Odds on the Weather

Some time within the next hundred years, the hottest spot in North America (California's Death Valley) will swelter at a temperature of 130DEG F. In northern Montana, at least once during the next century, thermometers will register a numbing 64DEG below zero.

These are the predictions of Arnold Court, onetime chief climatologist for the quartermaster general of the U.S. Army. All Court had to work with were 30 years of records made by other weathermen and the weatherproof equations of the statistical theory of extreme values. But the chances that he is correct, says Court in the latest issue of Geographical Review, are 99 out of 100.

According to Court's calculations, residents of Portland, Me. will shudder in -- 28DEG cold and swelter in 107DEG heat before another hundred years have passed. New York City's climate will swing between 107DEG and --16DEG, while the great plains of the Midwest will reach 115DEG or higher. Los Angeles, says Court, will have to face an embarrassing 23DEG chill, but Angelenos can take consolation in the fact that the Florida coast will feel an even colder 9DEG. Despite the high odds that he is correct, Court, like any experienced weatherman, hedges his prophecies. All predictions, says he, assume that the climate in general, which has been changing slowly since the last ice age, will not change much more for at least another century.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.