392 THEODORE WATERS 



to their state centers. Each state expert sifts the accumu- 

 lated data until he has a composite account of state condi- 

 tions. This in code form is telegraphed to Washington. It 

 is then that the work of the forecaster general begins. 



In front of each of the men at the standing desks is a 

 blank chart. The contours of the states are fairly printed 

 on it, and the cities, unnamed, are indicated by little quarter 

 circles. One man marks down the temperature; another 

 man, the pressure; another, rain or snow; still another, the 

 wind direction, and so on through the list. At the head 

 of the line stands the forecaster with a blank chart of his own. 

 He is about to make his chart a composite of all the others. 

 Yesterday's chart hangs up in front of him, and behind it 

 are the charts for preceding days. At his elbow is a stenog- 

 rapher ready to take notes. And now the men who have 

 been making up their charts by reading, as it were, between 

 the chcks of the sounder, begin calling off the result to the 

 forecaster, who seems able to hear and to comprehend all 

 voices at once, and who shows an ability to leap from swift 

 contemplation of Maine temperatures to California pressures, 

 or from swifter consideration of Florida humidity to Dakota 

 blizzards. It is all somewhat chaotic to a layman who has 

 not the peculiar mental training of the forecaster. But to 

 him it seems plain. As he mutters conditions and possi- 

 bilities, and arrives at conclusions, you can see in his face 

 the expression of the doctor who is making a diagnosis. The 

 forecaster knows the symptoms of storms as the doctor knows 

 those of fevers. His head, apparently, is full of figures and 

 calculations; but across the subconscious area of his mind is 

 floating a complex picture of adaptable facts which, could it 

 be recorded, would constitute a working primer of practical 

 meteorology. And since it is so necessary to the forecaster, 

 let us glance hurriedly at this picture before going on. 



First, there is the principle of the storm. Let us sup- 

 pose there is a storm of wind and rain in the Mississippi 

 valley, an area of clear, cool weather on the Atlantic coast, 

 and another area of clear, cool weather on the Pacific coast — 

 in other words, a stormy section of country between two 

 clear sections. Now, this is how the storm is formed. The 



