METEOROLOGICAL WORK 



59 



TABLE 4 



WAR DEPARTMENT, SIGNAL CORPS, U. S. ARMY, METEOROLOGIAL 



SERVICE. 



Station Mineola, L. I. (75th Meridian Time.) 



Wind Aloft Report. 

 Time 7 :o6 A. M. Date September 7, 1918. 



gentleness of the zephyrs existing at high altitudes may be 

 seen from tables i, 2, 3, 4 and 5 which record three sets of 

 pilot balloon observations recently taken by the Signal Corps. 

 These tables show air currents increasing in intensity with in- 

 creasing altitude and approaching the huge speed of 100 miles 

 per hour. Such speeds are perhaps exceptional, but not at all 

 unknown. The pilot balloon mentioned in 3 traveled from 

 Omaha to Virginia at an average speed of thirty miles per 

 hour, the average height being 18,000 feet. On November 6, 

 1918, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, a velocity of 154 miles an 

 hour at an altitude of 28,000 feet was observed by one of the 

 meteorological units of the Signal Corps. 



These facts bring out the importance of a forecast of such 

 currents for the purposes of long flights. A flier aided by such 

 a wind as that last mentioned would move toward his objective 

 2 X 154, or 308 miles an hour more rapidly than if he were 

 opposed by it. When it is recalled that the aviator above, the 

 clouds has no means of knowing anything about the motion of 



