Climatological
Statistics, Preparation and Use.-The
Weather Bureau had very little statistical data on foreign climates
which were in usable form for the various operations of our military
services at the outbreak of war. Consequently, action was taken at
the request of the War and Navy Departments, early in 1941, to organize
a statistical unit to obtain and process the necessary records. Assistance
was given by the Work Project Administration during the years 1941
and 1942, their total contributions amounting to $600,000. Army and
Navy contributions, during the period 1941-1945, have amounted to
approximately $3,730.000. The function of the statistical unit was
to tabulate, summarize and analyze weather records for all strategic
areas. This involved the utilization of all available or obtainable
weather records for the regions concerned. Fortunately, the Weather
Bureau Library had on file a large amount of such material in published
form. For more recent unpublished records, however, it was necessary
to obtain copies from a variety of sources, such as the meteorological
services of our Allies and United States and foreign air lines.
The central
unit of 120 people in Washington, D. C., was supported largely by
Army Air Forces funds, and with auxiliary units, maintained by WPA
allotments, located in New York City, Pittsburgh, PA., New Orleans,
La., and Birmingham, Ala. The total personnel in the auxiliary units
averaged approximately 300 during 1942. When the Work Projects Administration
was abolished early in 1943, the unit at Birmingham was discontinued
and additional Army Air Forces funds provided to support those at
New Orleans, Pittsburgh and New York. The New York unit was continued
until December 1943 and the Pittsburgh unit until April 1945. The
Washington and New Orleans units have been continued into the post-war
period.
During
the early months of the war a number of special climatic reports were
prepared by the Statistics Division to meet the various demands of
the military services. By July 1, 1943, a total of 417 special reports
had been furnished. After that data the actual preparation of the
special climatic reports was handled primarily by military personnel;
using the data tabulated and summarized by the Statistics Division.
As before
stated it was decided that the basic material for the preparation
of the Northern Hemisphere maps should be placed on punched cards
and listings made for each day's map by I.B.M. machines. The job was
finished on a drastic schedule of six months and the maps printed
and made available to the allied military meteorologists early in
1944. This particular project demonstrated conclusively the advantages
of using punched card methods in the processing of large volumes of
meteorological data. Consequently, it was decided that as much as
possible of the available records for the strategic war operational
areas (including the records accumulated by the Army and Navy weather
services during the war) should be placed on cards. To accomplish
this, the machine unit set up at New Orleans was expanded and an additional
machine unit was set up in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1944. By April
1945 when the Pittsburgh unit was terminated the greater portion of
the backlog of Army hourly weather records (approximately 11,000,000
observations), together with approximately 5,000,000 foreign weather
observations, particularly in the Pacific war area, had been placed
on cards. Duplicate sets of these cards were made available to the
Army Weather Service for processing in their machine unit in the Pentagon
Building in Washington, D.C. From these cards numerous special reports
and studies were made for a variety of military operations.
Additional
special statistical compilations were prepared for war use, as follows:
Upon
the formation of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration,
the Weather Bureau was called upon to furnish climatic data for a
number of foreign countries for the use of this organization is selecting
suitable clothing, seed grains, etc., for the various regions.
For several
years prior to the war the Weather Bureau had been engaged in preparing
the climatic data, including flying weather and upper air winds, for
the Naval Air Pilots, which were published at the rate of about two
per year by the Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department. At the
outbreak of the war the production schedule was greatly accelerated
with data being furnished for a total of 24 additional areas during
the national emergency. Upper air wind summaries were of necessity
prepared by punched card methods in order to meet the accelerated
schedule.
Due to
the tremendous amount of flying, both combat and transport involved
in the war, demands for statistical summaries of upper air wind records
for foreign counties were extremely urgent. Relatively few such summaries
were available in published form but a great amount of original observational
data were on hand in the Weather Bureaus Library. These records were,
accordingly, processed by machine methods and made available as rapidly
as possible to the Allied Air Services. A total of approximately 200
foreign records were thus put into usable form for our military flying
activities.
Due to
the scarcity of summarized foreign weather data in conveniently usable
form, the need for a standard summary form became immediately evident
upon the outbreak of the war. A card form, approved by the military
authorities was, accordingly, designed for this purpose and the data
compiled and entered thereon for a total of more than 4000 foreign
locations. This file of cards has proved to be invaluable for both
wartime and peacetime activities.
Approximately
two years before the beginning of the war, the Weather Bureau received
assistance from the Work Projects Administration for the operation
of several annual degree-day and air-conditioning data for all first-order
Weather Bureau stations in the United States and Alaska. The work
was nearing completion when, with the opening of the war, specific
information for selected locations was requested by the Army Engineers.
The work
was continued as a W.P.A. project and certain supplementary funds
were transferred from the Army to the Weather Bureau. As a result
of this arrangement, monthly, seasonal and annual maps for the United
States and Alaska, based on data for first-order Weather Bureau stations,
were prepared for the Army Engineers. A report was also submitted
giving these data in detailed tabular form. Subsequent to this transmittal
of maps and supporting data, the Engineers determined that their requirements
were such that data were needed for many Army Posts and prospective
posts, not located close to first-order Weather Bureau stations, and,
therefore, that similar data must be compiled for a much closer net-work
of stations. The Weather Bureau was requested to prepare this material
using data from a large number of cooperative stations. A special
project, supported by funds transferred from the War Department, was
set up for this purpose.
This
work was completed covering all available data from 1898 to 1941,
inclusive. As in previous projects the daily mean temperature value
was used and 65 was taken as the base from which the degree days were
computed. The process of using marked sensed punched cards was utilized
in order to expedite the program. Four extensive reports were furnished
the Army Engineers. The title of one report, "Average Seasonal Degree
Days for Military Points of Operation in the United States," indicates
the nature of the material furnished. During the war these data were
classified and therefore not available to the public. Numerous smaller
services were also rendered such as the publication of Army Station
location maps, graphical presentations of data, and special studies
of reports from representative Army stations giving the effect of
different wind velocities and sky covers as associated with the various
temperatures as reflected in the record of fuel consumption at those
stations.
An interesting
by-product of this project was the preparation of a large map of the
United States on which the normal annual number of degree days were
entered and approximate isolines of equal annual values were drawn.
This map was furnished to the O.P.A., for use during the formation
of the fuel rationing program in the National emergency.
The Bureau
furnished the O.P.A. currently, each day, the degree-day values for
a considerable number of stations over the United States. Data in
the same form or modified as necessary, were also furnished the Solid
Fuels Administration for War and the Special Service Forces of the
Army. The U.S. Government was thus enabled to adjust the fuel allotments
as the season progressed in each of the different parts of the country.
In one part of the country, for example, the accumulated number of
degree days on a particular January 1st might be well above
normal (below normal) while on the same date some other section might
have experienced abnormally high temperatures with below normal degree
days.
The data
compiled in these various projects are retained by the Weather Bureau
in manuscript, tabular and punched card form. Publication of these
data has not been undertaken as yet, due in part at least, to the
present lack of complete agreement as to the basic methods best suited
to the program of estimating fuel needs and air-conditioning requirements.
- COORDINATION
OF STATISTICAL MATERIAL
The recent
wartime experience has demonstrated the need for close coordination
of the meteorological activities of different Government agencies.
Realizing this need, certain definite steps have been taken by the
Joint Meteorological Committee to remedy the situation. First, agreement
has been reached and action taken to standardize the various types
of meteorological record forms used by the three services. Second,
the Army and Navy weather services have agreed to deposit all of their
records of the three services to be made available through the Weather
Bureau. Third, the establishment of a joint punched card library and
machine unit will make all such data readily available to each of
the three services and eliminate the duplication of effort and expense
which would result if separate units were maintained. There is still
need, however, for further coordination and centralized control of
climatic activities of other Government agencies.
The use
of punched cards and machine methods of processing weather data during
the war has demonstrated that this method has decided advantages over
manual methods. The continuation and expansion of machine methods,
appear, therefore, to be a necessity if we are to keep adequately
prepared for national defense and to meet our new and varied peacetime
demands. We cannot supply the climatic statistics needed for the forthcoming
home-building and airport construction programs unless machine methods
are used.
In order
to properly serve both our military and civilian interests, a plan
should be worked out whereby we can currently accumulate in our files
pertinent foreign weather data. This should be done by arrangement
with foreign weather services, probably through the International
Meteorological Organization to obtain (1) copies of original records,
(2) summarized data in a form internationally agreed upon or (3) punched
cards of the original data.
Service
to Civilians.-Restrictions on the release of weather information
after pearl harbor presented numerous problems in maintaining wether
service to the public including agricultural and industrial concerns,
transportation, shipping on the Great Lakes, inland waterways, and
other interests.
As a
result of security plans formulated previously by the Defense Meteorological
Committee, the Weather Bureau, in December 1941, was enabled to continue
forecast and warning service to the public and comply with security
requirements. Most of the weather service provided to public individuals
was in the form of operational advices. For example, orchardists desiring
to spray fruit trees were informed as follows: "Spraying conditions
satisfactory next three days." In cases when highways would become
dangerous because of heavy snow, sleet, etc., individuals requesting
weather information relating thereto, were informed that dangerous
highway conditions would continue to develop during the next 24 to
48 hours, as the case may be. By this plan, direct references to weather
conditions expected beyond a 26-hour period, were avoided.
A number
of other examples of service rendered to public interests during the
war were provided by the Weather Bureau as follows:
The need
for moving a quantity of strategic war materials on the Great Lakes
beginning early in 1942, which would exceed 2 ½ times the normal peacetime
tonnage, was essential to the successful outcome of the war effort.
To do this task, it was apparent that the normal 8-months' season
of navigation had to be extended. As a result, it was highly important
for the Weather Bureau to expand its forecast and warning services
to shipping to include as much as possible of the months of March
and December during which frequent storms of considerable intensity
pass over the Lake Region and creates dangers to navigation.
To accomplish
this task, the Weather Bureau set up a meteorological cryptographic
radio communication system for direct ship to shore contacts with
ore-carrying vessels and issued forecasts directly to ships throughout
the 24 hours and also intensified the system of storm warnings. Weather
forecasts and storm-warning advisories were prepared and issued by
the Chicago Forecast Center while the Cleveland office made arrangements
for radio broadcast schedules and conducted liaison between the Lake
Carriers and Shipmasters Associations and the Weather Bureau.
Confidential
ciphers were prepared at frequent intervals and distributed to all
shipmasters for use in decoding the enciphered forecast messages.
So effective were the methods developed for the broadcast of forecast
to shipping on the Great lakes during this period that vessel masters
have unanimously requested that the numeral forecast code be continued
in peacetime. Enciphering of these messages were discontinued in 1943,
owing to the relaxation of security measures as the threat of invasion
became remote.
-
Top of Page -
