268 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



parts of the count i\y, but as a rule the general character of work is 

 largely determined by the size and geographic position of the city 

 in which the station is located. Thus, under local training alone, the 

 instruction given a new employee is neither uniform nor complete 

 unless he has made the round of all sorts of stations. It has therefore 

 been decided to give new employees a systematic course of instruc- 

 tion in all branches of the work performed at any station, wherever it 

 may be located. This is to be done at Mount Weather. Two rooms 

 in the physical laboratory building have been set apart for the pur- 

 pose, and all the paraphernalia of a fully equipped AVeather Bureau 

 station have been procured and properly installed. The aim will be 

 to give the employee under instruction the actual practical experi- 

 ence necessary to fit him for the duties required of him later in his 

 term of service. The observation station will be conducted in pre- 

 cisely the same manner and under the same general instructions as a 

 regular station of the bureau. Meteorological observations will be 

 made and prepared for transmission by telegraph. Copies of tele- 

 graphic reports received from the central office in Washington by 

 mail will be translated and the results spread upon weather maps, 

 and the new employees will be instructed in the several methods of 

 map making and the preparation of the plates from which weather 

 maps are printed. A course in the construction and upkeep of me- 

 teorological instruments will also be afforded^ so that each new em- 

 ployee may be able not only to interpret the indications of meteoro- 

 logical instruments, but also to discover and remedy faults that may 

 arise in them. 



FORECASTS AND WARNINGS. 



The forecasting of the weather and temperature conditions for 

 the various States for 36 to 48 hours in advance, the dissemination of 

 special warnings of heavy snows, cold waves, frosts, and other un- 

 usual atmospheric conditions for the continent, the display of warn- 

 ings of the coming of destructive storms over the Great Lakes, along 

 the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts, and over West Indian waters 

 for the benefit of shipping, the issue of daily forecasts of wind and 

 weather conditions likely to be encountered by trans-Atlantic 

 steamers in passing from the north Atlantic ports to the region of 

 the Grand Banks, have been successfully carried on by the bureau 

 as in former years. 



In the forecast room at the central office is prepared each morning 

 a synoptic chart of pressure and weather conditions over the North- 

 ern Hemisphere. This chart is based on reports received from 

 foreign meteorological services and from Weather Bureau stations 

 in the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the West Indies. The 

 world-wide survey of atmospheric conditions presented by these 

 charts is not only indispensable to the forecaster in his daily fore- 

 cast work, but has also made possible accurate predictions of the 

 general weather and temperature conditions over the United States 

 for a week in advance. All pronounced changes from the prevail- 

 ing types of weather conditions, whether from dry to wet, or wet 

 to dry, and all reversals in temperature conditions have been suc- 

 cessfully announced to the public through these weekly forecasts, 



