lunar in fuence on our weather is that g change in
 weather may be looked for at the time of the change in the moons phase. Upon
 analysis it would seem that this idea is more unreasonable than the tidal theory. It should be recalled again that the moons surface is illumined by the sun; that 1t travels around our earth every 27 Is days
 and that the fractional part of the moons surface that is visible to us at any time depends upon the moons position in its orbit with respect to our point ot Vlslcn
 and the sun. So, then the phase of the moon is due simply to the angle at which
 we see 1t with respect to its source ot light. The idea that change in this angle of
 view should cause 2 change in weather con ditions is next to absurdity itself. But, granting that it does cause changes, that "a change in the moon" (neW moon, first quar-
 ter, full moon, last quarter produces rain, should not this cause operate throughout the e8rth's surface? Surely the lunar in fuence is not partial to Southeastern Alaska, CT to Oregon, or to Florida. As the moon $ phase changes every seven days We should expect rain on the date of the change, CT
 immediately following, throughout the earth
 where typographical features admit of rain | fall That such conditions do not occur is evident to anyone who has made the | slightest study of weather and climate ! Taking at random almost any month of any year, there will be some section of the United States that has had deficiency of
 rainy days of protracted dry spell of three or four weeks while some other section will
 have had the opposite condltion-a coHtln- uous period of wet weather Yet both of
 these regions were subjected to the same changes in moon phases. Taking some other month, the conditions will De found to be
 reversed with again tbe same moon phases
 "cperating" in both regions
 In a nutsehll. there is nothing in the | moons influence on terrestrial weather con ditions to justify any dependence being
 placed on it in predicting weather condl- tions None of the forecastlng experts of this or foreign countries considers the moon at all in making weather predictions, and, while it is true that the forecasts leave room for improvement in the matter of ac- curacy the improvement will no doubt come from q better knowledge of causes extraneous to the moon.-M B. Summers in Junaa1l F0Dre