WEATHER BUEEAU. 169 



1906 many hundreds of laborers were drowned during a tropical storm as a 

 consequence of ignoring? warnings. While many tugboats, lighters, and other 

 auxiliary equipment were saved, the losses of the railroad company will reach 

 hundreds of thous;inds of dollars. It is conceded by the company and by the 

 public press that hundreds of lives were saved through the warnings issued in 

 connection with this storm. 



The cooperation of steamship lines has been requested during the 

 coming year as an aid to the forecaster in predicting the direction of 

 movement and the intensity of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the 

 Caribbean Sea, and West Indian waters. It is hoped to have vessels 

 in those Avaters report by wireless telegraph to the central office at 

 Washington during the hurricane season of 1910 whenever the mete- 

 orological conditions are such as to indicate the presence of a hurri- 

 cane in the immediate region of the reporting vessel. These reports, 

 in connection with those received from special meteorological stations 

 maintained by the Bureau in the West Indies, will give the fore- 

 caster information of the greatest value. 



FORECASTS FOR EXTENDED PERIODS. 



During the past year forecasts for a week or ten days in advance 

 have been issued from time to time when certain well-defined weather 

 types were shown by reports from selected stations throughout the 

 Northern Hemisphere. These reports are charted daily and show 

 the changes constantly occurring in the great centers of action that 

 control the movements of storms over North America, and as a con- 

 sequence determine its weather and climate. The conditions exist- 

 ing over western Europe, as shown by the Northern Hemisphere chart 

 of January 2G, are typical of the weather over that region during the 

 latter part of January, when heavy rains and resulting floods were 

 experienced in western Europe, and were of particular severity in 

 France. During this period barometric pressure was abnormally low 

 over Icehmd and adjacent European districts, and the west-central 

 and northwestern portions of Europe were almost constantly covered 

 by the rain quadrants of a rapid succession of cyclonic areas of ex- 

 ceptional magnitude. These rains Avere of unprecedented duration 

 and of excessive amounts. It is evident therefore that the floods 

 were caused, not by deforestation, but wholly by the excessive and 

 long-continued rains, extending with hardly any interruption over a 

 period of several weeks. 



During the early part of August, 1909, there was a decided lack 

 of rain in the corn-growing States of the Mississippi and Ohio val- 

 leys, and in the upper Mississippi Valley the drought had become 

 severe. Rain was also needed in the Middle Atlantic and New Eng- 

 land States. On the 10th an announcement was made that the rains 

 over the Avestern portions of the cotton belt during the preceding two 

 or three days Avould be supplemented during the succeeding scA'cral 

 days by abundant rains in that section and generally over the South- 

 ern States. The rains set in as anticipated on the 12th and con- 

 tinued through the 18th. 



The folloAving special forecast was issued AVednesday, August 11: 



Present barometric conditions indicate that the provailing drought in the 

 Atlantic States from A'irginia northward over Maryland, Pennsylvania, New 

 York, and the Now England States will be relieved in jmrt by showers l)y the 

 close of the pi'esent week, and that more general rains will fall in the States 

 referred to by the middle of next week. 



