William Comeaux (left), meteorologist-in-charge of the National Weather Service's Cleveland forecast office, conducted a special media roundtable at the 10th Annual International Great Lakes Operational Meteorologist Conference. Cleveland's forecast office hosted the event, which attracted over 75 people from U.S. and Canadian weather offices. The roundtable explored ties between the weather service and broadcast meteorologists and how best to bridge them.

The foundation for today's weather forecasting was developed by Lewis F. Richardson. Drawing on his World War I experiments in numerical weather prediction, he wrote, Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, which was published in 1922. Richardson conducted his experiments by using primitive sparse observations and tallying calculations by hand. Before being published, his manuscript was lost, then later discovered in a coal bin. Charles Lenahan, a weather service employee, willed his rare original edition to the National Weather Service, where his daughter, Ann Powers, recently presented it to director Jack Kelly.



Ann Powers presents original 1922 edition of Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, the foundation for today's weather forecasting, to Jack Kelly, Director of the National Weather Service. The book belonged to her father, the late Charles Lenahan, a weather service employee.

Drought has stricken 20 percent of the world in just the past two years. A new NOAA satellite-based method for early detection, monitoring and analysis revealed this critical observation. Scientists at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service -- or NESDIS -- in Camp Springs, Maryland used solar radiation detected from an instrument aboard NOAA's polar orbiting satellites, known as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. NOAA scientist Felix Kogan developed the new drought detection methodology, which has been tested worldwide for eight years and is recognized by the global science community. The worst drought situations have been observed in Afghanistan where 60 percent of the country now suffers from intense drought.

NOAA Fisheries biologist Kenneth L. Beal has become the new president of the American Fisheries Society, the oldest and largest professional group representing fisheries scientists from 70 countries. A 33-year veteran of NOAA Fisheries, he is only the second NOAA employee to achieve this office. Ken was a young herring fisherman on Maine's Mount Desert Island. He then worked in Alaska for the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, forerunner of NOAA Fisheries. Working with Dr. Eugene Fritz, who just retired from NOAA, Ken created the society's new summer internship for minority and under-represented high school students. Students receive a stipend and are paired with a society member/mentor with whom they conduct regular fisheries work.

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Date Last Updated: 11/05/01