Mt. Rose Weather Observatory. 



177 



MT. ROSE WEATHER OBSERVATORY, 1905-1907. 

 By J. E. Church, Jr. 



It is less than three years since Professor McAdie be- 

 gan to publish his articles in the Sierra Club Bulletin 

 on mountain sites for meteorological observatories * and 

 less than two since Professor Abbe suggested to the 

 Sierra Club the worthy ambition of establishing on 

 Shasta or Rainier a "lighthouse in the skies" for Amer- 

 ican meteorology.f Yet within this brief space of time, 

 a mountain meteorological observatory of the automatic 

 type has sprung into existence on the Pacific Coast. 



The tale is a strange one, and involves the idiosyn- 

 crasies of a professor of Latin and the periodic zeal of 

 a band of recruits won largely by the spirit of adventure. 

 From the very beginning enthusiasm has preceded fore- 

 sight and both have hastened apace. 



The first comprehensive idea of such an observatory 

 occurred to the writer near timber-line on Mt. Whitney 

 in March, 1905, when the sight of Professor McAdie's 

 lone thermometer-box, abandoned by Mr. Bonnett the 

 preceding autumn, drew from him the impulsive offer 

 to obtain the winter summit records desired, providing 

 the observations might be conducted on Mt. Rose,^ whose 

 summit was 10,800 feet above sea-level and within week- 

 end distance of the University of Nevada, where his 

 academic activity had its center. 



The ordinary volunteer observer's instruments, con- 

 sisting of a maximum and a minimum thermometer and 



* Vol. v., No. 2, June, 1904, pp. 87-101: "Mt. Whitney as a Site for a 



Meteorological Observatory"; Vol. VI., No. i, January, 1906, pp. 7-14: 



^'Mt. Rainier, Mt. Shasta, and Mt. Whitney as Sites for Meteorological 

 Observatories." 



t Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. V., No. 4, June, 1905, p. 314. 



X For the view of the summit from the north, see Bulletin, Vol. IV,, 

 No. 3, February, 1903, opp. p. 224. 



