WEATHER BUREAU. 59 



was submerged the warning bulletins preceded the flood by 

 several days, and the statisticians of the government estimate 

 that $15,000,000 worth of live stock and movable property was 

 removed to high ground as the result of the forewarnings. 

 These warnings are distributed from fifteen river centers at each 

 of which a trained forecaster is located who daily is in possession 

 of such measurements of precipitation on watersheds and such 

 up-river stages as are necessary to enable him to make an intelli- 

 gent prediction for his own district. On account of the recent 

 disasters from floods in the rivers of Texas steps are now being 

 taken to establish a flood-warning service specially for that state. 



Measurements of snowfall in the high mountain ridges of 

 Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico 

 during the past several years have given us information that now 

 enables us to make a very accurate estimate in the spring as to 

 the supply of water from this source that can be expected during 

 the growing season. In this way the weather service has been 

 brought into close contact with those interested in irrigation and 

 has become a valuable aid to them. 



The heavy responsibility that rests upon the Weather Bureau 

 in the making of storm warnings is gathered from the statement 

 that 5,628 transatlantic steamers and 5,842 transatlantic sailing 

 craft enter and leave ports upon the Atlantic seaboard during a 

 single year. The value of their cargoes is more than $1,500,- 

 000,000. Our coastwise traffic is also enormous. In one year 

 more than 17,000 sailing vessels and 4,000 steamers enter and 

 leave port between Maine and Florida. Their cargoes are esti- 

 mated to be worth $7,000,000. From these facts one can readily 

 measure the value of marine property that the Department of 

 Agriculture, through the Weather Bureau, aims to protect by 

 giving warning of approaching storms. 



The climatology of each state is now so well determined and 

 the information is so systematically collected as to be drawn upon 

 daily by thousands of those engaged in public enterprises, such 

 as the building of waterworks, where it is essential to know the 

 precipitation on given water sheds; the building of culverts, 

 where the extremes of rainfall within short periods must be 

 known ; the building of great iron or steel structures, where the 

 expansion and contraction of metal with changes of temperature 

 must be accounted for ; the speculation in land in regions that 



