STORMS AND WEATHER FORECASTS 71 



level probably flows serenely eastward in these latitudes witlK.ut 

 being disturbed by our most severe storms. 



The forecaster is further aware of the fact that our high-press- 

 ure and low-i)ressure areas alternately drift eastward in periods 

 that average about 3 days each ; that they are not in any sense 

 the product of chance, but are part of that great divine economy 

 that provides for seed-time and harvest, for by the action of the 

 lows the warm, va{)or-bearing currents are sucked inland from 

 the Gulf and the ocean and carried far over the continent, so 

 that their moisture is condensed and scattered over the plains, 

 rendering them tillal)le and suital)le for the habitation of man ; 

 that the highs, in drawing down the cool, i)ure air from al)Ove, 

 scatter and diffuse the carlK)nic-acid gas exhaled by animal life 

 and the fetid gases emanating from decaying organic matter; 

 that the cold waves created by these high-i)ressure areas are 

 among tbe mo.-?t beneficent gifts of nature, for their clear, dense 

 air not onl}- gives us more oxygen with each insi)iration of the 

 lungs, but the abnormally high electrification that always accom- 

 panies such air invigorates man and all other animal life; that 

 the cold, north wind, if it be dry, as it usually is, brings i)hysical 

 energy and mental buoyancy in its mighty breath ; that four- 

 sevenths of all our storms come from the north plateau region 

 of the Rocky mountains and pass from this arid or subarid region 

 easterly over the Lakes and New England, producing but scanty 

 rainfall; that the greater part of the remaining three-sevenths 

 have their inception in the arid region of our southwestern states, 

 and that as they move northeastward they can nearly always be 

 depended on to give bountiful rainfall, and that many of them 

 cross the Atlantic and affect the continent of Europe ; that a few, 

 and by far the most severe, wind and rain storms that touch any 

 portion of ourcountrv originate in the West Indies and travel in 

 a northwesterly direction until they touch our Ciulf or .South 

 Atlantic coast, when they recurve to the iiDrtheast and sweep 

 along our Atlantic seaboard. 



During tbe |)revalence of droughts in the great central valleys 

 all the l()w-[)ressure or storm conditions form in the middle or 

 north plateau region of the Rocky mountains. When such 

 droughts are broken, it is usually accomiilished by lows tbat 

 form in Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas. 



From many years spent in daily watching the formation, })ro- 

 gression, and dissii)ation of storms, the forecaster well knows 

 that at times, by an accretion of force not shown by observations 



