REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE WEATHER BUREAU.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

WEATHER BUREAU, Washington, September 28, 1918. Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the Weather Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918.

Respectfully,

Hon. D. F. HOUSTON,

Secretary of Agriculture.

C. F. MARVIN,

Chief of Bureau.

WAR CONDITIONS.

War conditions have imposed various difficulties in the conduct of the work of the bureau and have caused numerous changes in its personnel during the fiscal year just closed. The call to military service has been accorded a prompt and general response by Weather Bureau men. Many who were not within the selective draft have eagerly sought opportunity to render useful service and have been released in numerous cases to make their qualifications and training as forecasters and meteorologists of military value. A large proportion of those within the draft are now in active service, and some of these, as yet fortunately only a few, have been called to make the supreme sacrifice of life itself.

At this date 145 commissioned employees are carried on indefinite furlough on account of military service, representing a depletion of fully 25 per cent of the trained force of the bureau. A further loss of 200 occurred during the year on account of resignations, almost without exception on account of inadequate pay and the numerous opportunities in commercial and industrial life for larger salaries and better prospects of advancement.

These consequences are inherent to the fixity of statutory employment rolls and the limitations upon expenditures for salaries characteristic of the appropriations for the Weather Bureau. Many able and efficient employees have left the service because of these conditions, and the filling of vacancies has been necessarily restricted to those willing to accept employment upon the relatively unfavorable terms we must offer. It is hoped that recommendations to be made in the estimates may serve to partially improve these conditions. While all the important features of the full daily program of Weather Bureau work have been maintained as fully as possible, curtailments have been made in a number of minor ways, and as the consequences of war conditions come to be more fully felt more important limitations of our regular service must doubtless be imposed.

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SUMMER TIME LEGISLATION.

The daylight saving law, which makes the hours of business an hour earlier between specified dates in April and October, has imposed a distinct extension of the hours of duty of Weather Bureau men, and otherwise has increased the work at stations. This outcome of the legislation resulted inevitably, because on the one hand it was most undesirable for this year at least to make a double break and discontinuity in the standard series of our regular meteorological observations, which for the last 30 years have uninterruptedly been made at the hours of 8 a. m. and 8 p. m., mean seventy-fifth meridian time. On the other hand, it was equally undesirable and more impracticable to issue our daily bulletins, forecasts, maps, warnings, and crop weather information an hour later in the day than the public had been accustomed to receive the same.

The only escape from one or the other of these consequences lay in preserving the continuity of the old records by continuing to make observations for the record at the same absolute hours as in the past, and making and telegraphing another observation at the same hour as usual by the clock but one hour earlier by actual mean time of the seventy-fifth meridian. This course was ordered and compelled the men to be on duty one hour later in the evening than otherwise, simply to secure the night observation and at least for this year to round out the meteorological record, much of the value of which for all scientific work depends upon its uninterrupted continuity under identical conditions for the longest possible period of time.

The daylight saving scheme has doubtless come to stay, and meteorological services must soon adjust their program of observations and public service in a way that will harmonize the conflicting consequences of the present wide adoption of the so-called daylightsaving plan. The suggestion to this end already considered in England and France, that the time of observation be advanced one hour throughout the year, encounters more serious difficulties in the United States than in western Europe, because of the great range of longitude covered by the system of stations now making simultaneous observations.

WAR ACTIVITIES.

The extensions of the work and cooperation of the bureau with direct reference to military service, inaugurated a year ago and mentioned in the last annual report, have been developed, strengthened, and further extended. The bureau has contributed of its personnel and otherwise aided the Chief Signal Officer through the Science and Research Division in the formation of a meteorological unit which now comprises a considerable number of officers and men on active duty in Europe. Skilled forecasters, in cooperation with French and English meteorologists, receive nightly telegrams containing representative weather reports from the eastern districts of the United States, Canada, and the Atlantic coast. These reports supplement local observations over western Europe and the British Isles. Men of the aerological corps make further local observations with pilot balloons and other special equipment. These agencies, largely directed and operated by Weather Bureau men now in mili

tary service, supply commanders with every species of meteorological information needed for the most effective work with infantry, airplanes, poison gas, etc.

In the United States the cooperation with the Signal Corps has been intimate and continuous, comprising the special training of meteorologists, first at numerous Weather Bureau stations, and later the detailing of two Weather Bureau men for the purpose of giving full courses in meteorology to a large body of soldiers gathered for this and other purposes at a suitable camp at College Station, Tex. The activities of the Weather Bureau in connection with the war are briefly summarized as follows:

Furnishes forecasts and warnings

a. To army cantonments and camps and naval bases.

b. To railroads in connection with handling and transportation of food and other supplies.

Furnishes War and Navy Departments with meteorological instruments. Supplies meteorological data to the Surgeon General's Office for use in connection with studies of dietetics, camp sanitation, hygiene, and the like.

Makes aerological investigations to secure free-air data for aviation and artillery uses.

Conducts special work with kites to test searchlights at night and as an aid to artillerists in detecting moving objects in the air.

Cooperates with the Signal Corps in training balloonists and enlisted men in meteorological work.

Reports vessels entering and leaving Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coast ports. Transmits naval and military business over its telegraph and cable lines. Assisted in the organization of gas and flame regiment.

Transferred to War Department, for service in France, meteorological experts and forecasters.

More detailed mention of other important features of this work will be found in the topical presentations which follow.

FORECASTS AND WARNINGS.

FORECAST DISTRIBUTION.

The fixed policy of the bureau to purge, from time to time, its lists of those receiving maps, bulletins, forecast cards, etc., by mail has effected a considerable reduction in the number of telegrams sent and cards delivered, but without, it is thought, materially impairing the value of the service. The vital interests centered in food conservation and production, and the growing appreciation by farmers and agriculturists of the value of the forecasts and warnings of the Weather Bureau have necessitated increased effort to extend the free distribution of such information by telephone, through the cooperation of the rural telephone lines, with considerable success. In one State the forecasts were made available by telephone to one fifth as many subscribers as there were inhabitants in the State, and five-sixths of the post offices received the forecast. cards by mail on the day of issue.

TRANSPORTATION OF PERISHABLES.

Because war conditions and the congestion of transportation entailed conservation in every direction, special effort was directed to the effective distribution of shippers' forecasts and the warnings of injurious weather conditions, such as cold waves, frosts, etc. Information received from several sources clearly shows the great value of these warnings and the saving they make possible.

The month of October was notable for the unusually early occurrence of frosts and freezing weather throughout the sugar and truck regions of Louisiana and Texas. It is estimated that advance warnings of these conditions issued from the District Forecast Center at New Orleans during that month saved from destruction nearly one-half of the sugar crop, worth millions of dollars; one-half of the white and sweet potato crops, and large quantities of the small matured vegetable crops in those regions.

Several hundred thousand dollars' worth of truck was saved in southern Florida as a result of cold wave warnings issued in the early part of December, 1917.

Live-stock warnings for the benefit of the cattle and sheep interests were reported as of great value, particularly during the lambing and shearing seasons. One of the warnings of this kind issued in April, 1918, from the San Francisco forecast district center resulted in the protection of over 100,000 new-born lambs and in the postponement of the shearing of great numbers of sheep.

The system for the preparation and distribution of warnings of weather conditions favorable to the inception and spread of forest fires has been considerably improved and extended to include warnings of fire hazard conditions likely to result in damage or loss in connection with crops, stock, other foodstuffs, and all kinds of inflammable war material; and a number of these warnings was issued during the year with beneficial results. A special station has been established at Hampton, Oreg., for the carrying on of investigations in connection with this service.

The exceptionally severe weather of December, 1917, and January and February, 1918, resulted in the issue of an unusually large number of storm warnings and probably a larger number of cold-wave warnings than during any other three months in the history of the bureau. A total of 540 of the former and 1,339 of the latter were issued during this period. Special attention was given to the distribution of these warnings in the interest of conservation of food and fuel.

A new application of special weather forecasts was made during the year in connection with the forecasting of weather conditions. favorable to the spraying of fruit trees. This project was carried out in the fruit regions of western New York with considerable success.

TROPICAL STORMS.

Only one tropical storm severe enough to justify the display of hurricane warnings occurred during the year, namely, that of September 22-30, 1917. This moved from the central Caribbean Sea in a general west-northwest direction to a position off the mouth of the Mississippi River, whence it recurved sharply to the northeast and entered the United States near Pensacola, Fla. The center of the track crossed Jamaica and caused great destruction to the banana industry on that island, and also caused great destruction on the Isle of Pines and in western Cuba. Hurricane warnings in advance of the storm were issued to points on the central Gulf coast from New Orleans to Apalachicola and resulted in a great saving in life. and property. A barometer reading of 28.51, with a wind velocity of 125 miles per hour, was recorded at Pensacola.