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The weatherman's job has long been associated with avia- tion. but Jim can see where that's all changing now. Fly- ing conditions depend directly on the weather but what happens at the airport isn't entirely relevant to the person who lives in the city. Jim admits that predicting the weather is no piece of cake, because there are so many variables involved. For instance. here's how the weather is predicted. There are invisible patterns that storms follow around the world. These are based on years of study of what kind of weather affected a certain part of the world seasonally. These storm tracks are known as Rosspy waves, after the scientist who discovered them. For this time of year. the storm patterns have traditional- ly been found south of the Great Lakes and westwards. That's why you so often hear of the hard times they have on the prairies and in the American mid-west during the. winter. However. Mother Nature pays little attention to tradi- tion. Sure, there's going to be a winter, spring. summer and fall. But that‘s the only thing we can be sure oChe- cause Mother Nature has decided to pull the rug out from under this year and centre a lot of winter storms north of the Great Lakes. As a result, the weather out west is better this year than usual. The patterns still exist. but there are no pre-planned cycles that can be used to determine what‘s going to hap- pen next. . "This is what makes it so hard . . . there's nothing laid down like that you can forecast, pr Jim explained. Winds. temperatures and pressures can vary within the few miles between the weather station and the urban core. Jim figures eventually weather offices will be centrally lo. cated in cities to provide information the majority of peo- ple can benefit from TheBreslau office gets dozens of calls daily from business people whose daily activities are de- pendent on the weather. Construction people call and want to know if it will be safe to work on the lee side of a build- ing if winds are going to be high. Those involved in the home fuel business want to check temperatures so they know what demand they will be faced with. “They have to anticipate when to fill a guy's tank.” Basically the weather is measured in four areas: temper- ature, barometric pressure. humidity, and the direction and speed of the wind. There are weather maps on the wall giving prognostications for 12. 36, and 72 hour periods. The farmer's almanac is another novel weather myth. Two years ago. Jim compared weather records with what the almanac predicted. The almanac proved to be correct only 25 per cent of the time. "ICs a coarse yardstick." Jim Well. if you bet your money on any of the above, rm sorry. because you‘ve lost the met. Theoetir-atytofimto-tre'veaiibeendig- gins ourselves outcltoweringmonmuinsofsnow. was!» aaktitemagtwttoknttwa. Sothat’spreciselywhatldidin setting oul fttrBmsltttttotalhtogim Millar. weatherman at WaterimMretiirttitmt Airport. . Jim has been a weatherman, or more properly anenviron- mental technician for an years,10 at them in the Canadian Air Force. - A The weatherman’s dream, according to Jim is a forecast accuracy of 100 per cent. Jim is modestly proud, and rightly so of his ability to accurately predict the weather " per centofthetime. ltwouldseemthatsuchatrackrecordis better than the Maple Leafs can ever hope to achieve. When it comes to a weatherman's job “it's either feast or famine," Jim says. The reason for this being when the weather gets bad, it keeps the weatherman busy, trying to log the changes and what's going to happen next. "My workload increases 10 times, keeping track of all the changes. and the phone calls increase 100 times." There is all sorts of equipment used to measure the weather, and the office in Brislau is no exception. The place is by no means lined from wall to wall with instruments, but what is there is enough to raise curiosity over its func- Jim and fellow weatherman Dave MacDénald can Just about guarantee an advance forecast of 24 hours, and can reasonably predict up to five days for the long-range fore- cast. There has been such a marked change this winter that seven weather records have been broken and one equalled in the month of January alone. Two days last month the temperature dropped to -29 (that‘s -24 F for you fahrenheit fans). The previous cold record was set in 1943, with a low Don't let that frost you too badly. The temperature dip- ped below freezing 26 times last month in Jacksonville Fla.. so we're not the only ones having it unseasonably cold. That dispels another old myth. if you have favorable weather in one season. it means disaster the next. "You can have a good summer. but that doesn't mean youve going to be punished with a bad winter." It just doesn't work like that. Those involved in the home fuel business call so they can anticipate when to go around and fill your oil tank. If teveee-ttterthiayear.'uittt-eaomoAemim dersteattedsreatttermartiagettirt-tatie-rtttoie erueueie-rnakeat-tttimwtteetttsatttigfamitnimie ttetsrainedmtt? “MM ' ti?reepttttArb-it'st-t.6-rintersertAr, "dstrit.titrttttateirdesatamiirfrsoort'ttiear at but one petun- will. all“! h weather my oerday,ttte-ttterttoemtttiimmg. _ Bestdgttetrastyttrtttrknmrsttrie'veheerthavirt-tt Or is it because old Uncle Fred's rheumatism hashes Eek is w -. . _ ”I ‘7’”; "eirr- "t ',r.,,p'tetea.tirii,,tttrre1,.' ‘ l tt um i , "N ho) e winter (ll 1tii'iiii sucbaiammg" (i _' "'.' "-5irirlrj,l'9ll!rs'f.ilt5i, J92“. a" as: -TN iiieth.f Which is all good and fine, but if the weatherman makes a single mistake in calculating any of his variables - the whole forecast could change, and guess who catches hell? Keeping the forecasts tipdatesf- and they are checked hourly - has been made easier in the last decade with the use of computers. The biggest barrier that people generally have to over- come today regarding the weather is the change to the met- ric tysterp. - Weatherman Jim Miller gets phone questions from all sorts of people for weather information. This piece of equipment monitors wind speed and direction. . the weather is going to dip below freezing, they‘ll have to the atmosphere Fould have drastic effects on what the have their trucks on the road longer and earlier than in weather will beyears from now. "- mild weather. The pollution can have varvinz effects on the same citv, Math and physics are the tools a weatherman has to work with. and everything had to be calculated manually be- fore. "So many math formulas are used, and we couldn‘t figure them out in time to be of any use. The computer has been a real boon for us." "When you have a reference to the old system, you‘ll always be using that. It may be hard on the new system, but if it's done all at once, then you've got it and that's it." No matter how you measure the temperature though, you're right if you think it's been getting colder in recent years. Since I949 the earth has been cooling down slightly. but only by a few degrees. However. climatologists disagree over what that is going to mean in the future. One group just writes it off, but an- other school of thought sees it as creating conditions for another ice-age. Some predict that ice-age conditions could exist as early as five years from now. Britain went over to the metric system a little bit at a time. like Canada. Confusion prevailed, unlike Australia that did the whole thing at once. Cold turkey for the whole system would have been the best way, Jim is convinced. Jim Millar admits such a prediction is " bit scary." but has some basis in fact. Pollutants in the upper layers of “There's not any confusion to Its, we're using metrics ev- ery day. But theres no doubt in my mind that it's confus- ing to the public." Jim noted. He's not opposed to the gov- ernment's decision to metricize. but he's not satisfied with the way it's been done - a little at a time. It” i W aiugt ., IA :3'9L.» . is/cj/ri.'..,',?';'.?]. JY?"'? ' Q 'd'. T 'jj2ip," 'l..'. .,.',2i.ti','i,'a',?tltli8le,iAy?ji7l. "All I know is that the sun's getting stronger and the days are getting longer so we're heading towards spring. and that's the main thing," Jim said. As I left the weather office and the cold biting wind sent a chill up my back, I had my fingers crossed. I guess I must be a bit of an optimist - I still don't have any snow tires. Why? One of those imaginary storm tracks running from the Baden area._through Maryhill and on to Guelph. The resulting snow sdualls are much more severe. But whether or not the remainder of the winter will be as severe as the first part is something even the weather- man doesn't know for sure. The weather in Elmira though. is notably different from the rest of the K-W area. Most of the city receives an an- nual snowfall of about 57 inches. That has been surpassed this year already, but it's far from an average winter. In an average winter, Jim estimates that Elmira gets 80 inch- es of snow. In this area. we are relatively lucky. The land is flat, and urban areas are spread out. There is little chance for pollution to build up in the air, unlike Los Angeles in its valley location coupled with heavy industry. Jim said this was well demonstrated when he worked in the Sudbury weather-office, before coming to Breslau. Sul- phuric acid particles from the nickel refining produced a corroding type of rain. Outdoor equipment rusted faster. and there is a minor health hazard for people with respira- tory problems. The pollution can have varying effects on the same city. For instance, the lee side of a city can have precipita- tion than the other side. (The lee side is far side from which opposing winds blow. If winds blow from the west, the lee side is on the east. , ' Raindrops and snow. flakes form around small pieces of matter in the air like dust. Winds carry pollutant particles to the far side of the city, with the result of more rain or 'i'r89"F.W,rAFjf.