San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-17
SHOWS
WINDS FAVOR
bALL00N|STS
"Westerlies" Are Fairly
Stable, Observations
Reveal.
NEED A GOOD LOW
Pressure Areas Will Gov
err Success Of Race,
II Is Believed.
NEED A GOOD LOW

After weeks of observation OF
ground and upper air currents for the
purpose of informing national balloon
race pilots of the general trend of the
wind. j. ii. Jarboe, meteorologist. said
Thursday morning that the "wester-
lies were fairly favorable and stable
and that the action of high and low
pressures which govern to great
extent the surface and ground cur
rents. had been highly favorable in
the last few days for pilots to make
a record.
The distance gained by the pilots
will depend upon the wind directions
and velocitics during the race. 1t is
the desire of the pilots to get a wind
blowing northeast So that they will
be carried toward the mouth OF the
st. Lawrence river.
If. on the day of the race, strong
low should be present in the northern
part of the United States. sucking
wind into it from the south. the pilots
would be carried rapidly in the direc-
ton they want to go. On the other
hand if high should be TO the north
blowing down toward the south. the
balloons could not make any Roadway
against this ground current.
Prefer Ground Currents.
However. the "westerlies" which
blow at an average altitude of IS
600 to 10000 feet shift from south.
west to west and may have to be used
to some extent by the pilots. A fav-
orable surface wind, however. is more
TO be desired. for in reaching the
high altitude to get into the "west-
crlies." the balloon pilots are forced
TO throw out great deal of ballast
which may bring their race to an
earlier end than otherwise.
The Kelly Field aeronautical sta
ton has been testing the upper air
and surface currents three times daily.
While no report was received of the
II o'clock reading Thursday, Mr.
Jarboe, by means of his nephoscope
observations taken at noon, reported
velocity of fl miles an hour at
10000 feet. A film Of clouds at an
altitude of approximately 10000 feet
could not be checked by the nepho-
scope.
Pilots prefer to stay in the surface
conditions are unfavorable at this al
titude. they may be forced to go up
and get into the "westerlies" during
the race.
Pilots. Air Service officers and all
others interested in the race who have
been studying weather and wind con
ditions, are hoping for an opportuIc
low to move down into the northern
part of the country just in time for
the race. Twice i'll the last ten days.
an ideal weather map has been plotted
by which a pilot could have got into
strong southerly draft of wind
blowing into a low which would have
given him big jump in race for
distance.
Weather Map Is Active.
During the last two or three days.
the highs and lows on the map have
been active and this is favorable TO
the race. A flat map in which there
is little activity would mean that
pilots would start with handicap.
The faster are areas of pressure move,
the more wind there is and by getting
radio reports Of the location of the
highs and lows, pilots by juggling with
the "westerliesr if they are forced to.
may break the international record
for distance. To do this they would
have to 60 as far as New York state.
In the meantime the Kelly Field
and San Antonio weather bureau sta
tons are checking up on the winds
so that this information may be fur
nished to the pilots who are, sched-
uled to hop off next Wednesday.