84—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 21, 1976 Weather is almost as complex as life By DIETER KRIEG EDITOR’S NOTE This is the second article in a continuing series of stories on the weather. It is commonly thought that fanners work with the basics, including the weather. But what’s so basic about the weather and for that matter most anything else the farmer works with? Most all men have thought of animals, plants, soil and weather in their simplest terms when, m reality, they are highly complex. So complex, in fact, that scientists admit that the more they leam about our living planet, the more they realize how little we really know and how complex life and life’s system’s are. ' We till the soil with relative ease and produce an abun dance of crops, but we are just beginning to find out about the miracles contained within the ground we walk on. And we are still far from understanding it. Cows are milked from day to day in routine fashion, but many of their bodily functions continue to mystify scientists. Many of the Earth’s living mysteries are still locked in secret, whether they be in a single cell plant or a 10-foot com stalk. Often, if not even always, we take them for granted. In working with them, we’ve tended to reduce them to something “simpler” and more understandable. And it has worked; food continues to be plentiful. The weather is equally complex. What’s interpreted by most men as being nothing more than just a bunch of air, water, snow, wind, and sunshine, is really an awesome, mind-boggling system of complexities which all the com puters in the world can’t keep up with. For example, there are 5.6 million billion tons of air en circling the globe in a layer which is approximately 20 miles deep. These estimated four billion cubic miles of air are constantly being heated by an atomic powered furnace the sun. The result of heating by day and cooling by night, along with the Earth’s rotation, 23-degree axis, and a host of other factors, is an un-evenly heated “brew.” It swirls around us; sometimes in relative obscurity and other times with terrific violence. In either case, there is enough air around to give each of Earth’s residents a claim on about a half million tons. Due to the immense, unimaginable volumes, proportions and dimensions involved, the weather is indeed a com plicated factor in our lives. Computer technology during the past two decades (par ticularly since the advent of the space age) has enabled weathermen to predict much more accurately and quickly than ever before, but perfection is still very far away. Some meteorologists believe perfection can never truly be achieved. The forces involved m the making of our daily weather are just too enormous to be pinpointed exactly. Scientists have estimated that the sun’s energy causes 1000 billion tons of sea water to be evaporated each day. Keeping in mind, then, how much energy is required to boil away a panful of water, a person might appreciate how much energy is mvolved in the weather-making process. Researchers figure that this daily evaporative process would require energy equivalent to about 100,000 times all of the electricity being generated in the United States in an entire year. All told, the energy from the sun which strikes Earth in a single day is about 240 trillion horsepower. Computers and satellites in use today are capable of digesting billions of bits of information in a matter of minutes and drawing conclusions from them. Although these sort of complexities are rather far removed from the variety the farmer is involved with in his hay field, they are nevertheless a marvel in their own right. This sort of technology dan compose an entire newspaper page in seconds, bring men to the moon and back, send brilliant television pictures around the world, and land space vehicles on Mars but they haven’t solved the mysteries of weather. Hence, housewives and farmers continue to be disillusioned about weather forecasting. Man’s ingenuity, power, intelligence, and just plain guts has not been able to meet the challenges of the winds and hailstones. According to weather scientist and writer, Walter 0. Roberts, satellites can watch the birth of every storm around the globe, temperatures of clouds can be taken day or night, and nations are establishing networks of communication to forecast weather conditions. This system has enabled swift warnings to be issued, and in some cases storms have even been weakened, but on a large scale, Roberts describes the scientific network as being “desperately incomplete.” He claims that no more than a quarter of the Earth is adequately covered by weather observations. To have an “adequate” system would involve prohibitive costs by today’s standards. Even as it is, nations of the world have billions of dollars invested in meteorological studies and observation. Weathermen claim that weather forecasting is much more Fulton Grange 66 Color contest today GOSHEN - Fulton Grange the art, photo, and craft 66 met in regular session on contests will be judged at August 9 with Master that time, and a flower show Thomas Galbreath 'will be conducted by Mrs. presiding. The charter was Doris Hough. Those mem draped in loving memory of bers belonging to Grange for Charles Long. Charles 25 and 50 years will be McSparren reported that honored that evening. A there is room for one more covered dish supper will on the weekend bus tour to start at 7:00. The public is New York in October. invited to attend. Pomona Master Jesse Wood reminded everyone of the Pomona picnic on , Saturday, August 21, at Huffnalge Park at 7:00 p.m. Pomona Lecturer Dorothy Stauffer announced there would be a contest at the picnic in which the winner will be the person wearing the most red, white, and blue. The next meeting, August 23, will be the Gray Team’s (southern region of mem bership) turn to present the program. Suggestions for officers will also be requested at the next meeting. Lecturer Mrs. Laura McSparren announced that September 27 will be Community Night. Entries in \- s ., 97 e^ i? 7 / Royste^ '(VoW- WIDELY ADAPTABLE SEED WHEAT! Hs r yeomemi CALL YOUR ORDER NOW ... LIMITED SUPPLY ROYSTER CO. COKER S PEDIGREED SEED COMPANY accurate today than it was just 10 years ago. But they make mistakes, and a remark by a York County dairy far mer comes to mind: “The weatherman had announced ‘no rain for three days’ and it rained that very night and again the next night! I cut my hay and it got wet! Another time rain was expected ... I had hay down ... so I baled it in a hurry a little earlier than I would normally. That time it didn’t rain.” Weathermen have an explanation for those occurrences which goes something like this: If a 10 per cent chance of rain is predicted for 10 days straight, then the laws of probability would suggest rain on one of those days. Also, forecasts are not pinpointed to small areas such as one or two farms so while it may be raining in one small portion of the forecast area, it may well be dry over the majority of the region. To be continued next week. NEITHER A LENDER NOR A BORROWER BE! RENT THE TOOLS YOU NEED FROM US. KEEP YOUR FRIENDS. TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS ACE RENTS RENTALS UNLIMITED 720 N. Prince St. 940 Cornwall Rd. 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