Forty Four Years in Meteorology—John Burn Remembers

Talking over the years to people from different walks of life, I have noticed that quite often a career in a particular field develops following one or more seemingly chance actions or influences.

My introduction to meteorology as a science was a talk given in my school days by a teacher recently returned from service as a forecaster in the Royal Air Force. I recall being interested, but not particularly excited by it.

The catalyst came some months later when I saw an advertisement for meteorological observers which described part of the duties as 'coding and decoding weather observations'. At that time (1947) newspaper articles were being published on the activities of the analysts who cracked German military codes during the war. At the age of sixteen my imagination must have been fired, because to the dismay of my widowed mother I applied and was accepted for training.

I wish I still had my letter of appointment which stated that my salary would be 165 pounds (about $400) a year. Needless to say coding and decoding of weather reports did not turn out to be as exciting as I had imagined. Nevertheless, working in a small forecasting office on an RAF base was quite stimulating for a youngster. There was always someone prepared to reminisce about their wartime activities, and shift work gave opportunities to go to the cricket at Lords when most other poor mortals were working.

Charts at the time were plotted in red and blue ink, using two pens cramped together. One became very adept at switching from one to the other. Temperatures outside the UK were reported in degrees Celsius and were converted to Fahrenheit when plotted. Many of the conversions still readily come to mind.

I was encouraged by my OIC to upgrade my qualifications and alter two years I attained the academic standard necessary for entry to the forecasting course, and also passed the entry examination. Before this training could take place I was called up in 1949 for two years National Service in the RAF. Most of that time was spent doing radiosonde flights at Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. Sondes in those days weighed about 1.5 kg and a combined rawin/sonde flight took a team of five people. Two of these operated the radar, striving to keep the signal. This was not always easy—the old ex-Army gunlaying radar was quite temperamental.

A highlight of that time was a period of leave spent in the mountains of northern Iraq. On a short camping trip we were shown great hospitality and kindness by Kurdish villagers. Memories of that trip came sharply into focus during the military operations in the same area earlier this year.

Various forecasting postings in southern England followed, interspersed with two years at an RAF base in Sri Lanka from 1955–57. This was memorable for two reasons—one of our daughters was born there, and the warm friendly relationships which developed with the local people.

Bureau of Meteorology