International Involvement

Executive Involvement

Australia has been involved with international meteorology since 1890 at least, with three and possibly more of the state Government Astronomers being members of the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) for various periods until 1908. One of the three, Clement Wragge, actually attended two IMO conferences, in Munich in 1891 and Paris in 1896 (BOM [16]).

As Commonwealth Meteorologist, Hunt attended the 4th International Conference of Directors held in Paris in 1919 and his successor, Watt, visited a similar meeting in Warsaw in 1935 and the Conference for the South West Pacific in Wellington in 1937 (BOM [16]).

Warren was elected President of the Conference of Empire Meteorologists, held in March 1946 at Seaford House in London (MO [60]). In the same year he was also elected President of the IMO's South-West Pacific Regional Commission, a position he retained until his death in 1950 (BOM [8]). In this capacity he attended, together with the young Mr Bill Gibbs, the 1947 IMO Conference of Directors meeting in Washington, where he chaired the committee which drafted the Convention for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), soon to replace the IMO (Gibbs [31]). At this and subsequent meetings, Gibbs met some of the most influential meteorologists of the time, such as Petterssen, Bergeron, Van Mieghem and others (WMO [92]). Perhaps these meetings prompted Gibbs to believe that one day the Bureau might be able to have such acclaimed people on its staff and set him on the course which eventually led to the formation of the BMRC.

Warren's final attendance at an IMO Executive Committee meeting came in May 1950, when he went to Lausanne to assist in winding up the IMO and planning for the inauguration of the WMO (BOM [8]). Unfortunately he died during the voyage home.

Bureau of Meteorology