PROGRESS OF METEOROLOGY IN 1889. 



By George E. Curtis. 



I.— INSTITUTIONS; INTERNATIONAL POLAR WORK; NECROLOGY. 



U. 8. Signal Office. — The work of the year has beeu prosecuted with 

 no irai)ortant change in the personnel of the office. 



Professor Abbe has completed a report entitled " Preparatory Studies 

 for Deductive Methods in Storm and Weather Predictions " wliich ap- 

 pears as appendix 15, annual report for 1889. 



A limited number of lithographic copies of that portion ot the bibli- 

 ography of meteorology covering temperature and moisture have been 

 issued under the editorship of Mr. O. L. Fassig, librarian and biblio- 

 grapher. 



New life has been infused into the river and flood service by Pro- 

 fessor Russell, to whom the work has beeu intrusted, and it is now for 

 the lirst time being conducted from the stand-point of scientific hydrol- 

 ogy. The inter-relation of rainfall, evaporation, and discharge has 

 been investigated, and the results, which are of as great value as the 

 data now at hand admit, are published in appendix No. 14 of the an- 

 nual report. 



The instrument division, under the direction of Professor Marvin, has 

 not only raised the standard of the instrumental work of the service 

 by greater perfection in the details of operation, but has accomplished 

 nnicli valuable work, both theoretical and practical, in the perfecting 

 of new instruments, and in the development of improved methods for 

 the reduction and treatment of instrumental records. 



Capt. n. H. C. Dunwoody has been in the charge of the weekly weather 

 crop bulletin, and of the work cooperative with the State weather ser- 

 vices, of which latter the field of operation and usefulness have been 

 largely extended during the past few years. 



A valuable compilation of the rainfall statistics of the Pacific slope 

 has been made, largely by Lieut. W. A. Glassford, and is published as 

 a Congressional document. (1888). 



The weather forecasts during the year have apparently not increased 

 in accuracy. 



Bine Hill Meteorological Observatory. — The observations for 1887 and 

 1888 have been published in extenso in quarto fornj as parts i and ii, 

 vol. XX, of the Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard 



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