Evening star., 1937-05-01
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.
Laboratory and Study
BY THOMAS X. HENRY.

Man can't make weather.
The futillty of all rain making the
ories was exposed before the American
Meteorological Society, meeting here
Wednesday, by Joseph B. Kincer, chief
of the Climatology Division of the
Weather Bureau.
other in unpredictable cycles, Mr.. Kin
Ger said, and are as inevitable as death
or taxes. Man can only aggravate their
effects.
The most respectable rain-making
theories, he said, deal with means of
getting more moisture into the air, by
evaporation or otherwise. which will
come down on the parched land as rain
Actually it makes no difference, he
stressed For example, the City of Keo-
kuk, Iowa. had only hundredth of an
inch of rain last July. During Septem-
ber it had nearly eight inches. Yet rec
ords of the Weather Bureau show that
there was more water in the air in July
than in September. In Southern Cali
fornia in July, the records show, there
is as much moisture in the air as in New
England, yet 1t rarely has trace Of rain,
while in the Northeast precipitation is
a hundred times greater.
Minnesota is dotted with small lakes,
while nearby Iowa, with very few lakes,
has an annual average of fourth more
rainfall The recent downward trend in
the rainfall curve has been greater in
Minnesota than in any other State. Also
Mr.. Kincer pointed out, Michigan is
nearly surrounded by large bodies OF
water, while adjoining Indiana, with less
than one per cent as much total surface
water, has an average of 80 per cent more
precipitation.
The vital factor he pointed out, is not
how much water is in the atmosphere
but what forces happened to be present
to get it out in the form of rainfall
Some of the dryest areas on earth are
within a few miles of the seas, where
there is constant evaporation of water
into the air. Even if the amount OF
moisture in the atmosphere were i'm
portant, he stressed, man would not be
able to increase it sufficiently to make
much difference.
Said Mr.. Kincer: "In discussing
drought we speak glibly of certain def
ciencies in rainfall, with reference to the
normal but seldom do we grasp the
enormous quantities of water represent
ed in such shortages, which should be
a matter of study for all who contend
that men can make it rain or who ad-
vocate constructing ponds to change
natural conditions. One inch of rain
fall represents for half acre of land
113 tons of water. Last year North Da-
kota had only half its normal rainfall
That means that the State was short OF
moisture some $50 tons of water for
every acre Of land on the average, or
about 100000 900 tons for the State
When we consider the enormous energy
that is required to extract that much
additional energy from the air for a
single State for one year, it is difficult
to understand how any one could serious
ly consider the proposition of man-made
changes in climate.
while duststorms in the plains are
due primarily to droughty conditions
and are of little concern during the rela-
lively wet phases Of climate, it is tragic
fact that the dryer sections have beer
extensively ploughed and cultivated
where crop farming should never have
been attempted. Man is not responsible
for drought or dust as sent by Nature
but he has made the results more devas-
tating to human homes and fortunes by
removing, the vegetative protection tina,
Nature provided. Much of this one
time grass land is now under cultivation
and has become an aggravator Of dust