The Boy with the U. S. Weather MenRolt-Wheeler, Francis
General
The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men
Rolt-Wheeler, Francis
United States. Weather Bureau -- Juvenile literature
One Saturday, Ross came over early in the morning to help Anton with
some of his sunshine experiment work. The crippled lad had definitely
settled down to the study of meteorology and spent all his time either
at his instruments or at his books. Under the Forecaster's teaching, he
was becoming thoroughly proficient, and the fact that the lad was a
natural-born mathematician stood him in a good stead. He was no longer
merely a crippled lad, with scarcely a chance before him, he was making
a place for himself in the community and there was no doubt that he
would make a place for himself in life. This morning, as Anton came out
of the club-house to meet his friend, Ross looked at him and thought how
wisely the Forecaster had done in suggesting the formation of the
League.
"Bad weather coming, isn't there, Anton?" Ross asked, as they strolled
into the club-house together.
"Thunderstorms, I expect," the other answered, glancing carelessly at
the Weather map. "There's a big 'low' over Illinois, with colder weather
coming."
"I'm glad it's going to be cool," said Ross, mopping his forehead,
"to-day is something fierce."
"Yes, it's hot," agreed Anton, and turned the subject to some of his
recent work on sun-spots and the weather. He had become an absolute
convert to Dr. Veeder's theories, and the dream of the boy's life was to
be able to take a part in the most fascinating of all weather
problems--long-range forecasting.
"It would be great, Ross," he said, "if we could tell a year in advance
what kind of weather we were going to have, so that farmers would know
exactly just what kind of crops to plant and when!"
"Yes," Ross agreed, but uneasily, for he was watching the sky steadily,
"but do you think we'll ever be able to do it?"
"I don't think we'll ever be able to tell exactly," replied Anton, "but
I'm sure the time's coming when we're going to be able to get a general
idea. If we can just find out enough about the sun's influence on our
weather and enough about the big changes in the sun, we ought to be able
to foretell something. There's no doubt that weather does go in cycles."
"I don't see that," said Ross. "I think it's changing all the time. You
always hear people say that the winters aren't nearly as cold as they
used to be."
"That's all bosh," Anton declared. "Mr. Levin and I were talking over
that just the other day. There hasn't been any change of weather. The
winters to-day average the same that they did fifty years ago. There's
some sort of an eleven-year cycle in rainfall, and there's a variation
in temperature that seems to swing around about once in every
thirty-seven or thirty-eight years, but the differences are so small
that only Weather Bureau records can prove them. The weather isn't any
hotter or any colder than it used to be, it's just about the same."
But Ross was not listening. His eyes were fixed on the horizon.
"Anton," he said, "I wish you'd come here a minute."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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