Hurricane Audrey strengthened rapidly just before landfall on the Gulf Coast near the remote fishing village of Cameron LA on the Texas/Louisiana border during the early morning hours of June 27, 1957.

Many residents went to bed the night before thinking that they had time to evacuate the next morning, but were caught by surprise by the faster moving and stronger than anticipated storm.

The storm’s central pressure dropped from 973 to 945 millibars (and perhaps even lower) in just five hours. Winds reached 150 mph. The rapid intensification generated a storm surge of at least 12 feet above normal which was not anticipated.

A total of 390 people died in Louisiana (127 of them unidentified) with another 192 were reported missing. The loss of life was the greatest in the United States since the 1938 Hurricane in New England.

Areas as far as 25 miles inland were inundated by the storm tides. As much as percent of the homes in the area from Cameron to Grand Cheniere, Louisiana were destroyed or floated off their foundations. A brick courthouse and cement block icehouse were the only structures standing in Cameron after the hurricane.

Just four buildings were left standing in Crede, Louisiana. A 78 ton fishing boat was tossed up and onto an offshore oil drilling platform. Fourteen people were injured in tornadoes in Alabama after landfall. $130 million in damage resulted from Hurricane Audrey.

Citizens brought several wrongful death lawsuits against the U.S. Weather Bureau for not warning them properly. But a jury found for the defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

About Bill

Bill Murray is a forecaster for AlabamaWX.com, the official weather blog at Alabama’s ABC33/40. Get a daily dose of his weather history at www.twitter.com/wxhistorian. He is also one of the hosts at WeatherBrains, the weekly netcast that’s all about weather. Listen at www.WeatherBrains.com or subscribe through the iTunes Music Store. It’s free!

Recent grads, how are you spending your “summer vacation”?  Are you starting a new job?  If so, congratulations!  Are you looking for a meteorology job?  Just taking it easy for the summer before going to grad school?  Still not sure?

Unless you answered “starting a new job,” I’d like to suggest getting in a little networking while you have some down time.  Networking isn’t just for facebook and twitter.  It’s been around longer than both popular sites.  The idea of networking in order to make professional connections goes back to the concept of “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”  I’ve stressed the importance of this before, and with summer upon us and many grads looking for jobs, I think it is a good time to bring it up again.

Here are a few ways to make some connections that could last a long time and prove mutually beneficial:

First, contact your friends who already have meteorology jobs and spend some time with them.  Find out how they feel about their careers, get advice on where to begin, and, as importantly, ask for networking leads.  If you feel comfortable doing so, ask them to put in a good word for you when someone mentions a job opening.

Next, call those networking leads or create your own.  Contact meteorologists who are well established in their fields and request some time to pick their brains about what they do.  You might even be able to shadow them for a morning or afternoon.  This way you can develop a new connection and learn more about a particular job or industry.

Find a relatively nearby meeting/workshop/conference and attend it.  Bring resumes with you just in case, dress nicely, and treat everyone that you meet as a potential future employer.  You never know whom you are sitting beside, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Also, don’t be pushy with the resumes.  Be inquisitive instead.  Introduce yourself, ask what they do, listen and learn.  If a resume is requested, then have it ready.

Another popular concept is to set up a blog and show your skills.  Put the blog address on your resume or include it on business cards.  Whether it be forecasting or discussing the latest updates to forecasting models, use the blog to highlight your strong points.  Blogging will also give you a chance to practice what you’ve learned and hone your skills.  In this day of search engines and social networking, you never know who might stumble upon your blog and take an interest in you because of it.

The goal is to be proactive while you have some free time.  Even if you are going to grad school in the fall, now is a good time to start making the connections that could lead to a first “real job” in your chosen field.  With hundreds of graduates receiving meteorology degrees each year and a tough job market, you really need to find a way to make yourself stand out from the rest.  Networking is always a good way to get your name out there and set yourself apart.

Also, remember to show gratitude to those who are willing to take time out of their busy schedules and meet with you.  Keep in mind that they are doing you a favor.  One last thing to keep in mind: once you’ve become an established professional, be open to meeting with a recent grad yourself.  In other words, pay it forward.

As German soldiers peered out from their bunkers along the French coast on the morning of June 5, 1944, they knew there was no way that the long awaited invasion by the Allies was coming that day.  High winds, heavy rains and huge waves were pounding the beaches all along the English Channel.   June 5th had been the day that the invasion was scheduled to launch, but Allied weather forecasters had accurately predicted the terrible weather that occurred.  If June 5th had been D-Day, the results would have been terrible.

So the forecast had been accurate, staving off a disaster, but Allied commanders were nervous.  The landings depended on a complex set of factors, including tides and moonlight and other things.  The early June window for invasion was about to close and would not reopen for two weeks.  The element of surprise was a huge factor, and waiting two additional weeks would reduce the Allies chance of success.  So as you can see, weather was critical in the decision making process.

In April 1944, a joint Allied team of British and American forecasters had been established to create five day forecasts for commanders.  A five day forecast was something that was unheard of at that time.  Their first job was to pick a time that climatologically would be favorable for the invasion.   They chose early June.  June 5th would be the day, but weather maps on June 3rd and 4th showed a depressing situation for forecasters and military leaders.  Several low pressure systems were poised to move across the invasion area over the next several days.

Allied forecasters had an advantage since their forces controlled most of the North Atlantic and weather data was more plentiful to them than to the Germans.  This data revealed a small window of better weather that would occur on Tuesday, June 6th as a small ridge moved over the area between two low pressure troughs.  The decision was made to go then.

Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy on the morning of June 6th, 1944, opening the long-awaited second front against the Germans and spelling the beginning of the end of World War II.  The Germans were completely caught by surprise.  Their military leaders believed that the Allies would wait until their six good days of weather before crossing the channel.  At the end of the first day, the Allies had suffered 12,000 casualties.   Commanders had expected as many as 75,000.  Weather forecasting had played an important role.

A final note: if the invasion had not occurred on the 6th, the next window of opportunity standpoint would have been the 17th through the 21st.  A storm of historic proportions during that time could have proven disastrous for the invading forces.

About Bill

Bill Murray is a forecaster for AlabamaWX.com, the official weather blog at Alabama’s ABC33/40. Get a daily dose of his weather history at www.twitter.com/wxhistorian. He is also one of the hosts at WeatherBrains, the weekly netcast that’s all about weather. Listen at www.WeatherBrains.com or subscribe through the iTunes Music Store. It’s free!

Everyone seems to know the joke that meteorologists are the only professionals who can be wrong most of the time and still get paid.  We aren’t cut much slack from outsiders.  In addition to that, we are often asked questions with answers that seem obvious to us, but are apparently a bit harder to comprehend for others.  Let’s face it.  There are some difficult, occasionally painful moments for meteorologists when the only thing that saves us is our sense of humor.

To hear a news anchor state “the worst ____ on record,” and know that people selectively listen is painful to me.  I know that broadcast news is like the old game of telephone in which the more a headline or news brief gets repeated, the more it loses its meaning or morphs into something completely different.  “The worst on record” becomes “the worst ever.”  No one stops to question how we would know that it was the worst ever given the relatively short number of years that we’ve been keeping accurate records.

Meteorology as a science is relatively new.  Some of the greatest minds in the field most responsible for advancing our knowledge of the atmosphere are still alive and still researching, teaching and even storm chasing.  Contrast that fact to more established fields of study where many of their greatest thinkers lived a few centuries ago.  The point is that we’ve come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.

Weather historian Bill Murray’s blog entries focus on notable events in weather history.  I’d like to add a little more trivia here, but leave the stories behind the dates in Bill’s realm.  The following list gives a few examples of just how recent some of meteorology’s biggest advances have been.

The first systematic weather observations in what would become the United States were made in 1644.  (Note: systematic doesn’t mean wholly accurate.)

The first systematic weather radio broadcasts began on January 3^rd, 1921 by the University of Wisconsin.

The first computerized weather model was run on March 5^th, 1950.

Weather Radar was first used by the army in 1954 and implemented by the Weather Bureau in 1959.

NASA launched the first successful weather satellite on April 1^st, 1960.

So within the last century, meteorology has made huge strides in technology with more advances on the way.  The National Weather Service has begun installing NEXRAD dual-polarization upgrades and will be doing more in the near future.  Vortex2 is wrapping up, and the knowledge gained from it will be used in improving the forecasting of severe storms and tornadoes.  Weather radios now have S.A.M.E. technology allowing for a more personalized experience with alerts.  Even our phones can convey weather info now.  Take, for example, the iPhone applications called RadarScope, Solar Monitor, and iHurricane Free.  Radar, solar, and satellite data in hand-held, mobile form is something we could only dream of a century ago.

So, the next time someone attempts humor at our expense, we can smile knowing that while there may be some truth in the joke, our science and our accuracy continue to improve at a fast pace.

Sources:

First weather obs: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/foundations/weather_obs/welcome.html#earlyyear

First weather radio broadcast: http://books.google.com/books?id=4l_2kkv5aeMC&pg=PA411&sig=l_ooHmofxdm-9RLQVGzbgVqgFa8&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false

First computerized weather model: http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/2000/03/02.html

First weather radar: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/foundations/weather_obs/welcome.html#adv

After graduating college and working in the field for a few years, it is likely that working overnights, weekends, and holidays will begin to take its toll on what you want to do with friends and family.  It will likely take a toll on your sleep schedule and even health at times too.  Often times we Meteorologists dream of the day we work a M to F, 8-5 position.  We all know that weather happens 24/7 so in reality this is an unlikely option, but once you’ve worked in the field and gained valuable forecasting or researching experience you will learn about opportunities that do indeed allow you to work 8-5 and be in the weather business.

To do this you will have to think creatively and be willing to take a chance.  A man by the name of Rob Dale has done this by creating several products.  I am now working for Rob as an Independent Sales Representative.  I will be selling a product he has created called First2Warn.  This product will send specific messages to clients that will alert them when a warning is nearby.  It will also help prevent excessive false alarms to clients by letting them know they do not need to sound the alarm as well.  There are more details involved, but I don’t want to divulge into the software too much.

There are many other innovators in the Weather Business that have turned a 24/7 job into something that is as 8-5 as weather can be.  Check out Frank Watson and Paul Douglas to see what they are doing to be innovative in the field as well.  These three examples are all people that have succeeded in being innovators in weather that do not have to work 24 hours a day.   As always if you have any ideas on future blog posts or want to leave feedback (positive or negative) please comment below or shoot me an e-mail.

Sincerely,
Jacob Hamblin
hamblinj@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/hamblinj