NIPUER — KEPORT ON MIS'^OURI RAINFALL, iSj'J-'S'J. 395 



The average river discharg;e during the ten years ending Dec. 

 31, 1SS7, as appears from the above table, was 



Y^2 2,289,700 = 190.S00 cubic ft. per second. 



The amount of water falling per second upon the whole state 

 during the same interval was 



195,800 cubic ft. per second. 



It thus appears that if all the rain which falls upon Missouri 

 alone were to be fed into the rivers it would yield a greater flow 

 than we have in the Mississippi river at St. Louis. 



The writer has now under examination the comparison be- 

 tween the total rainfall on the basin draining past St. Louis, and 

 the river discharge at this point. At present it will be sufficient 

 to compare the total area drained with the area of Missouri. This 

 area was measured on 59 of the monthly rain maps of the Signal 

 Service, and found to be 0.4429 square decimeters with a proba- 

 ble error of ±0.0002. By a singular coincidence, this is the 

 same as our map area of Missouri. The scale of the map was de- 

 termined by measuring on the same maps the area of Missouri, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, which was fonnil to be 0.1718 

 square decimeters. 



The areas of those States are given as follows : 



^Missouri 69,415 square miles. 



Kansas 82,cSo '" " 



Nebraska 76,855 " '• 



Iowa 56,025 ■' " 



Total : 284.375 " 



Hence the drainage area of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers 

 above St. Louis is 733? 120 square miles, or over ten times the 

 area of Missouri. 



FUTURE WORK OF THE SERVICE. 



It is very much to be regretted that it f^eems to be impossi- 

 ble for us to make a careful study of local summer rain-storms. 

 These are the storms which most vitally aftect the agriculturist, 

 and it is certain, that, with the general extension of the telephone 

 among farmers, there will be developed a sysetm of harvest storm- 

 warnings. This matter was urged upon the Legislature of 18S2, 



