WEATHER BULLETINS For FARMERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 432, 3 October 1947, Page 10

WEATHER BULLETINS For FARMERS

New Regional Service from IZB

OST of us are more interested in the weather than G. K. Chesterton’s Noah, who told his wife he didn’t care where the water went if it didn’t get into the wine, but few of us have a very accurate idea of what weather and its forecasting means. And with all the scientific data the Weather Office can amass, it will never prevent

rain on washday, or take it to the farmer whose land is parched. The only thing it can do is to let-us know (within reasonable limits) what we can expect. But weather forecasting is important to every section of the community, and particularly to men on the land. Farmers in the North Auckland, Auckland, and Waikato districts, therefore, will welcome an improved weather information service instituted by Station 1ZB as from Wednesday of this week (October 1). This is a special forecast which is being heard daily at 8.45 a.m. It covers the areas already mentioned, these being defined by the Weather Office as follows: "The Auckland district referred to comprises that part of the Auckland province lying within 50 miles of Auckland City, and including the Coromandel Peninsula. North Auckland (not Northland) refers to the whole of the Peninsula north of the Auckland district, and Waikato to the south is roughly the same as the district popularly known by that name." According to Pattern Those who listen daily for what follows the bare announcement: "This. is the Weather Office," may be sure that exhaustive and scientific preparation lies behind every bulletin. The "Met. Office" operates in two ways: it makes its own local observations all over New Zealand, and co-ordinates these with observations from similar "collectives" in the Pacific Islands and Australia, All the information goes straight on to charts,

and when enough data are available, it becomes possible to plot lines around the areas of similar pressure; in due course these lines reveal patterns which enable the forecasters to interpret the separate reports in terms of a general movement of the weather. Most of the staff now employed by the Weather Office have been recruited from the ranks of the Air Force where they received their basic training in weather reporting, and in the operation

of the hundred and one devices and instruments used in scientific forecasting. New Zealand suffers a special handicap in the preparation of weather forecasts. It is long and narrow, and islands in the seas which surround us are few. Thus, for reports of weather approaching across the sea New Zealand weather men have to work on very much less information than, for instance, observers in an American Mid-west State or in Europe. bd The Amateur Observers Information comes to the Meteorological Office also from several hundreds of people in all parts of New Zealand, who keep records of rainfall and sometimes of maximum and minimum temperatures, and supply monthly returns to the Met. Office. The average listener to weather reports need not concern himself with the scientific definitions, but there are six simple words used in everyday discussion of the weather which do not necessarily mean the same to everyone. When the Weather Office uses them, their meanings will be thgse: Fine: The most favourable weather (not more than a quarter of the sky covered by clouds). Fair: No rain, but more cloud than for fine weather. Overcast: No blue sky visible at all. Dull: Overcast, with a dark, threatening look. Showers: As distinct ‘from "rain"-falls of rain, with clear or brighter weather, perhaps cloudy or dull at intervals. Cloudy: Three-quarters or more of the sky covered.