384 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



now have weather services, and the number receiving state sup- 

 port is increasing in a very gratifying way. The function of the 

 state weather service is as clearly distinct from that of the na- 

 tional weather service as that of the state government is from the 

 national. The state weather service should study the climate 

 of the state, giving particular attention to the distribution of rain- 

 fall and temperature. It should also make a complete study of 

 local summer storms — which are of such supreme importance to 

 the farmer. When the telephone shall have become public pro- 

 perty, so that county telephone services can be organized to serve 

 farmers at lower rates, it will be possible to combine such ser- 

 vice with local storm warnings which will save millions of dollars 

 to the farmers of the state. In the mean time the local peculiari- 

 ties of these storms should receive a thorough investigation in 

 each state where the people understand their own interests suffi- 

 ciently to establish a weather service, and a state weather service 

 is the only feasible way to study them. The national weather 

 service should give warning of cold waves and the larger storms, 

 occurring mainly in winter, the movements of which are revealed 

 by the barometer. These predictions are of great value to ship- 

 ping on the lakes and the Atlantic coast, and to dealers in perish- 

 able goods. In this direction lies the great value of the national 

 weather service, and the state services could give efficient aid in 

 distributing such predictions. But the national weather service 

 will never be able to deal with summer thunder-storms, which 

 usually cover only a few counties. It will be the work of state 

 weather services to establish systems of "harvest warnings," and 

 in the near future this will be done. 



The present paper gives the results of ten years of rainfall ob- 

 servation by the observers of the Missouri Weather Service. This 

 work has required much patience and self-denial on the part of 

 the observers, and they are entitled to the thanks of the people of 

 the state. 



Before pr^ceeding to a description of the stations of observa- 

 tion, it should be stated that the observations made by those re- 

 porting regularly to this office have all been reduced anew from 



bers of the appropriation committee were disposed to recommend it if the Director would 

 consent to serve without salary. As a rule, statesmen who make such propositione do not 

 take their own medicine. 



