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Weather News

Introduction

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Personal Notes

Retirements
Mr. B. W. Newman
Retirement of Walter Dwyer
Gerry O'Mahony—Thirty Years On
The Retoubtable George Mackey, Retd.
Retirement of ADR [Neil McRae]
A Long and Fruitful Innings [John Lillywhite]
Pat Ryan Retires
Harry Ashton Retires
'Fly Boy' Retires [Bill Brann]
Our Actor Steve [Lloyd]
Our Man in the Region Retires [Keith Hannay]
ADM Retires [Allen Bath]
Regional Director Queensland Retires [Arch Shields]
ANMRC Head Retires [Reg Clarke]
Vic Bahr's Last Bow
Long Serving Officers Retire [Jack Maher and Kev Lomas]
Allan Brunt Retires, 38 Years in 'the Met'
Henry Phillpot Retires
A Stout With a Dash! [Reg Stout]
Around the Regions [Keith Stibbs]
Bill Smith Bows Out—47 Year Record
Smooth Traffic Ahead for Keith Henderson
Happy Retirement, and Happy Birthday too! [Ralph de la Lande]
Air Dispersion Specialist Calls it a Day [Bill Moriarty]
Bob Crowder Retires
Grass Looks Greener for Tony [Powell]
Farewell France [Lajoie]
Forty Four Years in Meteorology—John Burn Remembers
Des Gaffney bows out
After Only 41 Years . . . Shaw, Enough! [Peter Shaw]
Brian Bradshaw departs, 45 Years On . . .
Bill Ware Ends on a High Note
Peter Barclay Retires
Mal Kennedy Retires
'The Ice Man Goeth . . .' DDS Neil Streten Calls it a Day
Dan of the 14,016 Days [Dan Lee]
A Launceston Boy Gone Wrong: Peter Noar Bows Out
It's Official—Climate Change Confirmed [Bill Kininmonth]
Victorian Forecasting Legend Bids Us Farewell [Ian Russell]
Gentleman Doug Gauntlett Retires
Queensland Regional Director Calls it a Day [Rex Falls]
Assistant Director (Services) Retires and Tributes Flow In [Bruce Neal]
NSW Regional Director Retires [Pat Sullivan]

Obituaries

Observers and Volunteers

Media

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Dan of the 14,016 Days [Dan Lee]

No. 316 August 1997

Trust Dan Lee, statistics supremo, to tally his Bureau service in days for a farewell laugh after 38.5 years . . .

Dan's great legacy as Supervisor of Climate Data Management is ADAM—the Bureau's pioneering relational database offering unprecedented access to, and analysis of, the national climate record.

Typical of tributes at his farewell was a note from RD NSW Pat Sullivan. 'You've been outstandingly successful in managing the national meteorological record . . . the extent of your success is ADAM, a wonderfully effective facility for accessing climate data.'

John Maunder, President of the WMO Commission for Climatology, said he would be remembered as 'Dan the Magic Man' for his enthusiasm and ability to make computers perform. STCC Bill Kininmonth added that he was 'a bit of a traveller, an adventurer . . . well beyond official travel like the Saudi project, and representing the Director at a Botswana conference.'

Dan told guests at his farewell that his First Encounter of the Climatological Kind was in the old Spring St building in December 1958. He filled out B14's, the hourly rainfall totals.

His Second Encounter was helping Dr Harry Treloar in Research 'add up figures, calculate standard deviations, and draw up a few diagrams . . . since I didn't know anything about what he was doing, I was the perfect person for the job.'

Dan took up a Cadetship to Melbourne Uni and was later posted to Darwin for five years. Back to Melbourne in 1970, he joined Meteorological Information Services Sub-section, where Jack Maher's directive was: "Have ideas and make them work."

He worked on the Drought Watch system on deciles, and started investigating applications of computing to climatology. Dan told guests the project which gave him most satisfaction was ADAM. 'The task was daunting, the resources just adequate, and the time critical. It is not yet complete—probably will never be absolutely complete, but it is in capable hands for development.

'It has been a privilege to have worked here, to possibly have left one or two little marks on the climate record, and to have passed on something of value to the Bureau, and to Australia.'

Dan and Helen have retired to rural calm at Romsey, outside Melboume—plus a little travel.


People in Bright Sparcs - Lee, Dan

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