โ Scribed by R.H. Oppermann
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The Weather Man.--A recent partial survey of the utilization of weather and climatological data provided by the United States Weather Bureau indicates an annual saving to agriculture, industry, commerce and the people in general amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually according to an announcement by the Department of Commerce. The rank and file of citizens doubtless do not regard the Weather Bureau as a great money-saving agency. It has long been common practice to grumble about the weather and, when conditions do not suit individual fancy or convenience, to belabor the Weather Man. In daily weather forecasts simple statistics give the Weather Man an accuracy average of 85 to 9o out of a possible IOO, despite the fact that conditions often change with great rapidity. With modern improvements the percentage of accuracy tends to increase. Daily forecasts of weather in districts and regions are only one of many important functions of the Weather Bureau. Observations on which these forecasts are based are dovetailed with the observing networks for the hurricane warning service, the cold-wave, frost warning and farm crop weather service, the flood warning, aviation weather, winter sports and forest-fire warning services, and, the general climatological service. All these activities are interrelated and in common depend upon uniform observation made throughout the country at I-, 3-, or 6-hourly intervals, plus reports received from vessels at sea, from stations on distant islands, and from the ingenious radiosonde, which transmits reports automatically by radio covering conditions at stratospheric altitudes.
R. H. O.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES