Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07

T IS said, by less. a physicist than
Bertrand Russell, that red-hot stove
might" freeze a kettle of water if
a. given a sufficient number of trials
Apparently the world weather machine
the atmospheric engine that produces our
daily climate-has tried its kettle on the cos
mic hot stove enough times to meet the re-
uurements. At all events, we have this
strange summer of 1880.
Drought in America floods in France, freez-
ing blasts in Austria, heavy SHOWS in Bulgaria,
torrential rains and overfiowing rivers ana
flooded farms and cities in japan and China
here is q kettle that freezes, bois. hakeS and
pleasantly SINNERS. all at the same time
The mercury stood around 80 degrees In New
York one Saturday in August and the beaches
afforded the only near relief from hot pave
ments and torrid air. The following TUESDAY
the thermometer dipped down to the 4os' ana
passengers were grateful for steam heat on tne
trains. At the same time hotels near Vienna
offered tourists the novel experience OF sk1ing
in August and three mountaineers who had
gone for q summer climb in the Alps were
oyertaEen by the bitter cold and froze to death.
Strange summer? Think back q few months
to strange winter. blizzard last November
swept the continent from the Rockies to the
Atlantic; gave Chicago its first November zero
weather in fffty-hve years, froze up such SOUTH
erly places as Jacksonville and Dallas, and way
down in Mexico City three men died OF ex-
posure.
Heavy weather continued for weeks. and 1t
looked as though were in for an old-fasn-
Toned winter But shortly after Christmas
came mild spell. Middle West thermometers
that had been below the freezing point climbed
to 80 degrees, and certain north Atlantic cities
Wed with one another in winter resort weather.
In January winter came back with
vengeance - binding snowstorms. cattle and
men frozen on the plains, below-zero tempera-
lures. from Montana far into Texas.
AND so it went. see-saw, with spring bobbing
up in the midst of winter, and winter
pushing into. spring. On February Is it was 10
degrees hot in Springfield. Mass; next day il
was IS degrees cold On HAY it was 80 de-
grees hot. and ON May % down again to A
degrees cold And what happened To SPRING
field happened to many other places. Thus,
in Buffalo the mercury climbed until ON May
% it had reached 80 degrees; three days later,
on May g. it dropped TO % degrees. And up
in Orange County N. Y, the boys quit going
in swimming and got out their bobSleds.
What do all these changes mean? Is the
queer weather of last spring and winter re-
sponsible for this freak summer which brought
the worst drought in the history Of the United
States? What may we look for this winter
next summer? Is there any progress in the
science of fonecasting. so that we may know m
advance and. prepare for droughts, floods. bliz-
yards?
EVERYBODY talks about the weather, and most
of US have very positive opinions on it. but only
the meteorologists know how little we really
know.
During the oppressive days of heat and aridi-
ty in August the Weather Bureau received nu-
merous letters and oral suggestions outlining
WAYS to break the drought. Many people had
an idea that radio waves were responsible, and
implOred the authorities to shut down the
broadcasting stations for o few days: copiouS
rain aiGQf7a
gesti0n was that a flock of airplanes be. fiDwn
in circles over the city of Washington to induce
rain. Meanwhile, pious folk in West Virginia
and doubtless in many other places-saw In the
drought the wrath OF God furnishing the world
"NE CANNOT trace any direct connection
w between the summer drought and the
weather Of last spring and winter, though there
doubtless are cumulative effects" said Prof.
Charles F. Marvin, chief OF the United States
Weather Bureau when asked my question at
headquarters IN Washington.
"'sfn some parts of the country, indeed the
drought not merely a Summer pnenom-
enon, but extended back into the Spring, and
even into Winter. In Maryland, the District of
Columbia, Virginia and West Virginia the RAIN
fan has been deficient for eight months-which
dates the drought in those States back into
February.
IT wish could answer your question as to
causes TO my own satisfaction" frankly con-
fessed the man who for more than 40 years
has been studying the weather, watching the
day-by-day records as they accumulate in
Washington from all parts Of the continent.
comparing new records with DID, challenging
and testing his results with the painstaking
care of the scientist.
'The best can say" he went ON. sis. that
we have had little rain because the air over
o large area stagnated
Ordinarily cold air blows i'm from the Ca