WEATHER FORECASTING

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21714, 22 February 1936, Page 22

WEATHER FORECASTING

TO THE EDITOR .OF THE PRESS. Sir,—l have read with pleasure some of the letters regarding the utility or otherwise of our weather forecasting system. That the forecasts, as at pre-: sent issued, are useless, is to put it mildly. In the opinion of many they are in most cases absolutely misleading. The reason for this failure is that the Meteorological Department apparently generally bases its forecasts on the progress of anti-cyclones from the west arid north, whereas the weather, at any rate in the South Island, is dominated by the cyclonic, depressions from "the southward. , A return to the ideas of the late Captain Edwin and other earlier meteorologists would, I believe, result in better forecasts for the South Island, v In my part of the country the-apr proach of southerly weather can quently be predicted several days ahead by observation of the higher air currents on the Four Peaks and Mount Peel ranges. - The absence of observation stations to the south of New Zealand is no

doubt a severe: handicap s/jtbr but nieteorolbgists, but' nevertheless, -less hidebound methods of forecasting might meet with some degree of success.—Yours, etc., GERALDINE. February 20, 1936.