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4 - 1515 THE WORKS PROGRAM ~: - *** " --Works Progress Administration-- ------= Unive .1 ~\11.ern \ 23 For Release to Morning Newspapers Monday, April 26, 1937. WPA Workers Aid .Weather Bureau Facilities. Furthering disaster control in -the United States by supplementing existing services, WP.A workers are now operating under supervision of the United. States Weather Bureau experts in approximately 5,000 stations throughout the country, Aubrey Williams, Deput:r Administrator of the Works Progress Administration, announced today. The program includes building portable experiment stations for use in locating hurricanes and. other tropical disturbances; repairing or restoring river gages used in det ermining stages of the principal rivers and which provide information for warnings of impending floods; tabulating upper air data for the benefit of aviation, and constructing weather instrument shelters, chiefly in drought areas. In cooperation with the U. s. Forest Service, a large ~rolume of meteor- ological dE,ta was c01npiled for the purpose of dcterm:i:ning the feasibility and value of interpo·sing a natural ·barrier . to the· move ment -of air-masses across the wide stretches · of the -Great Pla,ins. · ·Other work · included repair\3 to Weather Bureau buildings in the Stat~s and the District of Columbia. Most of the work is sponsored. by the Weather Bureau. Apr>roximately $500,000 was allocated by Works Progress Administration for projects -sponsored by the Bureau over a twelve-month period ending September, 1936. An additional $39,873 was allocated for building portabl e! experiment stations, aiproject sponsored by tho University of Florida. The stations are used by the University f or research in hurricanes and other tropical disturbances. On a project in New Orleans, WPA workers are making a compilation and summarization of maring weather obser_v ations involving a study of some 5,000,000 observations taken by mariners in all the oceans during the past fifty years. When the work is completed, a sequential history of weather conditions by ocean areas and a compilation and recomputation of all ava ilable climatological records will be available. The findings will serve as a basis of a study of a number of meteorological problems which concern the national welfare. From the millions of ships' observations, WPA workers have prepared. charts which show a monthly average picture of wind velocities, direction and types of weather Digitized by on all oceans~ORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4 - 1 ;==;15 - 2 Study ing vi sib ili ty -or-fog -f--o recasts-i n t he pO".rt· of- ·l7ew- York, WPA worke rs ha.VG complet e d tabu la~ion s of h ourly values -of r ol at iv8 humi dity cove ring a. period of sixt een yer:u-r,. on '.'.'hi ch hourly norma.~s may "b e e st8.blishod. As pa rt of this proj~ct, a n tndex of domes tio and foreign meteo r ol ogi ca l lit t,r a t u re is be ing pI'oparo d. Wh.en co::i})l c t e d , i t will c ont a in 3,000 ,000 car d s. A su.1J1:11a.r y of work that is be i ng done servic e of the u. s. by 'IT.2A wor ke rs aue;r.ie nti ng the We <1,the r Bur e au a nd r elat 9d i n s tituti on s -c over s numerou s , a nd varie-d activiti es . Man;i1 of t he \,Orke1· s 2.r e s tun.ents who rece ive c ompon s c::.ti on fro :n the Nati onal You th Ad..7i ni stra.ti on . acti vi ti e s include s: A pnrtial list of a ssi s ti r..g i n :naki ng a va i ] a bl e data cove ri nf monthly and s ea s onal r a i nf a ll n or mal s; t abu J. a. ti ng dat a showi!:g c o:npar i s o,1 s b e t·.we n , we t a !1d dry p eriods in diff e r e n t Stat es a nd seasona l pe c11lia ri t ies of r a i n I and sr,ow; a s sonbl ing a n cl c ompili ng dat.9. f or t h e purpo s e of i mpr ov i ng the . accura c y 9f short-r ange f oreca sts a nd the r, t u.rly of ·l ~ng-range fo r e ca sts; , reor ganizing a n d com·9ili r:g oceD,n !:let c orol oi:::i ca l dat a ; the pr epo.r a ti oP of map s of t he ri ver dr .: l.i nflf.0 s yst e n of the TJni t e d Sta t e s; t h e c ompila ti on of data neede d f or fir e ..v.,ea t he r wa rning work ; t he c or:ipili ng a nd ch a rti ng of upr er air a.~ta for the be nef it of a v i a ti on , and graphica ll y r e prc $ent i ng and t a bula ti ng dato. for use in a ir-~as s a nal :,1 si s . 0000 Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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