164 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



KEPORT OF THE METEOROLOGIST. 



J. E. OSTRANDER. 



In meteorology, where the work is in a large degree essen- 

 tially that of observation and tabulation, the records must be 

 continued from year to year without material chano;e, if the 

 results are to be of value for the purposes of comparison. As 

 the length of time covered by the records increases, the data 

 become more valuable, and the mean climatological conditions 

 can be determined with constantly increasing accuracy. 



During the past year the work of this division has been a 

 continuation of that of previous years, and no material modifi- 

 cation has been made. Although efforts are constantly made 

 to increase the precision of the records, the general form and 

 rano-e remain unchano;ed. 



The semi-daily observations, at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., have 

 been taken regularly, and the results transcribed in the per- 

 manent record book. Many records from the self-registering 

 instruments have also been entered, to keep them compact and 

 accessible. The usual monthly bulletins, giving much of these 

 data, have been printed on the first of each month. These 

 are now mailed from the director's office instead of from the 

 printing office as heretofore, which involves a little loss in 

 promptness of distribution. The December bulletin will con- 

 tain a summary for the year, instead of the usual remarks. 



The local forecasts have been received by telegraph from 

 the section director of the United States Weather Bureau, at 

 Boston, and the signals displayed from the flagstaff on the 

 tower. This division has co-opei"ated with the section director 

 in furnishing the usual voluntary observer's reports for each 

 month, and the snow reports during the winter season. The 



