Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 122, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1904 — LONG RANGE WEATHER PROPHETS. [ARTICLE]

LONG RANGE WEATHER PROPHETS.

Officially Decl ired Fakes By The U S Weather Bureau Th* foilowiuk! are sjii e extract* fr *m an inter vew with W. T. Blytne, of ludianapoLa, chief of the Indiana section of the U. 8. Weather B ireau It was given to an Indianapolis paper, just a Mr. Blythe was leaving to attend a meeting, of Weather Bureau, cffioials atPeoriw, 111. Oae >f the pap re that will he rjad wi I be on “Ling-Raug* Forecasting,” by Prof. E. B, Gar.iot*, c lief of the forecasting sect'ox of tbe Weather Bureau.

Ph »term, ‘lo jg rauge forcast*,’ when pr parly’used,’ exp’ained M • Blythe, “means a forecast covering a longer period than the regula- on*, two and sometimes th reed ay fore'aati issued by r -ne Waat ler Bureau f urec w‘s o r , say a week, a month or a year. Ba wit 1 our present kn iwleige of tin laws governing atmoipheric circulation. such foreoas's cannot be snocdssfully mide, ani the tern ba? come to b) popularly und t> desorioe tue'fakeacalled forejasta that are foisted upon ths public by charlatans iujilmanses and other publication a and occasionally, I regret to say, through the medium of newpap rs.” , Mr. B'ythe a averted that auy longer forecasts than thoj? mad-> daily by the Bureau are i-nposatble. aud readied a statein »nt cf Frufesaor Peruter, director of the Central Institute of Me teorology at Vienna, Austria, who sail:

‘ 1 do not hesit-ite to declare that it is abiolutely su'e and certain that at the present tiw* ( Jacusry. 1903) no human bein is in possession of the knowledge of the physical basis for weatbe predio ions.* * * All tba» ca i be accomplished by a partial knowledge of true physical p is ow being done by the tneteo rologioal institution, aud it is certain that no one knows of a single priu np’e of importance m:re than those known to the experts cf tnese institution®, who, in their pre ictions, oer airily m tkd use of all principles known.” “Fake” Predictions’ Damage. Tue chief of the Weather Bu eau himself, Mr. Blythe said, has recently expressed bimeelf on thetubj’ ct of “fake” forecasts. “They may believe,” be said, “that they have discovered a p’>y ioal law o.’ a meteorol igiea 1 prinoip’e that b-s not been revea’io investigation?, but the publioa tioo of predictions tba*, by reason of their aheolute inaccuracy, are likely to be peti’ively itj’mious to agrioul'ur&l, commercial and other in lustrial interests, oast a serious doubt upon the hones’y of their purpose. As a result of my personal investigation of tne work of long-range weather foreoatters, some of whom have so far gained the confidence of the rnr 1 press as to receive liberal compensation for their predictions I am Jed to the conclusion thit thej knowingly perpetrate fraud, and do positive injury to the public at Urge. I hope the time will come when it will be possible to forecast the weather for coming seasons, but that time has not arrived