404 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



New Weather System Fallacious. 



CHIEF OF U. S. WEATHER BUREAU WARNS 

 PUBLIC AGAINST LONG-RANGE WEATHER 

 FORECASTS. 



Washington, D. C— The chief of the 

 U S. Weather Bureau states that in the 

 opinion of the bureau a new system of 

 long-range weather forecasting, which 

 has been widely discussed recently, was 

 quite fallacious. The new system is 

 said to be based on the spottedness of 

 the sun and rifts and shafts of solar 

 radiation. In the opinion of the 

 Weather Bureau it belongs in the same 

 class with other methods of long-range 

 weather forecasting based on lunar, 

 planetary, magnetic, and astrological 

 considerations. None of these systems 

 it is said, has any scientific value. 



During the past few years the 

 Weather Bureau has received full spec- 

 ifications concerning all the essential 

 details of this particular system. The 

 alleged discovery is, therefore, fully 

 known to the Weather Bureau and has 

 been carefully studied and examined 

 by its scientific staff. Moreover, other 

 scientists of international reputation 

 now connected with the strongest in- 

 stitutions of the world engaged in as- 

 tronomical research, and conducting 

 investigations into solar and terrestrial 

 physics, have also passed upon these 

 new theories. These authorities are in 

 accord that the deductions and conclu- 

 sions drawn from the solar conditions 

 on which the new system is based are 

 unwarranted. 



When the disc of the sun is minutely 

 examined with powerful telescopes, or 

 when it is photographed with the aid 

 of the modern spectroheliograph, the 

 surface presents a characteristic spot- 

 ted appearance which undergoes slight 

 changes from day to day, and greater 

 changes with longer intervals of time, 

 depending upon the well-known rota- 

 tion of the sun upon its axis and the 

 periodic recurrence of the sunspot max- 

 ima and minima. These and certain 

 well-known related phenomena are 

 now put forward as the basis of a new 

 science which will make possible fore- 

 casts of the weather far in advance. 

 That these features of solar activity, 

 however, actually should control and 

 determine the daily changes and se- 

 quence of weather conditions in any 

 definite or direct and consequential 

 manner, is regarded by the Govern- 



ment scientists as quite impossible. 

 Solar phenomena of the kind described 

 do not have any direct influence upon 

 the weather at any particular time and 

 place, and can not be made the basis 

 of any forecasts whatsoever. 



The alleged discovery is regarded as 

 only one of a number of similar 

 schemes which are continually being 

 put forward. In some cases the advo- 

 cates of these schemes assert that they 

 can forecast the w^eather for weeks or 

 months in advance, and in others they 

 state that they have found means of 

 producing rain artificially, or prevent- 

 ing hail, and in other ways inter- 

 fering with and controlling at- 

 mospheric phenomena. These pre- 

 tentions meet with a certain cred- 

 ence because there are a number 

 of people who still cling to the ancient 

 belief in the influence of the moon on 

 the growth and development of crops, 

 and to the idea that the weather con- 

 ditions depend upon planetary and 

 astrological combinations. In conse- 

 quence the Weather Bureau has been 

 called upon from time to time to cau- 

 tion the general public against faith 

 in these so-called discoveries. 



The U. S. Weather Bureau itself is 

 the authorized agency of the Govern- 

 ment to collect meteorological observa- 

 tions and make and issue weather fore- 

 casts and warnings. Every important 

 nation of the world has a similar or- 

 ganization and all use essentially the 

 same methods. All of these organiza- 

 tions condemn and disprove the meth- 

 ods and theories of those who assert 

 that they are able to predict the wea- 

 ther for any considerable period in ad- 

 vance. 



Fair Nature's cup is full and running o'er, 

 A wealth of bursting bloom where'er we 



go; 



When treasures such as these are heaped 

 galore. 

 Let us be near to get the overflow. 



— Emma Peirce. 



The mountain streams of India have 

 heretofore had for fish only the hardly 

 edible barbel. Now, however, they are 

 being stocked with the brown trout. 

 These are sent to the Punjab from 

 Kashmir where they have already been 

 introduced. Rainbow trout are, in ad- 

 dition, being tried in the warmer riv- 

 ers. 



