FAKE WEATHER FORECASTS. 5°5 



Kearly all countries have had their almanacs, but they were partic- 

 ularly popular in Germany and England. In America, probably, the 

 almanac which has been more widely read and its weather forecasts 

 more generally credited than any other, is the Hagerstown Almanac, 

 which has been published regularly every year since 1794. Yet the 

 weather predictions appearing in it were based entirely upon the time 

 of day the moon entered into any one of her four quarters. For in- 

 stance, if this happened between midnight and 2 a.m. it indicated 

 fair weather in summer, and fair with hard frost in winter, unless 

 the wind be south or southwest. While, on the other hand, if this 

 change occurred between noon and 2 p.m., it indicated very rainy 

 weather in summer, and rain or snow in winter. And so a table, 

 claimed to be constructed on a due consideration of the attraction of 

 the sun and moon in their several positions respecting the earth, was 

 prepared for all the hours, and thus was weather forecasting simpli- 

 fied and made easv. 



The full moon has usually been associated with clear, cold weather. 

 This is probably because we notice the full moon so much more when 

 the weather is clear, and also clear nights are cooler on account of 

 more rapid radiation of the earth's heat than when blanketed with 

 clouds. Also since the moon's path on the heavens is so near the 

 ecliptic, and full moons are always 180 degrees from the sun, they are 

 far north in winter, and thus longer above the horizon in the northern 

 hemisphere than they are in summer, and thus we associate full moons 

 with our long, cold, winter nights. 



So much for the moon as a weather forecaster. Let us take a 

 look into the planetary theories. 



Along with astronomy, which had its beginning away back in his- 

 tory among the Chaldseans, the Chinese and the Egyptians, there grew 

 up the art of astrology. Egypt was a particularly rich field for this 

 art. Astrologers not only professed to tell the future weather and 

 the seasonal conditions from the relative positions of the planets, and 

 the sun, moon and constellations in the heavens, but could foretell the 

 results of all human endeavors and desires. They could read the 

 future of the individual and the state. Astrological predictions, how- 

 ever, could not stand the light of education and modern scientific 

 knowledge, and we could hardly say that in the twentieth century, in 

 educated countries, they have any credence whatever. Yet the pre- 

 dictions of our day so-called long-range forecasters, based upon their 

 planetary theories, have as little foundation in demonstrated facts as 

 did those of the astrologers. 



Among the most famous astrologers, outside of Egypt and the 

 Orient, was one Dr. Thurmeisen, a man of truly great genius, who 

 resided during the eighteenth century at the electorial court of Berlin. 



