THE 



National Geographic Magazine 



Vol. VIII MARCH, 1897 No. 3 



STORMS AND WEATHER FORECASTS 

 By Professor Willis L. Moore, 



Chief of the United Si'iles ]Ve(tlher Bureau 



While the practical apy)lication of meteorological science to the 

 making of weather forecasts will never reach the degree of accu- 

 racy attained b}' theoretical astronomy in predicting the date of 

 an eclii)se or the return of a comet, meteorology has made dur- 

 ing the last century such substantial progress as to seriously 

 engage the attention of thoughtful man and cause him to make 

 special effort to appl}' tlie knowledge gained to the commerce 

 and industry of the world. 



Comparing meteorology with astronomy, we may say tliat it 

 passed through the Chaldaan and Ptolemaic periods with tlie 

 invention of the barometer and thermometer early in the 17th 

 century ; that it reached the Copernican stage with the discovery 

 of the rotary and progressive motion of storms, and that it now 

 awaits the genius of a Kepler or the magic intuition of a Newton 

 to unravel the mysteries that still baffle the student. 



But it is doubtful whether any other branch of science, unless 

 it be electricity, has shown more wonderful progress during the 

 past quarter-century. Where man but a few years ago, on ac- 

 count of his limited range of vision, thought that chaos reigned 

 supreme, we arc now able, by the aid of daily meteorological 

 observations and the wonderful telegraph joining our cities by 

 an electrical touch, to trace out the harmonious operations of 

 many physical laws that i)reviously were unknown. 



Practical meteorology is to some extent a tentative work. It 

 may be placed upon a plane with the theory and practice of 



