WEATHER MAP AND OFFICIAL WEATHER INDICATIONS. 247 



should rise above such incongruities. Wisdom it would seem should inspire con- 

 fidence, but instead ignorance seems to carry the day, at least in this department 

 of the weather. If one will consult the weather map for the month of June they 

 will see that " Low " most of the time passed over the country on a -medium low 

 line of latitude. The course of the majority of these "^'lows" or storm centres 

 being from the northwest passing east on a line gradually working to the south- 

 ward, even going as far south as Cape Hatteras and then along the coast to the 

 northeast section of the country. Occasionally, however, one or two would 

 keep on a high line. When they did so it was warm. 



These " lows " were so peculiar, so variable that it was most difficult to pre- 

 dict the result. The sudden changes necessitated variable "indications." For 

 example it often happened that the evening paper would prepare the public for 

 the next day to expect a certain kind of weather, when the change in only 

 twelve hours would be such as to cause an " Indication " for the day to be quite 

 the reverse. Then as on the 27th, 28th and 29th of June the confines of the 

 area of "low " hovered about the locality of Washington. The storm centre had 

 really passed and "indications" were published in accortance therewith. But 

 these is no knowing what to expect from what may be termed the ' ' posterior 

 low," * especially when " low " is on a high line, when the tendency is to create 

 intensity of heat, or as it were develope local sub-" lows." Where these " lows " 

 will develope it is beyond the power of man to know. We know that they will 

 develope somewhere within an area of three to five hundred miles — such things 

 in nature being on a large scale — but where will the objective point or point 

 of concentration be, that is a question that I am thinking will ever defy the per- 

 ception of man to find out in advance of the local demonstrations as revealed 

 to the locality by that peculiar effect of " closeness " in the atmosphere which 

 precedes the storm. 



As before stated in these papers, nothing better illustrates the course of " low" 

 than to pour some water upon a slightly inclined plane and note the effect. 

 Of course we know beforehand that it will take a certain general direction. But 

 just note the course it takes how it circumvents spots, taking a zigzag course and 

 coming together again, leaving certain spots dry, others wet, and never twice a 

 alike. So with these "lows" and especially these "posterior lows" travel. To 

 undertake to say just where local thunder storms or tornadoes will take place is 

 most absurd. We know that they- must take place somewhere within the general 

 limits of "low " or the track of "low." But who will map out the lines before- 

 hand ? As well may we attempt during a thunder storm to tell the exact places 

 where the lightning will strike. We know that lightning is very apt to strike 

 somewhere during a thunderstorm, but to pretend to be able to locate the spot 

 or to request another to so is most absurd. Always when a storm centre is pass- 

 ing or has passed, we are liable, according to the season of the year to have cer- 



* In the future in these papers I will use the following terms to indicate the different phases of the storm, 

 centre. The " anterior low '' to indicate that which precedes the centre propei ; the " posterior low" to indi- 

 cate that portion following the centre. 



