Territory. Mean Annual Annual Average Temper- Rainfall ature. Inches. In Southwestern Assam. It is the wettest place in the world. In 1861 the rainfall there reached 905 inches. † Name changed to Petrograd. NOTE The mean annual temperature of the globe is about 590 Fahr. The average rainfall is 36 inches. 90d7da GREATEST ALTITUDE IN EACH STATE AND TERRITORY. FROM THE RECORDS OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. STATE OR TERRITORY. Alabama Heig' t STATE OR Name of Place. Heig't 2,407 Montana.......... Granite Peak (Carbon Co.). 12,850 Name of Place. Hawail. Idaho Illinois............ Charles Mound (J. Daviess Carlos City (Randolph Co.) Katahdin Mt. (Piscataquis Backbone Mt. (Garret tCo.) Co.)... Minnesota .......Mesabi Range(St. Louis Co.) Co.)... Co.)....... 1,550 West end of Cimarron Co.. 4,750 12,078 Pennsylvania... 1,241 Porto Rico... Luquillo Mts.... Blue Knob (Bedford Co.).. 3.136 11,225 9,610 3,532 805 3.548 Co.). 7.242 Missouri ...........Taum Sauk Mt. (Iron Co.). 1,750 WEATHER FLAGS OF THE WEATHER BUREAU, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE THE Weather Bureau furnishes, when practicable, for the benefit of all interests dependent upon weather conditions, the "Forecasts' which are prepared daily at the Central Office in Washington, D. C., and certain designated stations. These forecasts are telegraphed to stations of the Weather Bureau, railway officials, postmasters, and many others, to be communicated to the public by telegraph, telephone and mail or by means of flags or steam whistles. The flags adopted for this purpose are Ave in number, and of the forms and colors indicated below: When number 4 is placed above number 1, 2 or 3, it indicates warmer; when below, colder; when not displayed, the temperature is expected to remain about stationary. During the late Spring and early Fall the cold-wave flag is also used to indicate anticipated frosts. WHISTLE SIGNALS. A warning blast of from fifteen to twenty seconds' duration is sounded to attract attention. After this warning the longer blasts (of from four to six seconds' duration) refer to weather, and shorter blasts (of from one to three seconds' duration) refer to temperature; those for weather are sounded first. By repeating each combination a few times, with intervals of ten seconds, liability to error in reading the siguals may be avoided. As far as practicable, the forecast messages are telegraphed at the expense of the Weather Bureau; but if this is impracticable, they are furnished at the regular commercial rates and sent collect. '' In no case are the forecasts sent to a second address in any place, except at the expense of the applicant. Persons desiring to display the flags or sound the whistle signals for the benefit of the public should communicate with the Weather Bureau officials in charge of the central stations of their respective States, which are as follows: THE Athenians began the year in June, the Macedonians in September, the Romans first in March and afterward in January, the Persians on August 11, the ancient Mexicans on February 23, the Mohammedans in July. The Chinese year, which begins early in February, is similar to the Mohammedan in having 12 months of 29 and 30 days alternately; but in every nineteen years there are seven years which have 13 months. This is not quite correct, and the Chinese have therefore formed a cycle of 60 years, in which period 22 intercalary months occur. SMALL CRAFT, STORM AND HURRICANE WARNINGS Hurricane. RED NW. winds. SW. winds. NE. winds. SE. winds. Small Craft Warning-A red pennant indicates that moderately strong winds are expected. Storin Warning-A red flag with a black centre indicates that a storm of marked violence is expected. The pennants displayed with the flags indicate the direction of the wind; white, westerly; red, easterly. The pennant above the flag indicates that the wind is expected to blow from the northerly quadrants; below, from the southerly quadrants. By night a red light indicates easterly winds, and a white light below a red light westerly winds. Hurricane Warning-Two red flags with black centres, displayed one above the other, indicate the expected approach of a tropical hurricane, and also one of those extremely severe and dangerous storms which occasionally move across the Lakes and Northern Atlantic coast. Neither small craft nor hurricane warnings are displayed at night. VELOCITY OF WINDS IN THE UNITED STATES, AVERAGE hourly velocity of the wind at selected stations of the United States Weather Bureau, also the highest velocity ever reported for a period of five minutes. (Prepared by Chief of the U, S. Weather Bureau, and revised to January 1, 1914, for THE WORLD ALMANAC.) *Anemometer blew away, at a velocity of 84 miles per hour, September, 1900. †Stations discontinued. STANDARD TABLE SHOWING VELOCITY AND FORCE OF WINDS 86 8 60 LOSS BY LIGHTNING IN THE UNITED STATES. THE Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture in October, 1900, issued a bulletin giving these facts: In 1899 the total number of strokes of lightning which caused damage was 5.527; number of buildings injured, 6,256; value of property lost, $3,016.520: number of deaths by lightning during the year. 563; number of persons injured, 820; number of live stock killed in the fields, 4,251; value, $129,855. These are the latest available statistics. The Chronicle Fire Tables record 3,012 fires caused by lightning in the United States in 1902, the property loss occasioned thereby being $3,396,810. These are the latest reported statistics on the subject. FOR GOVERNOR'S ISLAND (NEW YORK HARBOR). (Specially prepared from the Tide Tables of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for THE WORLD ALMANAC.), HIGH-TIDE TABLES-Continued. TIME OF HIGH WATER AT POINTS ON THE ATLANTIC COAST. The local time of high water at the following places may be found approximately for each day by adding to or subtracting from the time of high water at Governor's Island, N. Y., the hours and minutes annexed. EXAMPLE-To find the approximate time of high tide at Atlantic City, N. J., on any day, find first the time of high water at New York under the desired date, and then subtract 20 minutes, as in the above table; the result is the time of high water required. Highest tide at Eastport, Me., 218 inches. Lowest tide at Galveston. Tex., 13 inches. LIFEBOAT REQUIREMENTS. Feet. Inches. 6 12 As announced by the United States Steamboat Inspection Service in Bureau Circular of June 29, 1912, and as amended in circular letter of September 13, 1912: AH pleasure steamers, and all other steamers over 150 tons, but not exceeding 750 tons, limited by their certificates of inspection to routes not more than 15 miles from any harbor, shall not be required to have more than one of the lifeboats to be of 180 cubic feet capacity. Nothing, however, in this proviso shall exempt any such steamer from carrying the aggregate cubic feet of lifeboat capacity required by the rules. All steamers other than steamers carrying passengers, except as otherwise provided for in the rules, must be equipped with lifeboats of sumclent capacity to accommodate at one time all persons on board. One-half of such equipment may be in approved liferafts or approved collapsible lifeboats. Ocean steamers carrying passengers must be equipped with lifeboats of sufficient capacity to accommodate at one time all persons on board, including passengers and crew. One-half of such lifeboat equipment may be in approved Hferafts or approved collapsible lifeboats. Coastwise steamers carrying passengers must be equipped with lifeboats of sumclent capacity to accommodate at one time all persons on board, including passengers and crew: Provided, however, that such steamers navigating during the interval from the fifteenth day of May to the fifteenth day of September in any one year, both dates inclusive, will be required to be equipped with lifeboats of only such capacity as will be sumclent to accommodate at one time at least 60 per cent. of all persons on board, Including passengers and crew; two-thirds of such required lifeboat equipment throughout the year may be in approved liferafts or approved collapsible lifeboats. Lake, bay and sound steamers carrying passengers and navigating the waters of the lakes, bays and sounds tributary to the Pacific coast, the Atlantic coast south of the 33d parallel of north latitude and the Gulf of Mexico, must be equipped with lifeboats of sumclent capacity to accommodate at one time at least 30 per cent. of all persons on board, including passengers and crew: Provided, however, that such steamers navigating routes lying at all points within a distance of five miles from land, or over waters whose depth is not sumcient to entirely submerge the vessel in case of disaster, will be required to be equipped with lifeboats of only such capacity as will be sufficient to accommodate at one time at least 10 per cent. of all persons on board, including passengers and crew. Three-fourths of the lifeboat capacity required on lake, bay and sound steamers may be in approved liferafts or approved collapsible lifeboats. River steamers carrying passengers must be equipped with lifeboats of sumclent capacity to accommodate at one time at least 10 per cent. of all persons on board, including passengers and crew. Three-fourths of such lifeboat equipment may be in approved liferafts or approved collapsible lifeboats. The navigation of ferry boats must be confined to the ferry routes specified in the certificate of inspection, but such vessels may be permitted, under excursion permits, to go beyond their authorized routes with passengers only, or without such permit, to Hghten or relleve vessels in distress. When any ferry boat leaves her ferry route and carries passengers she shall be required to carry the same omcers, crew, and equipment, as required of other steamers carrying passengers. |