New York Weather Bureau. 395 



EASTERN PLATEAU — OTSEGO COUNTY. 

 Station, Cooperstown — Mr. G. Pombroy Keese, Observer. 



Established 1854; latitude, 42 deg. 41 min. north; longitude, 74 deg. 57 mln. west; eleva- 

 tion, 1,300 feet. 



Cooperstown is situated in the valley at the southern end or foot 

 of Otsego lake, hills rising abruptly on the eastern and western 

 sides of the town. The stream flowing south from the lake 

 through a narrow valley, forms one of the principal sources of the 

 Susquehanna river. The meteorological station is 200 feet south- 

 west from the shore of the lake, and is suflSciently isolated from 

 the buildings of the town to admit of a very free air circulation. 

 The hills on the eastern and western sides of the valley are re- 

 spectively one-half and three-fourths of a mile from the station. 



The dry, wet, maximum and minimum thermometers are se- 

 cured to the side posts of a northern piazza of Mr. Keese's resi- 

 dence; their distance from the ground l)eing about 9 feet, and 

 from the piazza roof, 5 feet. The sun reaches the piazza only 

 near the hours of rising and setting, and at these times one-half 

 of the piazza is always in the shade of a projecting doorway; 

 hence by moving the thermometers from one side of the piazza to 

 the other, they are kept shaded for several hours pre- 

 ceding the time of observation. The walls of the house are of 

 brick, from which the instruments are separated by at least sev- 

 eral inches of air space. 



The rain-gauge is 60 feet south of the house^ and has no obstacle 

 to a free air circulation in its vicinity. The top of the gauge is 4 

 feet above the ground. 



Mr. Keese's record of temperature was kept during 36 yeara 

 from readings of a Green standard thermometer, with which the 

 instrument furnished by this service early in 1890 was found to 

 agree closely. The rain-gauge in use for 36 years was the Pike 

 " conical " form, which, as compared with the gauge of the New 

 York Bureau, is found to give a slightly deficient registration. 

 The exposure of the instruments has been substantially the same 

 during the entire period of the record. 



