FORECASTING THE WEATHER

Hokitika Guardian, 6 May 1929, Page 8

FORECASTING THE WEATHER

TH.U.EK Vs"iOKS Alii:AD. FUTFiIE POSSIBILITY. SYDNEY, April n. Farmers, granicrs, airim. , n, motorist, all classes and conditions of men - - aiiicr alike been use our meteorologists, through no fault of ilioir own, are unable to forecast Iho weather with anything 1 i!\o accuracy nmro than a da\ ahead. They arc hampered in making laiee.tatfi hy the almost iniinito numhor of combinations possible in tineoiidition of the iii.niospiu.Te. And the vagaries of the atmosphere aiv enlist’d hy the moods, so to spunk, ol the sun. Tiie outward expression of those moods is seen in the “spots plot as spot.-, on human beings may serve to doctors as exact indication of why this man is depressed, that mail is feverish, or the other man is near unto death. The pressing problem of meteorologists Ibu world o,or is the discovery of some formula which will enabh thorn to state exactly what will happen on any given are” ol the earth’s surface after there has been a disturbance on tire snii s surface: or, in other words, when the sun spots have appeared. Vet this problem *or first importance to li.o meteorologist.cannot be solved by them. They are dependent up >n the co-operation o! the astronomers, who are genera!., numbered among the worlu’s dreamThe other day, the P.ev. I)r. Pigot. of pi verview College, Sydney, demonstrated just wliat a gift. from Germany brought irom that country by .Mr Ernest Wunderlich, may ultimately mnkw to tiie science of meteorology in Yus tralia, and. it may safely be added. Xew Zealand. Father FigoL disclaim?- •}. iv pretence to he a' meteorologist. .11is chief speciality is the study osi.iar p itfe .menu; and lie wiii be Help'd considerably in that study by tingenerous gift from tno great Germahrm of Zeis*. Tiien ./oxcrvatioir . wliicli will help metcoroleg.sts to ieiv tell the weather accurately, "ill ht merely a by-product ol the astronmi cr’s work. Path or Pig -t will not huv it thought that this instrument in 'r s received will alone win Irom tin. sun the evidence that will make ■ no-si'ole to say with certainty that rain will fall in this, that, or the „tdistrict, en a certain date. Father Pigot explains that, by collecting facts secured in nnnv conn .■jes, tarts concerning solar radiation. on.- s >ts. faculae. au-.i protuberance'-, and by a system of world-wide collaboration between astronomers and mete -rulogists, the forecasting of weather i») to three weeks ahead might oer.mie an exact science. Cautious r-;ci-icutist that ho is. Father Pigot poohpoohs the hopes of optimists wiio have already rushed into print with statements’to the effect that by means of such instruments as the spectroscope the weather will lie foretold even ; vear or two years ahead. “it’s going to take another v t-on f< i-c. - r .i, years to collect the evidemi that will make possible the forecasting accurately of the weather time, weeks ahead,” lie said. “But so rm-ii is certain-it is no dream. Think what it will mean to any <onnttiv. and particularly to Australm. When the time arrives, and millium or pounds are saved automatic-aIK. I. <: ivposa the* people will have forgotten that it is made possible by Hie cooperation of men of science all ovm Hu-, world.”