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Show . 1 Sidelights on the Weather j By J. Cecil Alter, State Meteorologist j I Dy J Cecil Alter, Meteorologist, i' The season of the greatest number) (or the most important Taney may turn' ; to thoughts ol love, necessity turns i Jlhe thought of the sheep man, the' j farmer, and the general outdoor work ' cr at least ence a day lo the weather j forecast. And while" the reader may . seldom misunderstand the import of I I tho message, he may sometimes be j unable to apply it adequately to his business affairs. A forecast lor rain does not noces-isarily noces-isarily mean that the ball game will !be postponed by an all-day storm, but i that more or less rain is expected to fall within the pericd jpccitied; nnd a (forecast for fair weather does not , necessarily mean that it will be sun-j shiny all day. but that no measurea-' 'blc nmount of rain or snow will fall, I ; in the opinion of the forecaster. The forecaster, or other weather bureau! 'official, is always glad to qualify the' (forecast, on request, in greater detail jfor any specific enterprise or event, j Continually Changing. I The moving tiolds of stormy weath-icr, weath-icr, cloudy skies, and clear warm, j weather shown on the daily weather ,maps are continually changing -as they ! advance, somewhat after the manner jof the trains which the- dispatcher 'hndlcs with his reports and charts; ' LMll 1U a VDH. lll.lLl. I. 11IU 1U1UI.I131C1 a j business, and to give the weather In-i In-i formation to the public when it is i most needed, only two systems of re-1 re-1 port3. daily, are prepared for review I on the weather map. The G a. m. re-ports re-ports are assembled on tho map, and j the forecasts prepared by deduction . J therefrom, and made ready 'for mail-' ing by 9:30 usually, by distribution by, i telephone and telegraph by S:30 a. m. ; usually, and are ready for publication in all issues of the afternoon newspapers. news-papers. I These forecasts are for tonight. C p. m. to a. m and tomorrow, G a. m. and 6 p. m. The forecasts made by the j (district forecaster, at Denver, Colora-do, Colora-do, arc for the state of Utah as a i whole, and arc sent direct from that! ! office to numerous addresses over the state, usually for subdistributlon, including Salt Lake City, Ogden. Price, Vernal, Moab and elsewhere. Weather Forecasting. The 'local forecasts for Salt Lake City are usually worded to conform to the state forecast, which is made by an official who ia not only special izing in forecasting but has proven his ability by long experience for ths service. ser-vice. Sometimes, however, ampiilica-l tions are made by the local official based on changes in the barometer, wind or other local signs, and his experience ex-perience with the immediate locality. The weather maps constructed from the G p. m. weather reports over the country are made only at tho various district forecasl centers over the country, coun-try, namely, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Washington and other places. The forecasts based on the evening maps are distributed only through the press association for publication in the morning newspapers us a rule, excepting except-ing only sudden and severe changes. Thus, the forecasts printed at the lop of the morning newspapers are for "today or tomorrow," while these appearing ap-pearing in the evening newspapers are for "tonight and tomorrow." the name of the day of. the week being used in all case. The repetition of the lore-cast lore-cast for "today in the morning newspaper news-paper will not confuse the reader, when it differs from that issued through the evening newspaper, but, should be regarded as the district, forecaster's opinion based on the lat-i est development in the weather. What He Expects. ' When the forecaster predicts warmer warm-er or colder, he expects a change of from 6 degrees to 10 degrees or more. These forecasts will be most useful to those who know what their own temperatures are or have been. If the thermometer thxs morning chows a temperature of o5 degrees or 40 degrees de-grees and colder is predicted, freezing temperature should be expected tomorrow to-morrow morning. And it will not be forgotten that temperatures near the ground are lower than those on a high building on a clear quiet night And if those Interested will keep in touch with the local officers of the bureau they will bo assisted in determining deter-mining what the fall in temperature, or the amount of precipitation. Is likely like-ly to be for his locality. Colder tomorrow to-morrow means that it will be colder at the evening observation as representing repre-senting the close of the day. "But, you sometimes miss It," said voico over the telephone tho :uer day. That statement has cmc truth in it, but those who making con-linual con-linual use of t;.0 forecasts have learned thai it is much safer to take the failures as they take the occasional occasion-al failures in their own affairs, as unavoidable, un-avoidable, and as of diminished impor Ince in the long run. The forecasts are based on human opinion- as to what may be expected from a weather map that lis presented only the pst and present history of the! weather. They are verified by a rigid examination of the precise wording with reference to the definite kinds of weather mentioned and the definite periods stated. In Utah, for the year as a whole, the average ranges around 85 per cent; naturally in some months it will be higher and in others lower than this ligure. The industrial, agricultural, livestock live-stock and other interests, unusually avail themselves of the services of the weather forecaster with a full realization realiza-tion of his occasional shortcomings, just as they avail themselves of the services of an engineer, an attorney, or aphyslcian. The chief difference is that the weather forecasters successes suc-cesses and failures are heralded broadcast, for general use, and information, in-formation, and he does not advise for a retainer fee, but serves all interests without cost to them. |