The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-29
WATCH SUNSHINE and WIND
When Breezes Blow Into a Hole
In Map, Watch Out!
Cincinnati Chamber of Com
merce First in Field.

The mysteries of the weather bu-
reau, and the fact that weather is not
forecast by a man sitting up in a
room looking out the window have
been explained for the benefit of The
state Journal readers by S. D. Flora,
state meteorologist.
There are the weird terms, high
pressure area" lows" Bermuda
high" and many others used in the
lingo of the weather office that are
unintelligible to the majority of per-
sons.
Flora points out that weather fore
casts are made to cover considerable
more territory than the immediate
vicinity about Topeka, altho forecasts
are often made for certain small sec
tons of the state. He also declares
that The only persons who follow
weather forecasts intelligently are
agricultural people and shippers TO
whom weather conditions mean
money.
Weather is the effect OF sunshine
and wind" Flora says. Benjamin
Franklin was the first man to dis
cover that weather moves from west
TO east. but it remained for sailors to
find out that storms came with a fall
ing barometer and fair weather with
rising barometer. In 1850 American
scientists discovered that there were
great areas of low atmospheric pres
sure that drfted across the country
causing certain kinds of wind and
barometer changes that produced GER
tain kinds of weather. 1t was Sug
vested that if Geographic reports could
be secured that would locate these
areas of low pressure, it would be pos
sible to forecast the kind of weather
better than farmers were able to do
from the wishbone of a goose or the
disappearance of the ground hog.
I'm the 60'SFf Flora saws sC1eVpIand
Able, who might be called the foun-
der OF the weather bureau, began col
lecting Geographic reports for the
Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce
thru the courtesy of the Western
Union and to make forecasts which
he called Weather Probabilities The
proposition looked good and the gov
eminent took it up, putting Professor
Able in charge. Thus was started the
weather map that means more to the
weather forecaster than the stock
ticker does to the broker
High and Low of 1t.
" 1.-THE high and low idea of the
weather maps recall an American
game not played in Sunday school,"
Flora says. but the game is to dis
cover the meaning of them"
"A high marked on a weather
map" according to Flora, lis simply
an area where barometers read higher
than in other parts of the country.
A low is where they read lower.
Sometimes a low is called a cyclone
and high an anticyclone. Neither
is any more than a fourth cousin to
the famous Kansas cyclone that re-
moves everything from a farm except
tho mortgage.
1.-THE wind blows spirally in towards
the center of an area of low pres
sure like it does in the funnel shaped
clouds that gave Kansas an unde
- esr T.
ally a gentle breeze in the case of the
low In the northern hemisphere
the movement of the wind about a low
is contrary to the movement of the
hands Of a clock; 1t is the reverse in
the southern hemisphere. This means
that when low passes north of Kan
sas-lows always move eastward and
generally require one to three days to
pass a given point-the wind will be
from the south and the state will have
warm weather if it is spring, hot
weather il it is summer, and mild
weather if in winter Northern lows
seldom bring rain to Kansas because
there is nothing to cool the air as it
sW eeps across the state.
Wind From the East.
when a well formed low appears
over New Mexico and heads for Kan
sas. old General Drouth prepares for
a strategic retreat because the wind
sets in first from the east. and then
from the north, and as these winds
mix with the warm, moisture laden
wind coming up from the Gulf don't
forget that winds always blow to-
wards the center of the lowD some
thing is bound to happen. The warm
air is suddenly cooled when it meets
the north breeze and down comes the
rain. In the summer season it is never
safe to predict the end of a dry spell
or advisable to pray for rain with
faith in its fulfillment until low
appears in the southwest.
Highs are the reverse OF lows The
wind blows out of them into the lows.
When a high appears in the north
west. Kansas is in for a season of
north wind. In the winter season this
generally means n cold wave, and in
summer it means the breaking up of
a hot spell if the high is well de-
veloped, and especially if there is a
low to the south to help the north
winds to the lower ATTITUDES.
That Bermuda High.
Sometimes the famous Bermuda
high settle down for a siege over
the eastern gulf states. This means
continued high wind from the south,
hence the hot weather of a Bermuda
. high, becomes associated with the
holiness of It's small namesake, the
Bermuda onion.
Thighs also bring clear weather
and in summertime when one settles