-3- 



lowest tcnrpcrature d-uring the night thirty-eight. At 8 P.M. of the 

 previous day the pressure was 29.98 and mnximum temperature yesterdn,y forty- 

 ci^^ht. The v/ind blowing forty two railos an hour, with .85 inch proci^oi- 

 tation during the preceding 24 hours. Pressure falling, fell. 04 inch in 

 preceding 2 hours. Thunderstorms begrji during the hour preceding the 

 hour of ohscrvation and continuing at the time of observation. Fev/ r.in'.'bus 

 clouds moving rapidly from the northeast. Maximum wind velocity sin^c 

 previous observation of fifty two miles an hour from the northeast." 



All those facts and figures told in nine code words] Do you wonder 

 they use code? 



To the weather man, the position of those code words is the chief 

 guide. He knows the first word stands for the name of the sending station. 

 The second vrord gives the barometer and thermometer readings, the third 

 word direction of the wind, and so on. The scone word in a different 

 position '.vould be translated as covering some other phase of the observation. 



The United States used a word code, because words lend themselves 

 more readily to the detection of errors and because words are more 

 economical than groups of figures would be. Groups of five figures, for 

 instance, ccJi be sent by cable or radio as one word, but under the system 

 of telegraph charges in this country, each figure would be counted .as a 

 separ?.te v;ord. 



In Duropc, however, the system is different, and the Europepji 

 m.eterological services use figures to represent the weather data xxipon v;hich 

 forscasts are based. The figure-codes are a little shorter, but more liable 

 to errors than the word code. 



But the different countries of Europe had different figure-codes. 

 For yer,rs it was recognized tliat there should be an international code so 

 weather reports could be plainly read by all nationa. It was readil;'- seen 

 that for international reports, it would be impractical to use v;ords. ITot 

 only would nationa fail to agree on the words but to use words from any 

 language would require some knowledge of the language used by everybody 

 CO '.corned. A figure code was essent ial,that was agreed. But the difiTiculty 

 was in getting nations to agree what data should be included in the code and 

 the order or arrangement. Last year at Copenh-agen, Denma,rk, Mr. Calvert 

 repr.-'seiitcd this country at a conference of the v.'orld's meterological 

 services which finrJly agreed on an international v/eather code. ITov; all 

 international exchange of weather reports between this country and Europe, 

 and between the various countries of Europe, and between vessels in the 

 Atlrjitic and Pcac if ic is in the international figure code. 



''.*hen the Graf Zeppelin flew around the world a couple of yerxs ago, 

 she was forced to t?ke 31 different weather code books to read the noeded 

 weather ners. 



If she took the srjno trip nov/, she would need only tv/o code books, one 

 for land station r eports, and one for the ship reports. 



