The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-07-29
OCEAN REVEALS
 WEATHER SECRETS
Experts of the Scripps ln- stitutiOns Used Its for
 Forecasts
MADE MONTHS AHEAD

of the weather are being revealed by the waters of the Pacific Ocean At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, department of the University of California. scientists are achieving remarkable success in lanog g-range forecasting through study of the fuctuating tempern- ture and chemical content of sea water.
 Every morning at eight o'clock. the oceans temperature is taken at La Jolla. Calf. From this tenn perature and other data, the ex- perts are able to predict with amazing accuracy, the weather for many mouths in advance. The tenn peraturcs being recorded at pres- ent. for example, wil be used to forecast next winters weather on the Pacific coast. writes Andrew Is. Boone in Popular Science Monthly. lirar, ,oad, ,iproduced
 Recently. these forecasts have proved accurate seventy-five per cent of the time. How remarkable this record Is can be appreciated when 1t is remembered that the predictions of the U. s. Weather Bureau, made only twenty~four hours, instead of months. in ad- vance, are correct only eight per- cent of the time. The California scientists expect to be able to fore- cast periods of rainfall and drought five, ten and even twenty years ahead through their study of the sea.
 This success is the culmination of research begun sixteen years ago. The first long range weather prediction on the basis of these studies was made in 1923 by Dr. George r. McEwen, famous ocean, ographer who is in charge of the work. Three or four years ago, sev- eral California public utility com panies interested themselves In the physicist, joined Dr. McEwen in the work of tracing storms to their ocean sources and of predict ing. on the basis of summer sea temperatures, the weather for the following winter.
 From their observations, the two men have come to the general con clusion that warm sea water in summer indicates dry winter, and cold water wet winter.
 Other things besides tempera- lures enter into the computations. A tide gage swinging up and down on barnacle-covered pile on the Institution's experimental pier. day and night, writes It's story of the restless sea on a paper-cov- cred cylinder. Also. each day. a small sample of the Pacifics green water Is analysed to learn whether there has been an increase or de- crease in the chemicals 1t contains. This record of shifting chemical content is highly important. It in- dicates when the ocean is spoutiny water from it's depths to the sur face.
 These gigantic undersea foun- tains bring colder and more acid water from the ocean's floor. They are believed to play an important part in producing wetty winters, with heavier snows in, the moun- tains and increased danger of floods in the spring.
 since we cannot hope to predict at the beginning of each season the occurrence of individual storms and their water production says Me- Ewen, I've are driven to inquire whether there may not be a trend in rainfall and temperatures, 50 we can classify seasons as wet or dry, cold or mild"
 Assuming there is such trend, the scientists have worked on the theory that 1t can be forecast by using as basis an element that bears n definite relation to rain- fali--the seas temperature chang es. x sN
 'If we can establish the length of the cycles accurately" pr. G0r- ton explains, i've can forecast the trend of rainfall over five. ten or twenty .years. The great drougbt of 1930.1931. for example. w3e merely the climax of fifteen yeaf9 Of definite precipitation in caiifor-