12 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



STORM-WARNING TOWERS. 



Sixty of the new storm-warning towers referred to in my last annual 

 report were installed during the past year, and each equipped with 

 improved lanterns. In the majority of cases electricity is used as the 

 illuminant. As a result of these improvements the distribution of 

 storm warnings to shipping interests along the seacoasts and on the 

 Great Lakes has been made much more effective. The work of placing 

 these towers and lanterns at all the storm-warning dis])lay stations of 

 the service will be prosecuted as fast as available funds will permit, 

 and it is expected that 60 additional stations will be equipped by 

 January 1, 1902. 



WEATHER STUDIES IN SCHOOLS. 



The increasing attention given to the subject of meteorology in 

 schools and colleges throughout the country has resulted in large 

 demands upon the officials of the Weather Bureau for lectures and 

 other forms of instruction on this subject. Officials of this service 

 have cooperated with educational institutions in this work as far as 

 their official duties would permit. 



BAROMETRIC REDUCTIONS. 



The revision of the barometric system for the United States, Canada, 

 and the West Indies is practically complete, and the results will soon 

 be published. This work was conducted by Prof. F. 11. Bigelow, and 

 included a reexamination of the various elevations, the local and instru- 

 mental errors, the reduction of the station pressures to a homogeneous 

 sj^stem, and the ]3reparation of normal tables and charts of pressure, 

 temperature, and vapor pressure at sea level, and at the 3, 500- foot and 

 10,000-foot planes. 



THE GALVESTON HURRICANE. 



The principal storm of the year was the West Indian hurricane 

 wliich devastated Galveston, Tex., September 8, l!tOO. This storm 

 has been described in detail in the Monthly Weather Review and 

 other publications, and it is classed as one of the most destructive 

 storms on record. Upward of 6,000 human lives were lost and prop- 

 erty to the estimated value of 130,000,000 was destroyed. The fol- 

 lowing is an extract from the report of Dr. Isaac M. Cline, who was 

 in charge of the Weather Bureau office at Galveston at that time: 



The hurricane which visited Galveston Island on Saturday, September 8. I'JOO, 

 was no doubt one of the most important meteorological events in the wor d s his- 

 tory. The ruin which it wroui^ht beggars description. Conservative estimates 

 place the loss of life at the appalling figure of 6,000. 



The barometer commenced falling during the afternoon of the 6th and contim.ed 

 falling steadily but slowly up to noon of the Sth. when it read 29.42 inches. 1 rom 

 noon of the 8th it fell rapidly until 8.30 p. m., when it registered 28.48 inches, a tail 

 of pressure of about 1 inch in eight and one-half hours. At about 8.30 p. m. the 

 barometer rose at the same rapid rate that had characterized its fall. 



Storm warnings were timely, and they received a wide distribution not only in 

 Galveston but throughout the coast region. Warning messages were received 

 from the central office at "Washington on September 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. The high 

 tide on the morning of the 8th, with storm signals flying, made it necessary to 

 kee]) one man constantly at the telephone giving out information. Hundreds of 

 people who could not reach us by telephone came to the Weather Bureau office 

 seeking advice. I went down on Strand street, and advised some wholesale com- 

 mission merchants who had perishable goods on their floors to place them 3 feet 

 above the floor. One gentleman has informed me that he carried out my instruc- 

 tions, but that the wind l)lew his goods down. The public was warned over the 

 telephone and verbally that the wind would go by the east to the south, and that 

 the worst was yet to come. People were advised to seek secure places for the 



