THE WEATHER SERVICES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68R00530A000200110022-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 31, 2002
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: September 13, 1965
• Content Type: MF

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THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
WASHINGTON 25, D.C.
DD/ST#y~oza~~ ~s
September 13, 1965
SUBJECT: The Weather Services of the
Environmental Science Services Administration
This is a report on the weather services provided by the
Environmental Science Services Administration of the Department of
Commerce during Hurricane Betsy. This report will also inform you
of the work now being done and in prospect to improve our warning
services for all the hazards of the physical environment and to
broaden our scientific and technological capability to predict, and
possibly to modify, the weather.
HURRICANE BETSY
The Weather Bureau provided excellent and timely warnings
of Hurricane Betsy. These warnings permitted the evacuation of
people and the taking of the necessary precautions to protect life
and property. The failure of power and communications systems in
N_ew Orleans point up the need for fail-safe facilities to ensure
that hazard warnings and information reach the public.
Hurricane Betsy was one of the most intense and destructive
storms ever to strike the United States. There has been serious loss
of life, and the destruction and damage of property in Southern
Florida and in Louisiana and Mississippi will run into the hundreds
of millions of dollars. And as you witnessed on Friday, Hurricane
Betsy rendered a major American city -- the City of New Orleans --
completely prostrate. The storm knocked out the city's power system,
its communications system, and its water purification system, leaving
hundreds of thousands of people helpless and bringing the city's
economic life to a dead halt.
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The toll of Hurricane Betsy would have been far worse but
for the magnificent work of the Weather Bureau, which is now an arm
of the Environmental Science Services Administration. Hurricane
Betsy was first detected at 2 PM EST on August 27, 11 days before it
struck the United States mainland. The Weather Bureau tracked Betsy
continuously thereafter -- by radar, by satellite, by its own aircraft,
and by aircraft of the Navy and the Air Force - and kept Betsy's speed,
its stalls, its loops and reversals of course, and its intensity under
steady observation.
Although Hurricane Betsy was the most erratic hurricane ever
tracked, the Bureau was able to give early and accurate warnings to
Southern Florida and to Louisiana and Mississippi. At 5 AM EST on
September 6, a hurricane watch was posted for Southern Florida, and
at 11 AM a full warning was given. The storm did not strike until
early in the morning of September 8 - more than a day and a half later.
At 8 PM EST on September 8, a hurricane watch was posted for the
Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, and at the same time the evacuation
of offshore oil drilling installations was recommended. At 6 AM EST
on September 9, a full hurricane warning was hoisted. Betsy struck
New Orleans about 10 PM EST that night -- 16 hours later. When Betsy
knocked out the power and communications systems of New Orleans, around
midnight, the New Orleans hurricane forecast center could na longer
funetion. Under emergency procedures of the Weather Bureau, the Miami
center took over the responsibility for issuing hurricane warnings.
As a result, all threatened areas were able to receive continuous
hurricane bulletins and advisories as long as their communications
systems remained intact. The power and communications failures in
New Orleans point up the need to ensure that we have fail-safe backup
facilities to provide the public with hazard warnings and information.
The early warnings of the Weather Bureau enabled the necessary
precautions to be taken. A large measure of credit is also due the mass
media -- local newspapers and local radio and television stations. They
played a vital role in the dissemination of the Bureau's hurricane warn-
ings. On the basis of the warnings, public officials began to plan for
the public safety. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated from low
coastal areas. The American Red Cross began to arrange for food kitchens
and for clothing and blankets to be moved into hurricane target areas.
Ocean vessels moved out of Betsy's path. The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration ordered Gemini 5 to land an orbit earlier than had
been scheduled. Work installations throughout the threatened areas were
shut down, and whatever precautions could be taken to protect factories,
work sites, stores, and other places of business were taken. And each
individual had time to look to the safety of himself and his family and
to the protection of his personal property.
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On September 8, The Miami News summed up in an editorial
the views of the people of Southern Florida on the value of the
hurricane warning service of the Weather Bureau. "Thanks to blessedly
long warnings, we were as ready for a hurricane as humans can be."
The editorial went on to offer special praise to the personnel of the
Weather Bureau.
I join in that praise. While the fine work of the Weather
Bureau is the work of hundreds of people, and not of any one man or
of any one group, I would like to single out for special praise
Mr. Gordon Dunn, the Director of the National Hurricane Center in
Miami, and the personnel of the Miami and New Orleans hurricane fore-
cast centers. Mr. Dunn bears the heavy responsibility of ensuring the
successful operation of the Nation's hurricane warning system.
AN ENVIRONMENTAZ HAZARDS WARNING SYSTEM
An environmental hazards warning plan is being prepared b
the Department of Commerce in concert with other Federal agencies.
When the plan is implemented, the Nation will have a comprehensive
natural hazards warnings system.
Hurricane Betsy is only the latest of Nature's furies to
strike the United States. Over the past two years our Nation has been
struck by a series of natural disasters. In the spring of 1964 the
Alaska earthquake and the tidal wave that followed it killed 156 people
and caused damages in excess of $400 million. The hurricane season in
the late summer and fall of 1964 was the worst in about 25 years. It
caused 49 deaths and property damage of more than $500 million. During
the past winter floods ravaged California, Oregon, and Washington,
claiming 45 lives and property damage of about $500 million. The Palm
Sunday tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest earlier this year killed
272 people, injured hundreds more, and caused property damage in excess
of $250 million. The current drought in the Northeast is the most severe
on record for that region of the Nation, and its end is not in sight. We
cannot yet estimate its final cost, but clearly it will be high.
This series of natural disasters has brought home forcefully
to all of us the need to develop an adequate warning system for all the
hazards of man's physical environment. A special group was formed this
past summer -- called the Natural Disaster Warning Survey Group -- to
study this problem. The Survey Group comprises representatives of the
Environmental Science Services Administration, the Office of Civil Defense,
the Office of Emergency Planning, the Federal Communications Commission,
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the Arnny Corps of Engineers, and the Coast Guard. It has consulted
with the Geological Survey of the Department of the Interior and
with the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture.
The Survey Group will soon submit its final report containing
a plan for a comprehensive environmental hazards warning system. The
report will recommend how we can - immediately and with the technology
at hand - provide a much improved environmental hazards warning system.
It will recommend ways to establish adequate communications for hazard
warnings, and it will recommend fail-safe procedures for the dissemina-
tion of warnings to the public. It will also include recommendations
on the necessary facilities for the observation and detection of weather
and other environmental hazards. The implementation of the plan con-
tained in the report will require an increased investment by the Federal
Government, T.ahen the plan is implemented, the Environmental Science
Services Administration will be able to provide the Nation with a com-
prehensive environmental hazards warning system.
WEATHER MODIFICATION
A vigorous national program to explore the possibilities of
weather modification should now be mounted. I intend to have the
Environmental Science Services Administration take a leadinsz role in
this program.
It is clear that we must now press forward to improve our
ability to detect, track, and predict severe weather hazards. It is
equally clear that the time has come for us to move vigorously forward
to explore the possibilities of modifying and controlling the weather
in beneficial ways.
I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of weather
modification to the Nation at large. If we in the United States were
to acquire the ability to modify the weather in a substantial way -- to
augment precipitation, to blunt the thrust of hurricanes and other severe
storms, to suppress hail in crop areas, to cope with lightning discharges
in forest areas, and to dissipate all types of fog -- we would have an
achievement of vast significance. We would be able to expand our national
economy and to improve the well-being of the American people in ways and
to a degree that are now inconceivable. The ultimate benefits that weather
modification can bring are almost unimaginable.
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There is a growing conviction among scientists that a
systematic, scientifically sound, properly conceived program of re-
search and development in weather modification is warranted. There
are two reasons for this conviction. First, there have been some
successful experiments in the field of weather modification, although
their results are far from definitive. Second, there have been a
number of technological advances over the past decade that give us a
new capability for research. We are beginning to simulate atmospheric
phenomena on high-speed electronic compu ters, which enables us to
"experiment" with the atmosphere under "controlled " conditions. We
are acquiring a deeper understanding of the physical and chemical
processes of the atmosphere. We have a new capability for observing
the atmosphere. And we have systems for the delivery of man-made
materials into the atmosphere that were unavailable to us a few years
ago. These advances now make it possible to mount a broad program of
research to determine once and for all what types of weather modifica-
tion are feasible. It will undoubtedly take many years to achieve
significant results, but we are now in a position. to begin.
A national program of weather modification research will
require additional resources to provide the necessary facilities for
the conduct of large-scale field research experiments. We must attract
to the program the best scientific and engineering talent, both to seek
the basic knowledge that we need 'and to ensure that our field experi-
ments are designed, operated, and- controlled in accordance with the best
principles of scientific research. And the program must give careful
study not only to the scientific problems of weather modification, but
also to its social, economic, and legal consequences.
The Environmental Science Services Administration has been
giving considerable thought to the future direction of weather modifi-
cation research in the United States. On July 10, 1965, a special
report on weather modification was submitted to the Chief of the Weather
Bureau. This report deals with the scientific, social, economic, legal,
and legislative aspects of the subject, and it represents an important
contribution to the extensive national discussion on weather modification
that is now being carried on. Other important reports on the subject
are in preparation - one by a special panel of the National Academy of
Sciences and another by a special commission of the National Science
Foundation. These studies will all help shape Federal policy in the
area of weather modification and will help create an important new
Federal research program. I intend to have the Environmental Science
Services Administration take a leading role in this program.
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THE WORLD WEATHER WATCH
,~f there is to be a sigma ificant increase in the ability
of our national weather services to issue timely and accurate fore-
casts of weather hazards, such as Hurricane Betsy, to make long-range
weather predictions, and to explore the possibility of large-scale
climate modification, we must develop the ability to obtain comprehen~
sivc+eweather data for the entire globe and must conduct a broad program
of research on global weather processes. The World Weather Watch is
an international under:takinc ~ designed to accomplish these obiectives.
The United States has assumed a prominent role in the development of
the Watch, and the Department of Commerce, in concert with other
Federal departments and agencies, is now preparing detailed plans for
United States participation.
The Formation and Planning of the World Weather Watch
The movement of the atmosphere knows no national boundaries,
and what happens in the atmosphere over one nation affects the atmosphere
of other nations. Moreover, no one nation can observe and analyze the
atmosphere everywhere in the world, and each nation needs the weather
data of other nations to provide proper weather services to its people
and to the various segments of its economy. And so the nations of the
world cooperate closely in weather matters.
The development of the meteorological satellite by the United
States opened up radically new opportunities for the acquisition of
weather data on a global scale and for international weather cooperation.
In 1961, the United States took the initiative within the United Nations
to press for a world weather system to exploit these opportunities. The
World Meteorological Organization responded with the concept of a World
Weather Watch. It is a cooperative effort designed to use modern tech-
nology to build an international system for the complete surveillance
of the globe's atmosphere and for the rapid dissemination of worldwide
weather data.
In June, 1964, in your commencement address at Holy Cross
College, you repledged the cooperation of the United States in the
development of a World Weather Watch. In October, you requested my
predecessor, Secretary Hodges, to bring the Federal departments and
agencies that are concerned with international meteorological programs
into closer consultation and coordination. An interagency committee was
formed in response to this request. On January 1 of this year, a World
Meteorological Center was established in Washington - one of three such
centers (the others are in Moscow and Melbourne) designated for the
World Weather Watch.
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The Federal departments and agencies concerned with inter-
national meteorological programs are now formulating detailed plans
for United States participation in the World Weather Watch. They are
formulating plans to further research on the general circulation of
the globe's atmosphere and to further research on the interactions
between the oceans and the atmosphere (which play, as Hurricane Betsy
has reminded us, a prominent role in the formation of the weather).
They are also formulating a program of technical assistance to the
national meteorological services of the emerging nations and a program
to promote international scientific education and training in meteorology.
And they are studying how existing international organizations may be
strengthened-and whether new international arrangements are necessary -
to carry out international programs in meteorology.
The Meteorological Satellite
The meteorological satellite lies at the heart of the World
Weather Watch and makes it possible. The satellite gives us for the
first time the potential ability to observe and collect data about the
atmosphere of the entire globe every day.
At the present time we obtain adequate weather observations
for less than 20% of the globe's surface. The rest of the globe, most
of it the oceans, has remained inaccessible except for some scattered
observation stations. The development of the meteorological satellite
has now given us a new and revolutionary tool to overcome this obstacle.
This development is of such basic and far-reaching importance that the
Environmental Science Services Administration and the National Aeronautical
and Space Administration are now exerting every effort to exploit our space
technology to perfect this platform.
Since the inception of the meteorological satellite program,
eleven meteorological satellites have been placed in orbit -- ten in
the Tiros series and one Nimbus satellite. While the data they have
provided have been experimental and limited, these satellites have
proved to be of immediate practical value. They have provided great
assistance in the detection and tracking of severe storms, such as
Hurricane Betsy, and in some instances have permitted us to follow their
early development where we might otherwise be unaware of their existence.
They have provided valuable information -- although only intermittently --
for the oceans and the uninhabited areas of the world.
As valuable as these meteorological satellites have been, we
have yet to experience the kinds of benefits that a fully operational
meteorological satellite system can provide. This is the next step, and
we now expect to have an operational system functioning early next year.
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The new system is called the Tiros Operational Satellite System, or,
more commonly, the TOS System. It will use a modified Tiros satellite
similar to Tiros IX, which has proven itself technologically and which
has a sufficiently long life so that we can maintain the system at a
reasonable cost.
The establishment of the TOS System will be a huge stride
forward. For the first time we will be able to observe the clouds
everywhere in the earth's atmosphere each day on a routine basis.
This capability will make it possible for us to predict the weather
with greater accuracy. It will assist us in giving adequate warning
of weather hazards to all who need warning. It will assist us in the
forecasts we provide to improve the ability of our agriculture, our
transportation, and our industry to plan ahead -- and thereby to become
more efficient and more productive. The implications of the TOS System
for the safety and well-being of the American people and for the ex-
pansion of our national economy are very substantial.
The development of the TOS System is only a beginning, however,
The Environmental Science Services Administration and the National Aero-
nautical and Space Administration have already begun to delve into new
areas of research and development. They are seeking to broaden the
meteorological satellite system as a comprehensive data-collecting system
to provide information about the temperature, the pressure, and the wind
structure of the atmosphere as well as the cloud data we now obtain.
The two agencies are also beginning to study the use of syn-
chronous satellites for weather observations. The advantage of the
synchronous satellite is that it focuses at all times on the same portion
of the globe's surface, and a system of these satellites can provide us
with continuous coverage of the ever-changing weather of our planet. A
continuous view of the formation, motion, evolution, and dissipation of
storms will be of tremendous assistance in the detection and tracking of
severe storms, such as hurricanes, so that we may give early warning
when required.
New Scientific and Technological Opportunities
The World Weather Watch presents the Nation with a number of
new scientific and technological opportunities.
As a result of the development of our satellite-observing
and data-communicating techniques, we have a new and expanding capability
to obtain meteorological data on a global scale and to communicate these
data at high speeds and efficiently. As we develop unconventional sensing
systems such as free-floating balloons and ocean buoys, this capability
will expand still further. The lack of global data is today one of the
greatest obstacles to the improvement of our weather forecasting capability,
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and it is clear that the new global data can be put to immediate and
effective use in weather forecasting.
If we look. further into the future, scientists feel that
it may be possible to provide daily weather predictions for a period
of up to two weeks ahead. This capability will require that we
develop far more complex mathematical procedures than we now have to
simulate the behavior of the atmosphere. The successful use of these
procedures will in turn depend critically on the continuing flow of
adequate data about the global atmosphere and the development of
faster and more complex electronic computers. The scientific community
is confident that these same data and these same advanced mathematical
procedures will facilitate the exploration of the possibilities of
large-scale weather modification.
The realization of these new capabilities would represent one
of the most significant achievements of modern science and technology,
with political and economic implications of vast magnitude. It is clear
that our present efforts to achieve these capabilities should be sup-
ported with sufficient resources to ensure their success.
The Meanin~z of the World Weather Watch
The development of the World Weather Watch is important work -
for the United States and for the world at large. It will permit us
to broaden our scientific knowledge of the globe's atmosphere. It will
permit us to provide earlier and better warnings of severe storms and
other calamaties of nature. It will further the safety and efficiency
of air and sea travel in all parts of the globe. It will further industry,
commerce, and agriculture within the borders of each nation cooperating
in the Watch. It will permit better land and water management.
These benefits will flow not only to the United States and to
those nations that are technologically advanced, but to the less de-
veloped nations as well. In the World Weather Watch we have an under-
standing example of the profound contribution that science and technology
can make to the peaceful pursuits of man. The Watch may also serve as a
more general lesson for the nations of the world -- and lead to cooperation
among them in other fields that require common endeavor.
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ILLEGIB
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