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Show Ins and Outs of Predicting the Weather There is a story told, the truth of which is unverified, that the word "oops" was first uttered by a frustrated weatherman while standing ankle deep in a gully washer he had predicted as partly cloudy. Whatever the case, it is a fact that mankind has struggled long and hard to gain the upper hand on the enigma known as weather forecasting. Long before today's modern techniques, there were many ingenious methods used to predict nature's wrath; and many of them proved to be at least as accurate as today's educated gtisses. But now an absolutely foolproof weather-forecasting tool has been discovered; and when used in the right humor, it is bound to be a boon to sportsmen everywhere. Known as the weather" rock, the device is ingenious in its simplicity. A round and very smooth rock is hung from a rope just a few inches off the ground. Then a circle is drawn around the rock; and. with the aid of a compass, stakes are driven and marked to represent north, south, east and west. But the key to the weather rock's success is its prognostication prognostica-tion formula. It reads: (1) If the rock is wet. it may be raining; (2) il the rock is hot and dry, the sun mav be shining; (3) if the rock is warm and dry, the sun did shine; (4) if the rock is damp and cold, it's cither morning or it rained; (5) if the rock is covered with ice or snow, it's probably cold; (6) if the rock is swinging toward a point rock, the wind may be blowing in that direction; (7) if the rock is swinging at a 45 degree angle, there is a good possibility of a tornado; if the rock is gone, you'd better go too. There has been some reluctance reluc-tance on the part of certain experts to give their endorsement to the device until further field tests results are in; but for the moment, the only alternative is that anywhere near as accurate is a look out the window. |