1906.] 



Weather Forecasts in Prussia. 



183 



The Prussian Agricultural Department has arranged for an 

 improved service of weather forecasts which is expressly de- 

 signed for the use of farmers. The principal 



Weather^ feature of the new service is the increased 

 Forecasts m 



Prussia.* prommence which is to be given to the 

 weather chart or map, on which is marked 

 the atmospheric pressure, the temperature, clouds, direction of 

 the wind and the rainfall over Europe. These particulars will be 

 telegraphed between nine and ten each morning to nine meteoro- 

 logical stations, where they will be recorded on the chart, and to 

 this the Director of the station will add, as briefly as possible, his 

 forecast of the weather for his own district during the ensuing 

 twenty-four hours. This chart will be manifolded immediately 

 and despatched by post, and it is hoped by this means to secure 

 its distribution in the country before evening. By rapid circula- 

 tion at a very low charge (6d. per month) it is anticipated that 

 the value of the chart will become more generally recognised 

 than has hitherto been the case. It will be exhibited at all 

 telegraph offices, public offices, schools, &c. 



The forecasts will also be communicated by telegraph, and 

 where necessary the forecast will be adapted to different parts of 

 the meteorological district. They will be sent by the Director 

 to the telegraph office at eleven o'clock in the morning, and thence 

 will be despatched to all telegraph offices in the district, where 

 they will be exhibited before noon. 



It IS recognised that at first these telegraphic forecasts will 

 attract very much more attention than the weather charts, not 

 merely because they appear earlier, but also because they are 

 easily understood and do not require close examination. 

 Those who are prepared to give a little attention to the matter, 

 will, it is thought, soon appreciate the value of the charts, be- 

 cause they show the causal connection of the forecast with the 

 weather of the previous day, and of other neighbourhoods, and 

 without the chart it is impossible to grasp the considerations 

 which led up to the forecast. A study of the chart might, per- 

 haps, be dispensed with if the forecasts were always absolutely 

 accurate, but as this cannot be expected, the more distant a 



* DetUuhe Lamhv. Presse^ K'^xW zisS., 1906. 



