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FIELD SERVICE TOPICS
HURRICANE EDITORIALS
I
Editorial comment concerning the Weather Bureau’R hurricane wading
Hervice during the Atlantic hurricane of September 8 to 10 has bcen
v~luniinous and uniformly coinnicndatory . Qaotcd below, ns an ex!
amplo for information of Woatlicr Bureau personnel, is an editorial froth
tho Philadelphia Record :
THE IlEAL lIElt0 OF A 13UHItlCANE TY THE WICATIIlCHMAN
’
Entirely bo long the Weatherman, like the uinpire in baseball, has been the
object of bum joken and recriminations, with seldom n kind word.
When his forecneta am rig1it-1~ they are nearly 86 pement of tho time-nobody
even notices.
Let him call a few wrong ~tnd whnt does he got?
The meteorological cquivulent of pop bdtlw from the bluachem. \
we hops Thursday’s destructivo hurricane whippod up a little more rcRpect and
aPpreciation for the Weatliur Bureau.
The Nation’e weather forucn&.ors performed a highly important service for thb
PWc. Draniatized thin time. But it’H tilo stmo ~ervice given dag in and day out.
Tho warnings of the buruuu, as early RH five daye in advnnco, that a hurricane
*&a on tho wny North, wore tho differenw between boirig caught flntfootad nnd
vultiorablo wid being prepared.
While some live# worn lost dong t8hn IOOO-n~ilo conwtal lmlt plowed up hy Uie ptorm,
many liven were saved. lcorewarned, they wen? not expoaed.
While property darnago, particularly ho~ivy in thc Jersey mort area, roached
the millions, it wiw held down becauw thoro WBH time to take promutione. .
Of course them WON intiny who pooh-paoliud tlie storill wnrninga. They are the
kind who profor tlioir own opinions to the pronouiiceiriantR nf experts, rely inore
On 811 aching corn thiin on scieiitiflc lD&hfJdH. Among thein are perhaps the
@VDrost critim of the Wrulther Bureau.
Thin startling thought occum: Buppoae thuro hac1 bean no Weather Bureau, no
“Qmings I
Oheckod and double checked thng ita coafltnl route, watched like tl pet laboratory
experhnont by Army and Nuvy personnel, this was probnbly the h~ost-plottnd, tnwt
thoroughly announood hnrricano in hilltory .
It iH to be hopeci that this valuiible job 80 pruRcieiitly porforind will encoaragp
a Public rogard for tho Weuthor Uuroun thut ie-fair and yarnier.
GLOWBAL
(A digest of Cpl, Ala11 I-Iarrington’s nrticlc which appcmred in tlw
*)ha 1944, ism0 of tlio Army Air l%rccH’ \I‘entlier Service hlletin.)
AR Pfc. George Smit,h wm holding the pilot balloon in the raw northwest
wind which dominated Newfoundland on that day, ho glanccd toward
Set. Stanley Mingowelti who was glaring ut the sky with niorp than
ri trace of chagrin, for on tho northwoat liorizon 11 solid shoat8 of atrntus hud
aPPcared. Smith saw it too arid said, “That stuff is going to be on top
‘8 US pretty soon; maybe wo ouglit to infinto a rix~ balloon-just in cnse!’
“Not if wp hurry;’ his pm.tncr roplied, eomowhnt lwttlcd at hnving
hie choice of a whito balloon questioned. €30 orimtod the theodolite
and said, “O.K., leth go!’ Smith relensad the balloon and watched it
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