Show plan to extend weather dope week in advance service Is sought by bureau in in new technique washington weathermen Wea are working out a new technique which may give accurate forecasts of sun wind and rain a week in advance then farmers industrialists va and others who must figure on the weather could plan to escape or minimize the hazards of the elements present forecasts cover a 38 36 hour period the successful development of long range forecasts was a goal set by president roosevelt when in 1938 he appointed F W derfer one of the navys navy s outi outstanding tand meteorologists as chief of the weather bureau the value of such long range forecasts to agriculture and industry would be inestimably large probably running into millions of dollars annually derfer said he said many industries air lines we wa ter power plants and commodity traders seek to fill the gap now by employing their own meteorologists or by subscribing to private weather forecasting services to industry with advance knowledge supplied by long range forecasts power companies for example could better panics utilize runoff run off water to operate their generators electric light companies would b be able to to spot emergency c rewo crews in areas of anticipated storms grain grain traders tipped on whether her to 0 expect short or bumper crops could decide whether to buy or seu sell with a greater feeling of 0 safety and farmers few of whom are financially able to buy private forecasts could better gauge their plowing planting and cultivating operations V city ity folks could plan weekend week end trips to the country or to the seashore without having those plans upset at the lost last minute by an unhappy and unforeseen change in the weather longer range forecasts would give millions illions M living in river valleys more time to prepare lor for hoods floods they i also aou would I 1 d increase the effectiveness of the bureaus specie frost warn ing service in the citrus fruit and truck farming areas of the he t south and the pacific coast by giving growers more time to place smudge end and other heating apparatus in orchards and to gather fruit which might otherwise be frozen accuracy Is expected if private meteorologists are able to make forecasts for several days in advance why the weather bureau provide such service for the general public it is possible he said for private agencies to make forecasts farther into the future than the bureau even at the risk of errors without being subjected to the criticism that would befall the weather bureau when it went wrong people naturally expect reports put out by their government to be accurate he said thus the responsibility of the weather bureau is much greater than that of others who might engage in forecasting A system now being developed for expressing the atmospheric pressure of the north american continent in terms of an index may make present methods sufficiently accurate to permit longer forecasts by the bureau b u research workers have found a definite correlation between thi the trend of this pressure index and the resultant weather patterns over the entire N na 1 american sphere |