Salt Lake Telegram | 1938-01-05 | Page 18 | Utah Weather Hars to Spot. but Few Misses Are Recorded

Studies Secrets of Charts 7 f 1 44 q c T I e I Y i f k It l j t i ift tf ii ln u U M 10 I M. M HOWARD D. D JOHNSON CHECKS WEATHER MAP Charts tell federal observer what Utah can expect Utah Weather Hard to Spot But Few Misses Are Recorded Editor note Pleasing everyone e Is something the weather Just lust cannot annot do and dissatisfied persons persona apparently dell delight ht in relievIng their feelings by bv accusing the weather man of bad guessing This Tide second of a series eerie of ot articles on the weather eather bureau indicates that perhaps such uch criticism Is unfair The weather man is right at least I 17 out of 20 times in this locality I And hed he'd do even better if Salt Lake City wasn't SECOND such a tough spot OF A for foe which to prepare pre pre- SERIES pare forecasts Dyed in the- the wool critics who can be heard on street corners insisting loudly that the blamed weather man is never right are simply making conversation conversation conversation conver conver- according to statistics at the weather bureau in the federal build build- ing Tests over a long period show that the local weather forecast is exactly right 85 per cent of the time J J. Cecil Alter government meteorologist said Wednesday This is a fairly low average too he continued for over the United States the forecasts are correct correct correct cor cor- 90 per cent of the time on an average and in some areas such as southern California and Florida the average goes up to 94 per cent Difficulties Explained Two factors contribute largely to the occasional misses in Salt Lake City and Utah forecasts One is that partially because of the sparse population there are only a comparatively few weather observers to send in data reports to the forecaster I The other and perhaps major factor Is the sky-reaching sky Rocky mountains winter storms come from the northwest Mr Alter explained and many times a storm which appears appears appears ap ap- ap- ap pears headed straight for Salt Lake Lale City fans falls to arrive because the high Rocky mountain divide extends up through such a large body of the atmosphere Forecasts in Denver It is often difficult to determine ahead of time whether r a particular storm will be deflected this way or orwill orwill orwill will flow directly over the divide north of Utah and be lost to this area The actual weather forecast fo for for Salt Lake City and nd Utah as perhaps perhaps perhaps per per- haps few residents realize is no not made here The local prediction as well as forecasts for Montana Wyoming Colorado New Mexico and Arizona are made at the district office in Denver There are only six forecast districts districts districts dis dis- dis- dis in the United States and from district headquarters at Washington Washing Washing- ton D. D C. C Jacksonville Fla New Orleans Chicago Denver and San Francisco predictions are made for forthe forthe forthe the entire country