Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-01-09
Admiral Peary's Photograph of the North Pole.

Not the least important of the sci
entitic data that may be gathered are
those in regard to weather conditions,
a knowledge of which would be use
ful in the making of weather fore
casts for the United States.
Weather Data Are Wanted.
Most of our weather is not a local
matter at all, but results from dis
turbanceS that originate perhaps many
thousands of miles away and drift"
to US. Thus our weather bill-of-fare
is made up largely of a series of NOV
ing lows" and "highs''-regions of
subnormal and abnormal barometric
pressure-made familiar to many read
ers by the roughly circular and clip
teal lines on the daily maps of the
United States weather bureau. Ac-
companying these disturbances are
winds, hot and cold Spells" and rain
or snOw-the chief factors that make
up our weather. FOrecasting weather
consists largely in detecting new dis
turbances as they show up on the west
ern and northwestern borders of the
country, learning their characteristics,
and figuring out the paths that they
probably will follow because of the
prevailing pressures and temperatures
ahead of them.
The great majority of these '1ows'
seem to originate over the warm sea
south of the Aleutian islands in the
winter, and over the interior of Alaska
during the summer while the "highS"
are found farther to the east. But
some of the conditions that cause
them to be built up in those places
have their birth farther north in the
Polar regions, and a better knowledge
of temperature, pressure and wind
changes there would undoubtedly facil-
ftate weather forecasting.
In the search for the beginnings of
its weather, the United States is not
concerned with the entire Polar re-
gions. 1t is most concerned, it hap
pens, with the unexplored territory
which lies north of Alaska. The out
standing and dominant factor in the
Arctic's contribution to the worlds
weather is the draining of its cold
air southwark. Air is slippery" and
Geld air is heavy.
When pyramid of cold air has been
built up near the North pole, the upper
part slides down the slope and flows
off with a considerable momentum to
the south. This is true all around
the pole. But there are certain chan
nels in which the flow is concentrated
by mountains and land masses. One
channel is down the northern arm of
the Atlantic between Europe and
Greenland, others are up the great
river valleys of Siberia; and still 9TH
ers are through Bering strait, over
Alaska east of the Canadian Rockies
and up the Mackenzie and other val
leys of Canada. 1t is this latter group
of cold-air rivers east of Siberia alone
that directly influences the weather of
the United States.
Daily Radio Reports.
Temperature, pressure and wind con-
ditions-the really vital weather fac
tors-are not known in the region
north from Alaska to the pole, and
are now merely assumed for scientific
purposes largely by inference from OBJ
Servations taken on the famous Fran
drift across the ASiatic side of the
Polar regions. Accurate observations
of the ses sonal changes of the fac
tors made On the ground-pr rather
con the ice''-would be of great value
in filing out sciences permanent rec
ords. Daily reports by radio for
considerable period from a ship drift
ing across this region or from some
other sort of base established in its
heart, would be of incomparably great
er value practically, for they might
often furnish the unknown factor that
would determine next weeks weather
in Minneapolis. Chicago and New York.
Besides adding to the worlds knowl-
edge of the factors that bear directly
on weather, a study of the unexplored
regions of the Arctic would greatly
expand our knowledge of ocean cur.
rents.