The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-11-03

l on the results of an unusual grouping of the planets with respect to each other and to the sun can serve no useful purpose, is the opinion of M. B. Summers, in charge of the local weather bureau office.
 On the contrary, he says that the publication of such articles as the one that appeared in recent issue of The Empire, giving forecast of dire happenings to Mother Earth from December 17 to 20, arouses un- necessary apprehension, worry and fear in minds of the superstitious and edge of the operations of natural laws relating to weather conditions on the earth.
 ABOUT HALLEY'S COMET
 In every community, he said, there are those who seize upon sensational prophetic statements and work them selves into high state of nervous excitement in anticipation of the fulfillment of the prophecy.
 Halley's comet, a few years ago, furpish the basis for much specula- tion as to the effect of its tail strik- ing the earth, and not few saw visions of the asphyXiating of all animal life when the phenomenon would occur.
 Every now and then some religious fanatic considers it his bounden duty to enlighten his fellow men that he has figured out from Biblical pro- phecy and historical and current events that the world is due to come to an end on such and such day. Instances are on record of persons disposing of their poperty and pa tiently waiting for the coming of the end, as a result of such prophecies. PLANET GROUPING NOT UNUSUAL
 If this unusual grouping of the planets will cuase such abnormalities in terrestrial weather, why, says MT. Summers, has the world at large been kept in ignorance of it until within a few weeks of the period in which the events are to occur?
 Astronomy is one of the most eX- act of the sciences, and the date of the conjunction and opposition of the planets in this instance, as in others has been known among astronomers for generations, the same as the dates of eclipses and other events in the fife of our solar system. It seems strange that under these cir cumstances we should not have been warned until the catacylsm is all most upon us.
 ABOUT SUNSPOTS
 That the gravitational pull of so many planets in conjunction will pro duce a giant sunspot may be true, but it does not necessarily follow that the sunspot will produce the strenuous weather of which we have been so sensationally warned. Ter restrial magnetic disturbances and storms are common to sunspots, and auroras, or northern lights, being an example. But magnetic storms and wind and rain storms are entirely different phenomena.
 When we consider that the earth, said MT. Summers, as viewed by an observer on the sun, would be so the unaided eye, it seems most un- reasonable to think that the sunspot influence on our weather, if it exists to any material extent, should be confined to any particular part of this Gas seen from the sun) micro scopic surface, such as California, or Alaska, or Brazil, or Central Europe. The simultaneous occurrence of vio- lent wind or rain storms turnout the earth's surface, or even in all regions in the same latitude, would indeed be most extraordinary and a feat of nature that weather records show has not occurred from past sun spot manifestations of great intens- ity.
 FROM A SCIENTIST
 A rcent issue of the Monthly Weather Review contains an article by Prof. c. F. Marvin, Chief of the Weather Bureau on Terrestrial Weather and Solar Activities," and Mr. Summers submits the following quotation therefrom:
 "The atmosphere derives its heat, not directly from the sun except to a small extent, but chiefly from the surface of the earth itself. The daily sequence of sunshine and darkness; the varied distribution of clear and clouded skies; diversities of surface cover added to contrasts of land and water areas, including the phenomena of evaporation, con- densation and precipitation; the cycle of the season, and above all the fluctuating but nevertheless perpetual contrasts of surface temperatures, ranging all the way from the heat of the tropics to the intense cold of