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Table of Contents
Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service Preface Foreword Introduction Chapter 1: Growing Up Early Australian Meteorologists Early Days in the Bureau Forecasters' Training Course My Classmates Reorganisation of the Bureau Love and Marriage Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised Epilogue Acknowledgements Appendix 1: References Appendix 2: Milestones Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 194146 Index Search Help Contact us |
Early Days in the Bureau (continued)A typical message of this type would read 'WAGGA WAGGA OBS 9 AM FLEETING TRIBE TOPEKA TRIPOS TODDY RAPID 4 SAFE LASH ACTOR STUN STAR'.The message would be decoded thus: WAGGA WAGGAname of station; OBS 9 AMobservation made at 9 am; FLEETINGmean sea level pressure 30. 01 inches; TRIBEdry-bulb temperature 75 F; TOPEKAwet-bulb temperature 47 F; TRIPOSmaximum temperature in previous 24 hours 82 F; TODDYminimum temperature in previous 24 hours 36 F; RAPID 4surface wind west-south-west Beaufort force 4 (15 knots); SAFEsky 1/4 covered by cloud; LASHlow cloud moving from west-south-west; ACTORrainfall during previous 24 hours 12 points (.12 inches); STUNweather since last observation; STARfrost. It was necessary for Bureau staff to memorise the equivalents of most of the word code to avoid delay in plotting these observations on synoptic charts and tabulating them in bulletins for newspapers or for public display. Committing to memory the hundreds of meteorological equivalents of words in the word code was a remarkable achievement. My four months in the Divisional Office in Sydney were a most agreeable introduction to the Bureau of Meteorology. Staff members were helpful, friendly and interesting. Davy Mares was benevolent, Barney Newman was kind, George Ainsworth was flamboyant. I was disappointed to see no evidence of the use of the Norwegian frontal analysis method. I became acquainted with the practices of the meteorological profession and became relatively proficient in making and processing meteorological observations, and was initiated into the strange rituals of the meteorological fraternity. I was unaware of the historical significance of the astronomical observatory about 150 metres to the north on Observatory Hill. Much earlier, before the harbour bridge was erected, my main interest in the Observatory had been the sight of a large black ball dropping down a flagstaff on top of the Observatory building at 1 pm, immediately followed by the firing of a signal gun in Fort Denison on the island of Pinchgut in the harbour close to the present position of the Sydney Opera House.
People in Bright Sparcs - Mares, David John; Newman, Bernard William (Bernie)
© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001 Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0377.html |