Long time weather charts indicate drought cycle temporarily halted

Long time weather charts indicate drought cycle temporarily halted

834 CURRENT TOPICS. [J. F. I. Long Time Weather Charts Indicate Drought Cycle Temporarily Halted.--The years just ahead will average relatively wet...

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834

CURRENT TOPICS.

[J. F. I.

Long Time Weather Charts Indicate Drought Cycle Temporarily Halted.--The years just ahead will average relatively wet, if the weather pattern of the past century continues. The annual report of the U. S. Weather Bureau explains that weather history is a succession of dry and wet cycles, interspersed with periods of about average precipitation. The Bureau warns against a false optimism that disregards future droughts however. The successions of longcontinued dryness are irregular and their coming can not be forecast by any methods yet known to meteorologists. Many investigators believe there is a useful relationship between weather conditions over the continents and those that precede them over the oceans. Although the Weather Bureau has on file long-time weather histories for the continental United States, it has had no comparable histories for adjacent ocean areas. Marine observations made in the past, but never tabulated, have only recently been compiled. Included in the general weather and crop-reporting research of the year were investigations of cold waves in North America, a study of warm and cold anticyclones, and an effort to determine the part ozone may play as a link between solar activity and atmospheric change. It is hoped that the results of this research will be valuable in developing long range forecasting methods. The gap between • the practical and the theoretical school of forecasting--apparently incapable of being bridged when observations were confined largely to surface conditions--has steadily narrowed as modern means for exploring the upper air have given meteorologists more information on the movement of free air up to great altitudes. R. H. O. Air Filter Research at Mellon Institute.--Dr. Edward R. Weidlein, Director, Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, has announced the the establishment of an Industrial Fellowship in that institution by the American Air Filter Company, Inc., of Louisville, Ky. This fellowship will investigate broadly materials of value in the construction of filters for air-conditioning systems. It will be the aim to gain through this research new knowledge to effect all possible improvements in the devices manufactured by the donor, and in this work the Fellowship will have the direct co6peration of specialists on the staff of the Multiple Industrial Fellowship on air hygiene in operation in the Institute. Dr. Frank F. Rupert, who has been appointed to the incumbency of Fellowship, has been a member of Mellon Institute since I913. R. H. O.