Weather station

“ A Weather Bureau station at your home will give you a source of pleasure, fun, and insight into a science that is intensely interesting, easy to understand, fascinating and worth while knowing. The importance of the subject cannot be overestimated. It has an influence on the whole world; it affects our health; it affects our comfort ”

“ Besides its office in Washington, where more than two hundred persons are constantly employed, the Weather Bureau has about two hundred stations, manned by professional meteorologists and observers. One of these will be found in almost every large city, while some are in towns of very modest importance. A regular Weather Bureau station is well worth a visit. The instrumental equipment of these stations is almost superhuman in the accuracy with which it sets down on paper the chronicle of weather happenings from day to day and from moment to moment. ”

“ In Europe weather reports are issued daily from the Admiralty station at Cleethorpes, the Eiffel Tower, and Norddeich; and in the United States more than a dozen powerful stations are engaged in this work. ”

“ The climate is dry and therefore healthy, though the shade temperature rises in hot weather to 116, and a finely scarped range of hills over 3500 feet high provides within easy distance the makings of a small hill station as a refuge, especially valuable for women and children, from the worst heat of the torrid season. ”

“ In this country there are about 200 stations at which the observers, of whom there are from one to a dozen or more at each station, devote all their time to the work of the stations and are salaried employees of the Weather Bureau, and there are several hundred minor stations manned by part-time paid employees. But even in the United States the great majority of the meteorological stations are operated by unpaid observers. ”

“ The necessity of continually climbing over rocks, ravines, and precipices in passing from station to station involved difficulties which, great as they were, were as nothing when compared with the difficulties resulting from the bitter weather experienced on those rugged mountain heights. The tempests which sweep the Alpine passes—the ever-recurring storms of rain, sleet, and driving snow, are trying to the ordinary traveller. ”

“ On the island are Protestant and Roman Catholic churches, Constabulary barracks and a coastguard station. The meteorological reports received by the central office in London from Valencia are of high importance as giving the first indication from any station in the United Kingdom of weather influences from the Atlantic. ”

“ We said above that the weather might possibly be determined a few days ahead; science is at present almost far enough advanced for it. But there are needed for that purpose grand institutions, which must first be called into life.
If for the proper observation of the weather, stations were erected throughout the extent of our country, at a distance of about seventy miles from each other, and if these stations were connected by a telegraph-wire, managed by a scientific reliable observer ”

“ The exposure of meteorological apparatus so that the records from different stations on the earth's surface and from vessels on the ocean and from kites or balloons in the atmosphere shall be comparable with each other offers many difficult problems, but the progress toward uniformity throughout the world has been appreciable during the past twenty-five years. Every first-class weather service now keeps close watch of the condition of its apparatus and the correctness of the methods in vogue at its stations. ”

“ In order to carry on this work properly, numerous stations must be connected by telegraph with the central bureau, at which several simultaneous observations must be received daily from the observers, and weather charts must be promptly made out showing the isobars, isotherms, state of the wind and weather, moisture and clouds over a large region of country. The accompanying charts, for April 3d, 8 A.M., and 4th, 8 A.M., 1892, show the general character of such daily weather maps; they will easily be understood by studying the respective legends. ”

“ It is necessary that the temperature of a thermal station should be better, less variable, more uniformly mild than that of the neighboring and rival stations. You subscribe to the meteorological bulletin in the leading organs of opinion, and I will send every evening by telegraph the atmospheric situation. ”

“ We now know that the forceful, dominating peoples come out of the regions where the heat is not so great as to debilitate, nor the cold so fierce as to deaden the mental and the physical faculties; but rather from the region of the thoroughfare of the great circum-polar storm tracks, where there are frequent changes of weather from sunshine to clouds, and where there is a fairly wide difference in temperature between night and day and between winter and summer. ”

“ It is from similar maps that forecasts of storms are still framed, and suitable warnings issued; and a mass of information is being collected by telegraph from sixty stations in the British Islands, &c., of the state of the weather at eight o’clock every morning, and analysed and arranged at the Meteorological Office in London for the evening’s forecasts over the different districts of the country. A juster knowledge is being now acquired of those great atmospheric movements, and other changes, which form the groundwork of weather-forecasting. ”

“ In winter, after the prevalence of easterly winds, if the barometer begins to fall and the thermometer to rise, a gale which commences to blow from the southeast will veer to southwest, while the barometer falls constantly. As soon as the wind passes the southwest point the barometer begins to rise, a heavy shower of rain falls, and a strong west-northwest or northwest wind may follow, after which the sky clears and the weather becomes colder. ”

“ When the whole apparatus was in working order we could receive meteorological despatches from nearly all the stations. The network of stations is closest in Europe, so close that we often saved work by making a choice of stations. Asia and America have not such a close net, but even here it is possible to draw a weather chart which is largely correct.
THE COURSE OF THE SHIPS ON WATCH, “FRAM” AND “HOBBY,” DURING THE COURSE OF THE EXPEDITION
The dotted area indicates the pack ice. ”

“ A careful study of the meteorological conditions of the different localities was a necessary preliminary to the choice of stations. For it need hardly be said that, however suitable a station may have appeared to be from the astronomical facts of long duration and of high altitude of sun, yet if the locality in question were one likely to be obscured by clouds it would be somewhat improvident to despatch an expedition to a place where the chances of success would be so greatly jeopardised. ”

“ It is an evidence of the zeal in America to advance the young science of meteorology, that the first mountain-top station in the world was established in 1871 upon Mount Washington, and that both this exposed post of observation, 6300 feet above the sea, and the one more than twice as high on Pike's Peak, which was for a long time the highest in the world, were maintained for many years by the United States Signal Service. ”

“ The artificial temperature of a city street is too local and indefinite a thing to be inscribed on weather maps, utilized by the forecaster, or embodied in climatic statistics. As a concession, however, to the demand of the “man in the street” for a record of conditions prevailing in his own sphere,75 the Weather Bureau has installed in several cities little pavilions in which working meteorological instruments are displayed for the benefit of the public. ”

“ The barometer rises for a northerly wind, including from northwest by north to the eastward, for dry or less wet weather, for less wind, or for more than one of these changes, except on a few occasions when rain, hail or snow comes from the northward with strong wind. ”

“ These observations, which consist of the reading of barometer and thermometer, the determination of the velocity and direction of the wind, the determination of the humidity and of the amount of rain or snow, are telegraphed to the chief weather official at Washington. From the reports of wind storms, excessive rainfall, hot waves, clearing weather, etc., and their rate of travel, the chief officials predict where the storms, etc., will be at a definite future time. ”

“ If you are near one of the weather signal stations daily bulletins will be sent to camp upon request, also the weather map.
A set of flag signals run up each day will create interest. The flags are easily made, or may be purchased.
Keep a daily record of temperature. A boy in charge of the "Weather Bureau" will find it to be full of interest, as well as to offer an opportunity to render the camp a real service. He will make a weather vane, post a daily bulletin board, keep a record of temperature, measure velocity of wind and rainfall. ”

“ Rapidly falling barometer, rising temperature, and light southerly winds indicate rain or snow, according to season of year.
Falling barometer, rising temperature, with wind from northeast or east, indicate snow.
Fine cirrus and cirro-stratus, floating low, presage wind.
Haze in night or early morning, or cumulus clouds, sharp and well defined, moving from west or southwest, indicate fair weather.
When snow is falling, and the wind backs from east to north, with decreasing velocity, clear weather may be expected. ”

“ The cooperative observer can do much to aid in establishing definite facts on which predictions may be made. Among them and of first importance is establishment of the direction of rain-winds. These, as has been shown, are easterly winds, but conditions of topography may change the real direction to one that is apparent. The apparent direction should be established for each month in the year. In every community there are weather-wise people who possess valuable information that they have not recorded. ”

“ By preserving the weather map each day and noting the movements of the Highs and the Lows, any intelligent person can make a fairly accurate forecast for himself, always remembering that the Lows, as they drift towards him, will bring warmer weather and sometimes rain or snow, and that as they pass his place of observation the Highs following in the tracks of the Lows will bring cooler and fair weather, except during periods of extreme summer heat, when the Lows bring showers that cool the parched earth ”

“ Flocks of birds, at this season, flying across our city in search of a more congenial home, tell us of approaching winter. Not relying on such indications alone, the Government has established everywhere meteorological stations; weather forecasts are distributed broadcast, wireless telegraphy flashes out the approach of devastating storms, thus forewarning navigation and securing protection to citizens and property and life. ”

“ The weather map of the United States is based on simultaneous observations made at about 150 stations in different parts of this country, besides several coöperating stations in Canada, Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies. At each of our stations, whose48 location may be seen on any weather map, the Weather Bureau employs one or more observers, who, twice a day, at 8 A.M. and 8 P.M., “Eastern Standard Time,” make regular observations of the ordinary weather elements, i.e., temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction and velocity, precipitation, cloudiness, etc. ”

“ Until recently Weather Bureau stations have been equipped with instruments for the study of surface winds only. The research laboratories, however, have made great advances in the study of air conditions at considerable heights, using kites and pilot balloons carrying recording instruments. Ordinarily the observer must depend on wind vanes, smoke columns, flags, dust movements and clouds for the determination of wind conditions. ”

“ There is not a profession, or trade, or handicraft in society which is not at every turn more or less influenced by the weather, and compelled to act upon some kind of weather-forecasts. No sooner had the Weather Bureau commenced its daily publication of "Probabilities" or "Indications," in 1870, than "whole troops of practical applications" of the data sprang into existence. It will be so with the international bulletin and charts of simultaneous meteorology. ”

“ These changes give a variety to our climate which is, on the whole, very beneficial to man. The North Temperate Zone, with strong seasonal changes in temperature and weather, is the zone of the highest civilization and of the greatest energy of man. In the Torrid Zone the changes of temperature are, as a whole, small. There is no harsh winter. The climate is monotonous and deadening, rather than enlivening. Man finds it easy to live without much work, and the inhabitants of the Torrid Zone have not, as a rule, advanced far in the scale of civilization. ”

“ The height of230 the vapour-laden winds is usually supposed to depend on the heat of the weather. In summer, for instance, the clouds range higher, and therefore travel farther inland before they fall in rain. In winter, on the contrary, they travel low, and hence the rain falls more freely in the western than in the eastern counties during winter. ”

“ Thus, before meteorology passed from an “art” to “science,” many individuals learned to interpret certain atmospheric phenomena in terms of future weather, and to make reasonably accurate forecasts for short periods into the future.
With the establishment of weather observation stations, continuous and accurate weather information became available. As observations expanded and communication techniques improved, knowledge of simultaneous conditions over wider areas became available. This made possible the collection of “synoptic” reports at civilian and military forecast centers. ”