OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY Published Monthly by the American Meteorological Society Address all Communications to "Secretary-Treasurer, Am. Meteorological Vol. 3 JUNE, 1922 THE SALT LAKE CITY MEETING No. 6 The program for the Salt Lake City meeting of the Society has grown so that three sessions will probably be required. The first two sessions will open at 9.30 A. M. and 2 P. M., on June 22, while the third would be on the morning of June 23. As this issue goes to press the following 15 papers are on the program: The Topographic Thunderstorm. Cleve Hallenbeck, Meteorologist, U. S. Weather Bureau, Rosewell, New Mexico, 20 minutes. Some Values of Weather Reports in Practical Agricultural Work. Edgar M. Ledyard, Director, Agric. Dept., United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. 25 minutes. Weather Conditions Affecting the Growing of Sugar-Beet Seed. Dr. E. G. Titus, Director of Agricultural Research, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. 15 minutes. Duration of Freezing Temperature in Relation to Distribution of Natural and Cultivated Plant Life. Forest Shreve, Carnegie Institution, Tucson, Arizona. 20 minutes. The Climate of Western United States, in Relation to Hardwood Introduction. J. A. Larsen, U. S. Forest Experiment Station, Missoula, Montana. 15 minutes. Soil Moisture Distillation in Relation to Atmospheric Conditions. Dr. Willard Gardner, Associate Physicist, and Mr. N. E. Edlefsen, Assistant Physicist, Utah Agric. College, Logan, Utah. 15 minutes. The Excess-Deficit Balance and Rainfall Cycles. Frederic E. Clements, Carnegie Institution, Tucson, Arizona. 10 minutes. The California Center of Action for Summer Storms. Edward A. Beals, U. S. Weather Bureau, San Francisco, Calif. 15 minutes. Long-Range Forecasting. J. S. Ricard, S.J., Univ. of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, Calif. 15 minutes. The Atmosphere of Venus. minutes. The Zonal Distribution of Life and of Ice, Prior to the Modern Era. Marsden Manson, C.E., Ph.D., San Francisco, Calif. 30 minutes. The Effect of Light Intensity on the Temperature of Articles in Thermostats. N. E. Edlefsen. 10 minutes. Problem of Periodicities or Cycles in Meteorology. C. F. Marvin, U. S. Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C. 20 minutes. Reform of the Calendar. C. F. Marvin. 10 minutes. Symposium on Forecasting, Irrigation and Flood Waters. Leader, J. E. Church, Jr., Univ. of Nevada, Reno, Nevada. One to two hours. A business meeting will be held to consider the organization of a Pacific Division of the American Meteorological Society. The final program will be published in the A. A. A. S. program to be issued at Salt Lake City. All those attending the meeting of the American Meteorological Society whether members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science or not, are requested to register at the headquarters office and to Vol. 3 No. 6 secure there the general program for the meetings. This office will be on the main floor of the John R. Park Memorial Building, University of Utah, and it will open at 9 A. M., June 22. Mail and telegrams should be addressed in care of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. Every effort will be made to deliver promptly all mail and telegrams thus addressed to those who have registered. Luncheons will be served at the University Dining Hall. Conveniently located hotels, with lowest rates for single room without bath are: Hotels Wilson ($1), Moxum ($1.50), Cullen ($1.25), Kenyon ($1.50). Hotels Utah ($3.50d), Newhouse ($2b), and New Grand ($3bd) offer single or double rooms (d) with bath (b) or without. The A. A. A. S. has issued a very attractive illustrated circular detailing the points of interest in and about Salt Lake City, including many of great scenic beauty. Copies may probably be had still from Dr. E. G. Titus, Director Agric. Research, Utah-Idaho Sugar Co., Salt Lake City, or from J. Cecil Alter, Weather Bureau, Salt Lake City. Railroads generally have granted summer round-trip rates of 1 1-16 one way fare to Salt Lake City. From replies received to a questionnaire a large attendance is expected. As those to be present include many of the leading meteorologists and ecologists of the West, lively discussion is anticipated. CO-OPERATIVE OBSERVERS' DEPARTMENT For Voluntary Weather Observers in the Americas Co-ops Should Study Climate After serving for eight years as co-operative observer I was asked to prepare for publication an article on the climate of my locality, and I found that my knowledge of my own climate was most notable for its absence, in fact I knew almost nothing about my own climate, although I had kept daily records for eight years. This set me to work on a study of the climate of my own locality and I found that the Weather Bureau gathers the data from the various stations for the purpose of ascertaining average conditions over large districts but makes little or no effort to study the peculiarities of the climate at the various stations. While some statistics are tabulated by the W. B. and can be had in printed form, especially for the older stations, yet if the local observer wants to know about his own climate he must work out the data for himself. There is almost no limit to the information which a local observer may dig out of the records of his station by tabulating and averaging them and comparing with general averages and with similar records for nearby stations. Nearly every local observer preserves copies of the climatological data gathered by him, but few of them ever tabulate this data for the purpose of studying their climate and comparing it with the climate of other localities, although it is a most interesting study. For the purpose of studying the local climate it is best to tabulate the various data in a blank book, which can be easily ruled for this purpose, devoting a page to each condition to be studied. Thus one page may be used for monthly maximum temperatures, another page for monthly minimum temperatures, a third page for monthly mean maximum, a fourth for ean minima, and a fifth for monthly means. Rainfall, cloudiness and sunshine, depth of snow, wind directions, and innumerable other conditions may be studied in the same way. For this purpose the pages should be ruled into fourteen vertical columns, the first headed "Year," the next twelve "Jan.," "Feb.," etc., and the last "Annual." Each horizontal line will then contain the records for one year with the total or mean in the right hand column, and the records for any one month will appear in the vertical columns where they can be readily compared one year against another. Every tenth horizontal line may be used for ten-year averages, which should be entered in red or other distinguishing color. If desired five-year averages may be used instead of ten, or any other period desired, but it is easier to average ten-year periods and they are sufficiently long to give average conditions. After such a record is once started it takes but a few minutes each month to make the proper entries and the observer is able to see at a glance just wherein and to what extent the climate of his station has departed from the normal. By comparing with state averages covering a period of years it is possible to learn the peculiarities of the climate of the station under study, and many surprising facts may be discovered in this way. A second record, preferably in another book, should be kept in which a page is used for each month in the year. The vertical columns are headed something like this: first column "Year," then subsequent columns are "Maximum," "Minimum," "Mean Max.," "Mean Min.," "Mean," "Precipitation," "Snowfall," "Snow on Ground," "Clear," "Part Cloudy," "Cloudy," etc. Unless the book is a very wide one it is usually necessary to use two or more pages in order to record all the data that are wanted. In this record the data for any one month are all on one horizontal line where that month may be studied in comparison with the same month in other years and in comparison with average conditions for that month. From this record one may see at a glance the departures and peculiarities of the weather month by month and when the published climatological data are received it is easy to compare local conditions with general conditions and learn wherein the local weather differs from that of the state or other territory summarized by the Weather Bureau. It is a well known fact that there are great variations in climate between nearby points, and the general averages which the Weather Bureau publishes for various territories do not represent the actual conditions in very many points within such territories. The average annual precipitation for a state may be 15 inches, and there may be towns within that state where the precipitation is 24 inches and other towns where it is less than 10 inches, and most of the stations will have averages varying by an inch or more from the state average. The same is true with temperature and other conditions, and if we are content to make our observations, send in our reports, and accept the state averages as showing the conditions for our stations, we may never know much about our own climatic conditions. -Cola W. Shepard, Co-operative Observer at Colony, Wyoming. Local Value of the Co-operative Observer's Work. The importance of records kept by co-operative observers for the Weather Bureau is not so generally understood by the public. Many of these co-operative stations are located in small towns and villages and some in large cities, and as there are few localities that are not represented by some local newspaper would it not be of general interest and educating to the public if co-operative observers would occasionally inform them through this medium of unusual and extreme meteorological conditions and particularly the many popular fallacies. The writer has found that even in large cities few people have but little idea of the real causes of certain meteorological phenomena and are usually ready to foster some popular belief which is entirely erroneous, or to support spurious long range forecasters or rainmakers. It has therefore been my ambition during the past 15 years to write instructive articles discrediting the many superstitions, correcting the fallacies and condemning the alarmists and imposters. A co-operative observer's records are of considerable value to a community. I have quite frequently been required to furnish statistics for commercial purposes and testify in court, and my records have in some cases practically decided a case. Rain insurance is frequently collected upon my certification of the amount of precipitation. Illusions about weather. The following articles written by me have appeared in newspapers or magazines in New York or vicinity many of which have been recopied by other newspapers and periodicals in various parts of the United States. Work of the Weather Bureau. Practical use of thermometers. Winters as cold as they used to be. Equinoctial Storms a myth. Weather forecasting. Blizzard of March, 1888. Indian Summer a figment of poets. Cloudbursts, tornadoes and waterspouts. Frost. Birds and animals do not give indi- Indoor temperature and humidity. as ever. Floods. Snow-flake geometry. Hail and how it is formed. How aviators tell heights they at- Halo phenomena and relation to storms. Heat waves. Lightning eccentricities. No change in climate. Influence of weather on wars. Weather fought for Germany. St. Swithins rain myth. Seasons at war cause March winds. Earth stays hot after sun moves Planets do not affect weather. By keeping in close touch with the weather map and by careful use of the barometer I have given the newspapers warnings of severe changes in temperature, etc.-S. K. Pearson, Jr., Co-operative Observer, Jersey City and Plainfield, N. J. History of New England Climatological Service The New England Meteorological Society was formed in Boston in June, 1884, its object being to promote the study of atmospheric phenomena in New England-to establish systematic observations in selected localities, and to encourage uniformity and accuracy among observers in taking and recording observations. Also, to offer suggestions as to instruments used and the best methods of exposure. The publication of the Society's Bulletin, the American Meteorological Journal, began with the November issue, 1884. In 1888, in co-operation with the Astronomical Observatory of Harvord College, the Bulletin was enlarged and improved. The Society was merged with the United States Signal Service in September, 1889 and later with the U. S. Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture, in March, 1892, when the New England Meteorological Society ceased to exist, and then became the New England Section of the Climatological Service of the Weather Bureau.-John W. Smith, Section Director, New England, Weather Bureau, Boston, Mass. Veteran Observers and Old Weather Records I might name over a number of observers that have kept records since the early 90's, and who are still active and interested. Withal, there is an element of tragedy in it. We see the record begin with a bold stroke of pen, and a clear, clean hand; as the years go, the record changes, and the writing becomes wavy and uncertain with increasing age, and then, alas, no record comes, indicating the passing of a public spirited man who loved his fellow man and did the work for the work's sake, feeling that he was performing a service, not only for his own generation, but for work, and the public can ill afford to lose a single one of such observers. Another phase of the same subject: In early times, considerable numbers of persons have kept systematic records because it was a hobby, if we may call it that, and they liked to do it. I have in mind an old record for Camden, S. C., discovered in late years, which carries that record back as far as 1791. We just happened to find this old record, which came near being lost in a bonfire during a removal. If co-operative observers, and others, could be induced to inform Weather Bureau officials of all old records, knowledge of which may be recalled, same could be standardized, if of value, and the volume would add to the fund for research. Some time ago I stumbled on to some old records made near Orangeburg and near Charleston, but they were too fragmentary to be of real value. However, I think a lot of the old attics and old trunks contain many records that have never seen the "light of day" or never have been included in the published records. I am satisfied that many such records still exist in some of the older states of the Union, and I should like to have some of the older residents in various parts of the country lend us their memories in bringing them to light. If co-operative observers can be induced to view the proposition from the standpoint of the ultimate value, just as evidenced in the long records still being kept by old and tried observers, then the department in the Bulletin will have done meteorology a signal service.—Richard H. Sullivan, Meteorologist, in charge, Columbia, S. C. An Appreciation of the Duties of a Co-operative Observer Good business men at least annually take an invoice of their stock, including assets and liabilities in order to learn the true condition of their business. So should all men occasionally take an invoice of their health, growth in knowledge, citizenship, social standing and influence in the community life. In this way they can clearly measure their growth or decay and see if they are gaining other talents or hiding their talent in the ground. A short time ago (1919) as I entered upon my 34th year of service as a co-operative observerer of the Weather Bureau I was led to take this invoice and ask, "Well, has it paid to make this daily observation of the weather for 33 years without the loss of a day and without financial remuneration?” Upon careful reflection I found that this service has been a decided ad |