Weather Study 



57 



Temple of the winds at Athens. 

 Photo by J. H. Comstock. 



THE WEATHER 

 BY WILFORD M. WILSON 



Section Director, U. S. Weather Bureau, and Professor of Meteorology 

 in Cornell University. 



The atmosphere, at the bottom of which we 

 live, may be compared to a great ocean of air, 

 about two hundred miles deep, resting upon the 

 earth. The changes and movements that take 

 place in this ocean of air, the storms that invade 

 it, the clouds that float in it, the sunshine, the 

 rain, the dew, the sleet, the frost, the snow, and 

 the hail are termed "weather." We live in it; 

 we partake of its moods ; we reflect its sunshine 

 and shadows; it invades the everyday affairs 

 of life, influences every business and social 

 activity, and molds the character of nations; 

 and yet nearly everything we know about the 

 weather has been learned within the lifetime 

 of the present generation. Not that the weather 

 did not interest men of early times, but the 

 problem appeared to be so complicated and so 

 complex that it baffled their utmost endeavors. 



Composite snow crystal; the 

 center formed in a high 

 cloud and the margins in 

 a lower cloud. 



Photomicrograph by 

 W. A. Bentley. 



