394 THEODORE WATERS 



born on the very high mountainous elevations. A fifth forms 

 in the Texas lowlands, and catching the gulf winds and 

 moisture moves eastward. West Indian hurricanes form the 

 sixth class. The South Atlantic coast storms make up the 

 seventh class. Storms which come in from the Pacific on 

 the southwest form the eighth, and finally a class of minor 

 storms is generated in our central valleys. Some of these 

 storms come across the Pacific from the Asian coast, and 

 after sweeping across the country, go out over the Atlantic 

 to Europe, and even to Asia again, but there is no record of a 

 storm having circumnavigated the globe. But no matter 

 where these storms are generated, they always converge to- 

 wards New England. New England, in fact, seems to be 

 the stormiest spot in the United States. A record of ten 

 years ending with 1893 shows 1,143 storms, all of which 

 headed toward, and most of which reached. New England. 



The forecaster must consider the general configuration 

 of the country in reckoning for cold or hot waves, blizzards, 

 northers and other manifestations peculiar to certain localities. 

 An inexperienced prophet might predict, for instance, a long 

 record for a peculiar class of Pacific storm, whereas many of 

 them come in over the seaboard, whirl violently until they 

 strike the Rocky mountains, v/hen, in endeavoring to climb 

 the divide, they are dried out and dissipated in the upper air 

 and are never heard of in the valley beyond. Sometimes they 

 break through and head wildly for New England. But the 

 forecaster must know of these storm gateways. He must 

 reckon with the climatic properties of the cold pole of 

 temperate America, that peculiar region surrounding Lake 

 Winnepeg, where the range of temperature is 150 degrees, the 

 thermometer rising to 105 degrees above in summer and drop- 

 ping to 45 degrees below zero in winter. As Professor Bige- 

 low puts it, the giants of heat and cold stagger back and forth 

 across the country in perpetual contest, and the forecaster 

 must be a good judge of the staying power of each. 



This and much more is constantly in the vision of the 

 forecaster as the men call out the daily data. He traces the 

 progress of the storm center in about the same way that a 

 railroad manager would trace the progress of an overland 



