Weather Bureau
a service for forecasting weather conditions. Such service, more or less satisfactory, is maintained in some degree, at least, by all civilized nations. In 1873 the federal government organized a service for the benefit of American shipping. The work was entrusted to the signal corps of the army. In 1891 the present United States Weather Bureau was established as a branch of the department of agriculture. The duties of the bureau are set forth in the act of Congress:
The Chief of the Weather Bureau shall have charge of forecasting the weather; the issue of storm warnings; the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce, and navigation; the gaging and reporting of rivers; the maintenance and operation of sea coast telegraph lines and the collection and transmission of marine intelligence for the benefit of commerce and navigation; the reporting of temperature and rainfall conditions for the cotton interests; the display of frost, cold wave, and other signals; the distribution of meteorological information in the interest of agriculture and commerce; and the taking of such meterological observations as may be necessary to establish and record the climatic conditions of the United States, or are essential for the proper execution of the foregoing duties.
The bureau maintains about 200 stations scattered throughout the United States and the West Indies. Each is in charge of one or more trained observers. They are provided with standard barometers, thermometers, wind-vanes, rain and snow gages, and, in some cases, with sunshine recorders and moisture gages. Twice a day or oftener they telegraph the Washington office accurate information as to atmospheric conditions. Daily reports are received also from Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Honolulu, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Siberia, Iceland, and the Azores. Each station is a distributing center of information, but forecast centers are maintained in Boston, Washington, New Orleans, Louisville, Denver, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon. About ten o'clock daily weather indications are telegraphed 2,100 distributing points, and are sent out by mail, telegraph, and telephone. In 1909 there were about 160,000 mail and over 1,000,000 telephone subscribers.
In changeable, showery weather, when a rain in one township may be accompanied by a bright day in an adjacent township, a farmer cannot know, indeed, to a certainty, whether to cut his hay or not; but the field is covered so completely that the farmer is able to learn in advance the approach of heavy, prolonged rains, continued, dry weather, frosts, and blizzards. The shipper may know whether it is safe to load fruit, eggs, or vegetables in an unprotected car. Market gardeners are warned to protect their gardens. The orange growers of California and Florida have invested heavily in screens and tents, which they use to protect their trees when warned that a cold wave is coming. Railroad superintendents watch for the signal to get their snowplows ready, and steamboat captains venture another trip, or tie up for the winter. Those engaged in cutting ice study the bulletins with care.
Many seaboard storms originate in the West Indies. If they are headed our way, the news is sent ahead by telegraph. In fact, a storm can hardly reach our coast from any direction without word coming ahead. Storm signals--over 300 in all--fly in every considerable port and harbor of the Atlantic, the Gulf, the Pacific, and the Great Lakes. Sailings are deferred or hastened in accordance with storm forecasts. Our service costs (1909) $1,300,000 a year. The saving of property cannot be known, but $30,000,000 is a modest estimate. A single West Indian hurricane may send several million dollars to the bottom of the sea.
In addition to posting daily bulletins in postoffices and other public places, signals are given by means of flags. There are six well known flags. A square white flag indicates fair weather; a blue flag, rain or snow; a flag half white, half blue, local snow or showers; a white flag with a black square in the center, a cold wave; a red flag with a central black square, high wind and snow. A triangular black flag indicates temperature. Displayed above a blue flag, it indicates rain and warmer; below a blue flag, it means rain and colder.
See Cyclone; Anemometer; Barometer; Clouds; Rain; Sunshine; Salton Sea; Wind; Ice, etc.
