SERVICE FOR FARMERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 123, 14 February 1940, Page 2

SERVICE FOR FARMERS

FORECASTING THE WEATHER

TELEGRAPHIC REQUESTS An innovation which will he appreciated by farmers is the recent-ly-announced telegraphic weatherforecasting service. For special farming operations, arrangements can be made with the Meteorological Ofl'ice, Wellington, lo send forecasts by telegram. Requests may be made either by letter to— "The Director. Meteorological Office, Wellington," or by telegram to "Weather, Wellington." and replies will be sent by collect telegram.

In formulating a request, especially if made by telegram, one should state clearly ot what the forecast is to be a warning, viz., whether the strong winds, wet weather, coldness etc., what period the forecast should cover, and whether more than one is required. It is also advisable to indicate the nature of the particular farming operation involved. Unless directions to the contrary are given, forecasts will cover the 24 hours from the time of issue. How to Telegraph Requests. Requests should be expressed in a reasonable form l'or it is necessary to emphasise that forecasts to cover more than one or two days cannot, as a rule, be made with any great degree of accuracy, and due regard must be paid to the changeableness of the weather. For instance, to answer a request for advice of the approach of 7 days of line weather, the forecaster might have to wait many weeks or even months before such a long spell of good weather was at all likely. However, occasions probably would arise when a forecast of the following nature would- be justified: "Expect two days fine thereafter fair prospects several days settled weather."

Some examples of telegraphic requests are as follows: "Burning off telegraph warnings strong winds during next eight days" "Commencing shearing please wire warnings all rain or southerlies until fifteenth." "Please supply forecasts daily one week commencing twenty-fourth." With this service farmers need no longer fear to commence special operations and it is expected that full use will be made of the Meteorological Bureau's o!':er.