METEOROLOGY 1929

by CHARLES FITZHUGH TALMAN
Librarian, U. S. Weather Bureau

THE aviator now is getting weather information along the principal commercial flight-ways   of  the world. As the information is supplied by radio broadcasts, it is available to the entire community, and it is found to have many useful applications altogether outside the domain of aeronautics.

Since July 1, 1929, we have had in the United States a service of radio weather bulletins and forecasts every three hours, day and night, covering a belt 400 miles wide extending from coast to coast along the Transcontinental Airway. Though established for the benefit of aviators, it is of such general utility that the great cost of maintaining it would probably be justified even if there were no such thing as aviation. Hence the inauguration of this new service, which foreshadows similar arrangements for the whole country and marks a milestone in the history of practical meteorology.

The British have begun broadcasting weather maps and facsimile weather bulletins by radio, using the Fultograph process. A new French sounding balloon sends out automatic reports by radio of the temperatures and barometric pressures encountered throughout its flights. The nations of the world have agreed upon a plan of securing regular and uniform radio weather reports from a total of 1,000 selected ships upon the high seas.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 2:59 am and is filed under 1920's, Science, Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.

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