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Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology

Preface

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929–1946 by Allan Cornish

History of Major Meteorological Installation in Australia from 1945 to 1981 by Reg Stout

Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service by Keith Swan
Foreword
Enlistment in the RAAF, July 1941
Meteorological Observer Training, January-April 1942
Meteorological Observer, May-December 1942
Learning to Forecast, January-July 1943
Forecasting in Victoria, July-October 1943
Tropical Forecasting in New Guinea, October 1943-February 1945
Temperate East Coast Forecasting, February 1945-January 1946
Evaluating the Service

The Bureau of Meteorology in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s by Col Glendinning


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Tropical Forecasting in New Guinea, October 1943-February 1945 (continued)

Errol Mizon was a member of the permanent weather service who, before his retirement from the Bureau of Meteorology in 1977, went on to direct the then Head Office section controlling national forecasting, warning and climatological services, while George Powell eventually returned to complete at the University of Melbourne the dental course he interrupted to become a forecaster. Our office was located near that of the Area Meteorological Officer, Neil McRae, whom I had met earlier when he visited the Port Moresby office. By about July 1944, when the war in the Pacific theatre was moving west along the north coast of New Guinea in preparation for the landing in the Philippines in October, No 71 Wing also began operating over the Wewak area. At first this was a staged procedure. Several aircraft of one of the squadrons would fly from Goodenough to Nadzab and fly from there up the Markham and Ramu Valleys to Wewak before returning either to Nadzab or their Goodenough Island base. After several weeks they operated similarly, but from Saidor, somewhat east of Madang. At the beginning Neil McRae provided me with a considerable challenge, incidentally showing confidence in my ability as a forecaster, by sending me alone to brief the crews after consulting with the meteorologists of the US Army Fifth Air Force, which had moved by that time from Port Moresby. This was a tremendous experience which gave me a high opinion of the efficiency, skill and thoroughness of my American colleagues, most of them meteorologists of many years standing. Although I am unable to vouch for my spelling of their names, I remember particularly Colonel Twaddell, Major Daley and Master Sergeant McQuigan, the last-named probably the most experienced of them all.

We would all gather in their office at 0400 hours each day to consider the likely weather pattern over the operations area for that day—or for the immediate future say the next 48 hours—so that we could advise our several squadrons where strikes would be most appropriate. At first we would examine what reports and isobaric charts were available. Of course we had no observing stations at that time north of New Guinea where Japanese power was paramount, and that meant we had no atmospheric pressures from which we might draw an isobaric chart. Our American friends compensated for this by covering one long wall with charts of Northern Australia, New Guinea and the entire South-west Pacific. These large charts were repeated four times, and on the perspex covering them were plotted with chinagraph pencils reports from aircraft in flight and ships. These four charts were labelled midnight-0600 hours, 0600-12 noon, 12 noon-1800, and 1800-midnight, each being assigned a different colour. Before us, therefore, were set out reports over a very wide area for the previous 24 hours, only as dependable as were those aircrew who reported them, but always a very valuable aid. Following close examination of these reports we would all contribute to the construction of forecasts for the area, the discussion always being most stimulating. We were a serious as well as happy-go-lucky group, doing our best to get it right, but realising the limitations of our situation. We had to be humble in the light of mistakes, which were usually not critical. I vividly remember, however, the way the senior officers winced when someone mentioned 'Black Friday', a day when all airstrips throughout New Guinea were closed by bad weather, contrary to forecast, and many aircraft were lost. As my office moved westward along the coast in the later months of 1944, although I had not been involved in 'Black Friday', this was always in my mind, particularly when forecasting for night weather reconnaissance over the sea. Because of diurnal wind and temperature variations, cloud frequently built up just off the coast during the evening, producing coastal showers of varying intensity as the night wore on. To meet this situation, I would try accurately to predict the time the showers occurred over the airstrip, and then ensure that their ETA was before the showers. I could not advise against flying unless the weather was bad, because there were still Japanese ships and patrol boats not far from the coast, hoping to land supplies to their thousands of troops trapped along the Sepik River.


People in Bright Sparcs - McRae, John Neil; Swan, Keith

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Cornish, A., Stout, R., Swan, K and Glendinning, C. 1996 'Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology', Metarch Papers, No. 8 February 1996, Bureau of Meteorology

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