FAKE WEATHER FORECASTS. 5*3 



search are able to produce. There is no secret or magic about the sys- 

 tem of simultaneous observations, telegraphic reports, synoptic charts 

 and weather maps of the U. S. Weather Bureau. The best scientific 

 thought and the life work of some of the brightest scientific minds, 

 together with long experience of the forecaster, are used in the discus- 

 sion of these charts and observations in predetermining the weather 

 elements for a day or two in advance. Many of the most eminent 

 meteorologists, who have contributed so much in bringing our knowl- 

 edge of the earth's atmosphere to where it is to-day — such as Maury, 

 Ferrel, Abbe and Bigelow — were also astronomers, and it is not likely 

 that they, in their research, should have overlooked the terrific plane- 

 tary influences. 



True, logical, scientific weather forecasts for a season, or a month 

 even, in advance, is the aim and dream of the meteorologist and the 

 inspiration of meteorological research all over the world. But in the 

 light of all our present knowledge of original causation of variations 

 and abnormalities in current weather and in the seasons, this meteoro- 

 logical ' millennium ' is not yet. and there is work in plenty ahead for 

 the earnest, capable investigator. 



Will not the newspapers, the great enlighteners and disseminators 

 of truth and knowledge in the present age, help these investigators by 

 discouraging and discountenancing the publication of weather predic- 

 tions founded upon such baseless theories as told in this paper? 



The U. S. Weather Bureau is now erecting excellent observatories 

 at Mt. Weather, located in northern .Virginia on a spur of the Blue 

 Ridge Mountains. These observatories are to be fully equipped with 

 the latest and most approved instruments and apparatus for observa- 

 tion and research in meteorology and allied sciences. Here will be 

 given opportunity for collection, correlation and study of simultaneous 

 observations and measurements of meteorological and magnetic ele- 

 ments, changes in the activities of the sun's atmosphere, solar energy, 

 radioactivity, atmospheric electricity, etc. Also exploration of the 

 upper levels of the atmosphere will be made by means of balloons. As 

 stated by Professor Willis L. Moore, chief of the TJ. S. Weather Bureau, 

 " Eesearch at Mt. Weather will lie catholic in its broadness. There, we 

 will look only for the truth, and shall not despise its source or the means 

 of its conveyance." 



vol. lxvii. — 34. 



