288 Kansas Academy of Science. 



CHANGE IN THE CLIMATE OF KANSAS. 



By F. H. Snow, University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



IN reiteration of his statements before the congressional com. 

 mittee regarding the subject of a change of climate in the region 

 which includes the states of Kansas and Nebraska, Dr. Willis L. 

 Moore, chief of the United States Weather Bureau, has issued a 

 pamphlet. Among these statements I note the following: "We 

 find, right in the arid regions, that during a long period of observa- 

 tions, thirty, forty or fifty years, the average rainfall of the first 

 ten years is precisely the same as the average of the last." Yet, in 

 the tabular statement which concludes Doctor Moore's pamphlet, 

 only the last thirty years are included, although the records of three 

 of the stations named cover respectively forty-eight, thirty-nine and 

 forty-one years. I submit that a fair comparison of facts bearing 

 upon so important a subject as the change of climate should in- 

 clude the entire period of observation. 



My own records at Lawrence cover a period of thirty-nine years, 

 from 1868 to 1906. During the first ten years of this period, from 

 1868 to 1877, the average annual rainfall was 34.91 inches ; during 

 the last ten years, 1897 to 1906, it was 38.16 inches, giving an in- 

 crease of 3.25 inches per annum. But a more satisfactory method 

 of comparison is to divide the entire period of observation into two 

 equal parts. The total rainfall at Lawrence for the first half of the 

 thirty-nine years, from January 1, 1868, to July 1, 1887, was 672.81 

 inches, while during the second half of the period the total was 

 743.67 inches, giving an increase of 70.86 inches in the total pre- 

 cipitation. This makes the average annual rainfall for the first 

 half of the period 34.50 inches, while for the second half it is 38.14 

 inches, an increase of 3.64 inches, or more than ten per cent. And 

 this is the result, although the rainfall at Lawrence for the year 

 1906 was only 28.50 inches — more than 8 inches below the average 

 for the thirty-eight preceding years. This notable deficiency for 

 1906 occurred in the eastern portion of the region west of the 

 ninety-fifth meridian, in which region Doctor Moore says that the 

 rainfall for 1906 was excessive in all that vast stretch of territory. 



Notwithstanding the facts brought out by my own observations, 

 which have been regularly forwarded to the chief of the Weather 

 Bureau, at Washington, at the end of each month and year. Doctor 

 Moore states that "the rainfall has neither increased nor diminished 



