DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 131 



KEPORT OF THE MICHIGAN WEATHER SERVICE. 



FOB THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1912. 



To the state Board of Agriculture: 



Gentlemen — The operation of the Weather Service continues along 

 the general lines of endeavor that have prevailed for some jears past 

 and also during the past year, to a general compilation of the records 

 of the past 2.5 j^ears. The principal work of this service is to collect 

 in detail and more than the United States Weather Service would do, 

 climatic data of Michigan and to co-operate with the United States in 

 the distribution of the daily forecast and warnings. 



March, 1912, marked the rounding out of a quarter of a century of 

 general observation work by the Michigan Weather Service. Previous 

 to that time most of the records made in Michigan had been from places 

 located on the immediate lake shores and at stations established by the 

 United States Weather IJureau. Since 18X7 a lai-ge number of inland 

 stations have been maintained and from the records of all of these sta- 

 tions a fairly good climatology has resulted. 



During the past six months we have compiled this 25 j^ear data both 

 by text and charts into a chapter which will be published with the Soil 

 of Michigan by the Geological Survey. 



A 25-year record furnishes a fairly good set of normal temperatures 

 and like precipitation data and Michigan is quite fortunate in having 

 this data in such detail that the Weather Bureau can apply it to prac- 

 tically every county in the state. 



The value of the records is becoming more generally known hj the 

 l^ublic and the calls for information are varied and constantly increas- 

 ing. 



This distribution of the daily weather forecasts is constantly increas- 

 ing as the telephone service grows. The rural telephone is becoming 

 more common and it enables the farmer to use the weather forecasts 

 more generally than ever before. All of the principal telephone com- 

 panies of the state co-operate with the Weather Bureau in forecast dis- 

 semination and a very complete system for distributing them is now 

 in vogue. 



Monthly and annual reports have been published as heretofore cover- 

 ing the daily observations taken by over a hundred voluntarv observers. 



C. F. SCHNEIDER, 



Section Director. 



Dated at Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 30, 1912. 



