Bradley beam., 1945-02-03
)1 SPEAKING
 0E 
JOE PRIVATE SAYS ;

the United States as Ground Hog Day, time for forecasting the weather for the next six weeks. The theory is that if the ground hog comes out of his winter quar- ters on this day and sees lis shadow, there will be six more weeks Of winter, but that if the day is cloudy he will not return to his winter quarters for a long sleep as the winter weather will soon give way to spring.
 A group of merry wags living in Pennsylvania have organized the SIumbering Grounding Lodge, and on the morning of February 2 it's members don silk hats and carry canes and go into the fields seeking the burrow of a .woodchuck. They. watch his behavior, then return to the village where they interpret his actions and report them to the public. According to the records of the lodge, the woodchuck's prog nostications have been verified by the weather eight times, have been indefinite five times, and have been wrong seven times since the ob- servations began.
 If you have no faith in the ground hog, why not try little weather forecasting yourself ? It's a fascinating hobby, and the Base Library stands ready to furnish you with books om the subject. Mark Twain once said "Weather is a literary speciality, and no un- trained hand can turn out a good article on it'-so let's turn to the specialists. :'-
 Certainly Hugh Duncan Grant is one, and out of long and intimate experience of weather forecasting he has compiled a "Cloud and Weather Atlas" which will be in- valuable to all who need a knowl- edge of impending weather. The hundred and more 5x7 photographs include every form of cloud, identi- fled by family, genus, species, and variety; typical cloud formations are analysed with respect to the weather which can be expected; such phenomena as thunderstorms, tornadoes, dust storms, lightning, and other weather signs are fully described.
 T. A, Blair, Senior Meteorologist, US. Weather Bureau, and Associ- ate Professor of Meteorology at the University of Nebraska, has published a revised edition of his valuable book "Weather Elements. In it he tells the person with no previous training how to acquire an elementary understanding of the physical processes underly- ing observed weather phenomena. "Weather Elements" covers the general field of meteorology with complete, scientific accuracy, and in addition includes aeronautical information, the latest develop ments in researches of the at mosphere, principles of air-mass analysis 'and their application in weather forecasting. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the book is the fact that it is written in a fascinating, though scientific language, stripped of highly tech nical phrases and mathematical equations. Even the most difficult subjects are treated with degree of simplicity that is refreshing. This book will prove of great value to all persons whose interests re- quire some knowledge of weather elements.
 Always an interesting subject, the weather, in wartime, is often a matter of life or death. William H. Wenstrom, Major, US. Army
 (Rtd.) has written an authoritative book on the science of weather, di- rected expressly to the general reader. Weather and the Ocean of Air" gives graphic picture of the envelope of air in which we live,