Science: Hurricane's Way

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Policy Problem. Far from being grateful, the delivered victims felt let down, and Eastern editorial writers turned in fury on the unhappy weathermen. A Princeton professor, Astronomer-Hurricane Fancier John Q. Stewart. 61. who predicted that lone would "not be bad at all," denounced the U.S. Weather Bureau for its hysterical warnings. He advised it to play down its radars and rely on old-fashioned barometers. About the only people who were happy about Tone's behavior were the promoters of the Marciano-Moore fight.

They postponed it because of Ione—and sold more than $150,000 worth of extra tickets.

The Weather Bureau had no defense except to explain plaintively that the behavior of a hurricane is extremely hard to predict. When a hurricane crosses the shore line, as lone did, it generally loses its vigor. But sometimes it does not. Hurricane Hazel, in 1954, roared all the way to Canada, doing serious damage north of Toronto. A hurricane's path is capricious, too. It generally curves toward the east, pushed by the westerly winds of north temperate latitudes. But some hurricanes, for no apparent reason, move northwest.

Ione's sudden flight across the Atlantic was caused by a southerly veering of the "jet stream," the great, high altitude wind that blows around the earth. The Weather Bureau says it came unexpectedly down to Virginia, arriving just in time to stop lone's northward progress and push her toward Newfoundland.

Next time a hurricane threatens the U.S.

coast, the Weather Bureau will have a serious policy problem. Should it predict the worst—and be denounced if the worst does not happen? Or should it be soothing —and be denounced even more furiously if the hurricane hits? Even if the weathermen predict just right, radio, TV and press hysterics can be counted on to feed the public's apprehension.