USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. II > Part 13
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utility and therefore the most humble patron or shipper has always had access to the officer or officers of these various com- panies, has had a hearing and, as a rule, just treatment. With the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient, the Fort Scott, Wichita & Western, and the Frisco to the east; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Orient to the south; the proposed Wichita, McPherson & Gulf, proposed Yankton, Wichita & Gulf, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the proposed Arkansas City Interurban to the southeast ; Fort Scott, Wichita and Western and the Santa Fe to the southwest; the Missouri Pacific and the proposed Wich- ita, Kinsley, Scott City & Denver, also many connections with other railroads to the west; and the Frisco, Santa Fe and Rock Island, together with the proposed Yankton, Wichita & Gulf, proposed Wichita, McPherson & Gulf, and the interurban now in course of construction to Hutchinson, Wichita can touch any part of the state and demand a greater traffic than any other city in the state or than most western cities of other states.
CENTRAL POINT FOR RAILROADS.
The railway center of Kansas is Wichita. More trains, both passenger and freight, run in and out of this than any other city in the state. The volume of business handled by all of these lines exceeds the business handled by all lines of any other city in the state. These are broad statements, but railway officials who are acquainted with conditions in every surrounding city declare them to be true. As the railway metropolis of Kansas, Wichita has an average of 110 freight and passenger trains in and out of the city every day.
Although but two of the five companies maintain divisions here the total number of railway men in the city is upwards of 1,500. These men draw salaries totaling nearly $100,000 per month. A large number of them live in their own homes. Within the limits of the city there are seventy-five miles of trackage, including main lines, sidings and switches. Several miles more are to be constructed during the present year. The switch tracks of the stock yards terminal association are now being entirely rebuilt. The biggest item on the railway calen- dar for the coming year is the elevation of tracks over Douglas avenue and the building of a union station. The railways have been considering this matter for six months and are now making
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plans and estimates for the improvement. A board of appraisers has been at work in the city for several weeks securing valu- ations of all railway property and adjacent ground that will be necessary for a large union station.
There are four roads in the proposed joint elevation of tracks, the Santa Fe, Rock Island, Frisco and Orient. The Missouri Pacific, having a suitable location of its own, has not yet decided to join in the union station proposition. The entire improvement of elevated tracks and union depot will cost between three and four millions of dollars. Second in interest is the Orient shops proposition. Within the past week actual work on the con- struction of these large repair shops was commenced. It will require at least six months to finish the first unit of these shops, which will represent an outlay of $1,000,000 when finished. The unit to be finished this year will cost $300,000. A third notable improvement for this year will be the removal of the Rock Island yards from their present location south of the freight house to a new location north of the packing houses. Ground has already been purchased for this change and the work of transferring the present yard facilities will begin shortly. This road expects to spend $200,000 improving its freight han- dling facilities during the next six months. Another improve- ment which this road is making is the ballasting of its line from Caldwell to Herrington by the way of Wichita. This will mean a much smoother roadbed and faster service.
The Missouri Pacific also is ballasting its southern Kansas lines. Before summer closes the entire Wichita division will have been reballasted. Three work trains are now ballasting the Kiowa branch from Conway Springs to Wichita. A large portion of the Wichita division is now being rebuilt with 85- pound rails. The Santa Fe is just completing its new freight house, which cost the company, ground and building, $150,000. It is one of the largest and best equipped freight houses in the Southwest. With the removal of the freight offices to the new home the old freight house is to be torn down. It will be replaced either by the new union station or with switch tracks if some other location is chosen for the union depot. The Rock Island is badly in need of a new freight house and plans are now being prepared for a modern railway warehouse. Con- struction will be delayed, however, till the union depot matter is definitely settled.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU. By RICHARD H. SULLIVAN,
Local Forecaster, Weather Bureau, Wichita, Kan.
Institution and Expansion of the Service-Establishment of a First-Class Observing Station at Wichita, in the Heart of Sedgwick County-Climate of Wichita and Sedgwick County -Accepted Scientific Views Regarding Change of Climate.
INTRODUCTION.
As a matter of historical interest to the people of Sedgwick county and to prospective residents of the future, it has been deemed best to confine the discussion of the meteorological serv- ice of the United States to three parts, under the following headings :
Part I. Scope of the National Weather Service. The rea- sons for its establishment and its subsequent expansion as a working force in the interests of the public.
Part II. The Climatology of Wichita and Sedgwick County. Establishment, equipment and work of the station at Wichita, together with climatological data collected during the period July 1, 1888, to May 1, 1910. Aside from incidental changes from time to time, the averages will be standard for a long time to come.
Part III. So-called Change of Climate. The subject is treated wholly upon the basis of scientific research and observa- tion, and the conclusions are the consensus of opinions of authorities of international reputation.
The above arrangement was made for the convenience of parties desiring information regarding the general work of the Weather Bureau, and each division is relatively complete in itself.
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SCOPE OF THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
The meteorological service of the United States, now known as the Weather Bureau, was established in 1870, congress appro- priating $20,000 for the maintenance of a few observing stations scattered throughout the country. In the early days there were stations at Fort Leavenworth and Dodge City. Public demands have since resulted in an organization that now operates upwards of 200 stations, with 1,500 employes, costing an annual sum of $1,600,000. At the present time there are stations at Concordia, Dodge City, Iola, Topeka and Wichita, Kan., and the station at Fort Leavenworth was transferred to Kansas City, Mo., during the late eighties. The work was originally inaugurated for the benefit of navigation alone, but its scope was soon increased to include all agricultural and commercial interests. The congres- sional act transferring the meterorological service from the War Department to the Agricultural Department in 1891 specifies in detail the field to be occupied by the Weather Bureau, the chief duties of which are to forecast weather changes, issue warnings of severe storms, floods in the rivers, cold waves in winter and frosts in spring, and to collect climatic data for public dissemi- nation, and also to make extended research for the advancement of meteorological science.
Bi-daily observations taken throughout the country are assembled at designated centers for the preparation of the fore- casts and publications of the service, and by international inter- change similar reports are received from Canada, the Azores, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Great Britain, Germany, France, Por- tugal, European and Asiatic Russia, the Philippines, Hawaii and Alaska, so that each morning the observations present a rela- tively complete panoramic weather picture of the whole of the northern hemisphere. In addition to these observations, records are made in season of temperature and precipitation throughout the corn, wheat, fruit, tobacco, cranberry, sugar, rice and mar- ket gardening belts of the country, and the collected informa- tion is published daily for the benefit of all concerned.
The climatological branch of the service is divided into forty-four local sections, each section generally covering a single state, with a regular observing station as a center. At the cen- tral stations are collected various kinds of data from over 3,600 co-operative stations located at intermediate points between the
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regular stations. These data then become available to the public in the "Monthly Weather Review," the "National Weather Bul- letin," the "Snow and Ice Bulletin," and other publications issued by the central office at Washington.
FORECASTS.
There is not an individual or possession in the cities or in the country that is not affected directly or indirectly by weather changes, the forecasts of which are available for the asking to nearly 4,000,000 addresses daily; these are reached by mail, the telephone and the telegraph, wholly at the expense of the gov- ernment and separate and distinct from the vast numbers reached daily by the great newspapers and press associations.
When the public service begins to noticeably affect the pub- lic purse, then all lines of industry thus affected make it their business to become more conversant with the methods pursued by that service. From the time the agriculturalist begins his late summer and autumn plowing until he turns the products of his labors into necessities obtained of the city merchants and de- posits his profits in the bank for future needs, weather changes affect every crop his efforts produce, as well as the market price. Meantime, the same weather changes are affecting the distri- bution of his products through the various avenues of trade. This being the case in a country where every drop of moisture is of prime importance, it follows that foreknowledge of moisture conditions for crops and temperature changes which affect the evaporation of that moisture are also of the first importance in the cities as well as in the daily routine on the farms.
The forecasts of this service are the best that science can devise. It has been found that prognostications beyond a period of forty-eight hours are impracticable, except under special phases of storm movements, when the periods can be extended several days or a week. Upon the basis of specified time limits, the verifications of forecasts range between 85 per cent and 88 per cent, and sometimes as high as 92 per cent. Occasional failures are unavoidable, due to deflection in storm movement that cannot be foreseen. No other known system can equal this record. Physicians have the advantage of technical examina- tion, while the forecasters are forced to deal with the unseen elements of an atmosphere that is in constant motion and is 100
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miles or more in depth; yet, sad to relate, the doctors' failures exceed 12 per cent or 15 per cent. Stock raisers, wheat growers and the various brokers are absolutely unable to foresee market fluctuations from day to day, notwithstanding the fact that statistics furnish tangible evidence of supply and demand ; hence, so many failures on 'change.
As the matter now stands, all ifs, ands, buts, isms and super- stition have been eliminated, so that the weather service of the United States has come to be recognized as the model of the world, and students of its methods are sent to the central office at Washington from every progressive civilized nation.
SPURIOUS FORECASTS.
Planting crops in the signs of the zodiac or under certain phases of the moon are astrological relics of medieval super- stition. The bases of almanac and all other so-called long range forecasts are myths. Herchell's moon-phase and weather tables were repudiated by himself when it was found that there was no definite scientific connection between weather on the earth and the several phases of the moon. Flammarion, the French astrono- mer and versatile writer on scientific subjects, could find no con- nection between the earth and the moon sufficient to make prac- tical forecasts possible. Planetary meteorology and the anti- quated idea of so-called equinoxial storms have no scientific bases. No astronomer of reputation has ever observed the mystic planet, Vulcan, although the most powerful telescopes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been used to search the heavens during favorable periods. While the astronomers have been able to predict the return of Halley's comet to the nicety of an hour. and have been able to detect it while yet hundreds of millions of miles distant, these same observers are unable to find a planet that was at one time thought to be about 13,000,000 miles from the sun and about 3,500 miles in diameter. The existence of this so-called planet is absolutely necessary in the development of a sufficient number of equinoxes or assumed attractive influences of the various bodies composing the universe, so that the plane- tary influences may increase the storm periods on the earth. Yet, so far, the planet Vulcan remains undiscovered.
After reviewing the opinions of many accepted scientific
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authorities, Prof. E. B. Garriott, chief of the forecast division of the U. S. Weather Bureau, concludes his remarks as follows :
"The application of past and present astronomical and me- teorological knowledge to the theory and practice of long range forecasting leads to the following conclusions :
"1. That systems of long range weather forecasting that depend upon planetary meteorology, moon phases, cycles, posi- tions or movements, stellar influences or star divinations ; indica- tions afforded by observations of animals, birds and plants, and estimates based upon days, months, seasons and years, have no legitimate bases.
"2. That meteorologists have made exhaustive examinations and comparisons for the purpose of associating the weather with the various phases and positions of the moon in an earnest endeavor to make advance in the science along the line of prac- tical forecasting and have found that, while the moon, and perhaps the planets, exert some influence upon atmospheric tides, the influence is too slight and obscure to justify a consideration of lunar and planetary effects in the actual work of weather forecasting.
"3. That the stars have no appreciable influence upon the weather.
"4. That animals, birds and plants show by their condition the character of past weather and, by their actions, the influence of present weather and the character of weather changes that may occur within a few hours.
"5. That the weather of days, months, seasons and years affords no indications of future weather further than showing present abnormal conditions that the future may adjust.
"6. That six and seven day weather periods are too ill- defined and irregular to be applicable to the actual work of forecasting.
"7. That advances in the period and accuracy of weather forecasts depend upon a more exact study and understanding of atmospheric pressure over great areas and a determination of the influences, probably solar, that are responsible for normal and abnormal distribution of atmospheric pressure over -the earth's surface.
"8. That meteorologists are not antagonistic to honest, well directed efforts to solve the problem of long range forecasting; that, on the contrary, they encourage all work in this field and
UNIVERSITY AVENUE LOOKING WEST.
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condemn only those who, for notoriety or profit, or through mis- directed zeal and unwarranted assumptions, bring the science of meteorology into disrepute.
"9. That meteorologists appreciate the importance to the world at large of advances in the period of forecasting and are inclined to believe that the twentieth century will mark the beginning of another period in meteorological science."
PRACTICAL USES OF THE FORECASTS.
Forecasts of cold waves result in protection of many millions of dollars in property on the farms, in the warehouse and in transfer by the transportation companies. Greenhouse boilers are heated. The general service plants prepare for increased demands. Fuel dealers prepare their commodity for quick deliv- ery. The ice factories reduce their output. Commission firms and shippers of perishable goods stop consignments, and retail merchants prepare goods most suitable for the season. All cement and concrete work is stopped. Charity organizations prepare to minimize the sufferings of the poor. Live stock con- cerns advance or delay shipments in transit and provide shelter for stock in the yards. Warning of a single cold wave some years since resulted in saving over $3,500,000 in property that would otherwise have been damaged or destroyed.
The general forecasts are used by multitudes of farmers in hog-killing time, by sheepmen for transfer to pasturage and in lambing and shearing time, and by cattlemen raising stock over widely scattered areas. Broomcorn deteriorates under rainfall in open fields. It is common practice for alfalfa growers to consult the forecasts for probable rains. Lime, cement, brick, tile and sewer piping must be protected from rain during manu- facture. Physicians are guided by the forecasts in connection with many maladies, and many invalids become familiar with their use. Stress of weather during the heat of summer is espe- cially enervating to infants and the aged, and their friends and professional advisers are in constant touch with the work of this service.
Much of the success of the fruit and market gardening indus- tries are dependent upon the frost warnings during critical sea- sons. In California, Colorado, Florida and in portions of the fruit districts of Kansas large sums of money have been expended
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for tents, screens and heating, smudging or irrigating apparatus for the protection of tree fruits and gardens, and these are put into use during the period for which frost is announced. The value of orange bloom, vegetables and berries protected and saved during a single night in a limited area in Florida, as a result of freezing temperature warnings of the Weather Bureau, was reported as exceeding $100,000.
We are pleased to relate that artificial methods of preven- tion of damage by frost are being very generally considered by the horticulturalists of Sedgwick county and elsewhere, especially since the disastrous spring frosts of 1907 and 1909, and in some localities in 1910. Late experiments in the Thomas and Kunkel orchards show that temperatures can be controlled 4 to 5 degrees with a distribution of fifty smudge pots to the acre, and 8 to 12 degrees with a distribution of seventy-five pots to the acre, thus allowing for a freezing temperature as low as 22 degrees outside the heated area.
Many millions of dollars are involved during the floods in the rivers of this country, and one set of flood warnings is known to have saved $15,000,000 worth of property. During one of the greatest floods in the Mississippi watershed, lasting from March to June, warnings were issued from four days to three weeks in advance, and in no case did the predicted stage vary more than four-tenths of a foot from the actual height of the water recorded, notwithstanding the vast volumes of water with which the fore- casters had to deal. The flood forecasts are based upon reports received from about 500 special river and rainfall stations.
The marine underwriters have estimated that ocean shipping saves $20,000,000 annually as a result of the forecasts and storm and hurricane warnings, a sum, indeed, sufficient to maintain this service at the present expense for fourteen years.
The miscellaneous climatological data are used in scientific studies of the relation of weather to health, life and human endeavor, by railroads in adjustment of claims, by contractors in settlement of accounts, in settlement of cases in and out of court, in dry farming and soil culture investigations, in prac- tical agriculture, in the preparation of historical records, in studies of life histories of noxious insects, by investment com- panies in determining loan values of farm lands and other inter- ests that space forbids enumerating.
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RESEARCH OBSERVATORY.
At Mount Weather, Va., a research observatory has been established for the investigation of atmospheric problems, includ- ing solar radiation, solar physics, magnetism, etc., as well as studies of the phenomena of the upper air by means of kites and balloons carrying recording instruments. One of the kites has reached an altitude of 23,000 feet, and the balloons have reached ten miles or more in height. It is expected that this work of investigation will result in a marked increase in our knowledge of atmospheric conditions and a decided improvement in the accuracy of the weather forecasts. In this respect the United States again leads the world, as this observatory is the only one of the kind in existence.
CLIMATOLOGY OF WICHITA AND SEGWICK COUNTY. Location and Equipment of Station.
The climate of a place is the aggregate of weather conditions, or the combination of all the weather elements and atmospheric constituents into a general working factor or volume. The cli- mate of Wichita and vicinity is relatively the climate of Sedg- wick county, and for purposes of reference and comparison dur- ing the coming years the records of the local office may be used in this connection.
Wichita is situated in the Arkansas valley at the junction of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers, near the center of the eastern half of Sedgwick county, latitude 37° 41' north; longi- tude 97° 20' west; mean solar time at this point is 29 minutes slower than at the nineteenth meridian, or central standard time. The altitude of the city proper is 1,300 feet, as measured from the bench mark at the Santa Fe railway tracks crossing Douglas avenue; the needle of the barometer in the local weather office is 1,377 feet above sea level, or 77 feet above the ground.
The Arkansas valley trends the county from northwest to southeast, and in the vicinity of Wichita is flanked on either side by ridges or gently sloping hills about 10 feet above the river. The Little Arkansas river, draining portions of Harvey, Reno, Rice and McPherson counties, flows into the county from the north. The station is 832 miles above the mouth of the Arkansas
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river, and 502 miles below Pueblo, Colo. The drainage area above Wichita is 40,551 square miles.
The weather observatory was established on July 1, 1888, by the U. S. Signal Service, with offices on the fifth floor of the Sedgwick Block, corner of First and Market streets, where the station remained until its removal to the seventh floor of the Murdock-Caudwell Building on March 31, 1908. Since July 1, 1891, the meteorological work has been under the supervision of the chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau. The instrumental equip- ment is that of a station of the first class station and consists of standard barometers, barograph, thermometers, thermograph, instrument shelter, anemometers, anemoscope, electric sunshine recorders, self-registering rain gauge and quadruple register, and the station is fitted throughout with all the necessary appliances of a first-class meteorological office. Daily readings of the height of the Arkansas river have been recorded since July 1, 1897, and a standard river gauge is now attached to the north end of the east pier of the new concrete bridge at Douglas avenue. This office is now the center of the Wichita river district and has supervision over the river stations at Dodge City, Great Bend and Hutchinson, and the special rainfall stations at McPherson and Medora, which report heavy rains or high water, as the case may be, during the period between April 1 and August 31 each year and on special occasions in the interim.
CLIMATIC DATA.
The meteorological record covering the period from July 1, 1888, to May 1, 1910, shows the following climatological features : The mean annual temperature is 56.1°.
The warmest summer was that of 1901, with a mean tem- perature of 81.6° ; the coolest, that of 1891, with a mean of 74.2°.
The coldest winter was that of 1904-5, with a mean of 26.7º; during the winter of 1898-9, one of the coldest on record, the average was 27.8°. The mildest winter was that of 1907-8, with a mean of 38.3°. Other notably mild winters were as follows: 1889-90, with a mean of 37.2°; 1895-6, with a mean of 37.1°; 1896-7, with a mean of 36.4°, and 1905-6, with a mean of 36.1°.
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