Hydrometeorology (continued)

Since assuming control of the Central Office Statistical Section in 1953 Gerry, in addition to supervising the commitment of statistical data to Hollerith punch-cards and instituting methods of quality control of climatological data, had been involved in evaluating the results of CSIRO cloud seeding experiments, studying extreme values of rainfall in the Snowy Mountains for the SMHEA and investigating climate change and periodicity in rainfall. Some of Gerry's wartime and post-war aviation and meteorological activities are mentioned in Chapters 1 and 3, with some personal history being recorded in the latter chapter.

Len Dwyer arranged for Gerry to attend the meeting of the WMO Commission for Climatology (CC1) in Washington DC in January 1957 at which he was coopted to serve on the nominations committee of the Commission and was also made a member of the CC1 Working Group on Statistical Requirements and Methods in Climatology. Len also arranged for Gerry to visit the US Weather Bureau to monitor the progress in developing a NWP system and to be attached to US Weather Bureau offices at Asheville, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri, to become acquainted with the statistical and flood forecasting procedures. Gerry obtained valuable information in these fields before returning to Australia in mid-March. He reported that the progress in developing a NWP system had not reached an operational stage at that time but that the flood forecasting system was operating successfully.

Bureau of Meteorology