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Bierknes Memorial Lecture Richard J Bierknes Memorial Lecture Richard J. Reed1 The Development and Status of Modern Weather Prediction2 Abstract or writings. Despite his many accomplishments and honors, Bjerknes was a modest man. I trust that he The progress made in weather prediction since national would approve of our decision to focus attention in this weather services began issuing forecasts is traced and assessed. Specific contributions of J. Bjerknes to this program are lecture on the subject to which he devoted much of his pointed out. Lessons learned from the historical record con- life's work rather than on his personal achievements cerning factors and conditions responsible for the important alone. advances are considered, and a limited evaluation is then During the period under consideration, weather fore- made of the increase in forecast skill that resulted from these advances. Finally, some comments are offered on the future casting was transformed from a practical art to a partly prospects of weather prediction. quantitative science. Thus it will be convenient in the discussion that follows to divide the period into three eras: a first extending from 1860 to 1920 in which fore- 1. Introduction cast practice was based almost entirely on human ex- We gather tonight to celebrate the memory of Jacob perience and skill, a second extending from 1920 to 1950 Bjerknes, one of the towering figures in the history of in which physical concepts received increasing emphasis, meteorology. In a long and distinguished career that and finally the modern era in which physical-numerical spanned a period of more than 50 years, Bjerknes made methods have been introduced and become firmly es- monumental contributions to our knowledge and under- tablished. I will refer to these as the empirical, transi- standing of the atmosphere and left a lasting mark on tional, and scientific eras, respectively. meteorological practice. He was a keen observer of at- mospheric phenomena who possessed an extraordinary 2. The empirical era: 1860-1920 ability to find order in the complexities of nature and to explain his findings in simple physical terms. He was The first regular issue of storm warnings by a national both practitioner and scientist, some of his greatest scien- weather service was begun in the Netherlands in June tific achievements coming early in his career when he 1860. Public forecasts in England commenced in 1861 served as Chief of the Bergen Weather Service. and in France, in 1863. In the United States the estab- Because so much of Bjerknes's work has had a bear- lishment of a national weather service was delayed by ing on the theory and practice of weather forecasting as the Civil War until 1870, when the predecessor of the it exists today, I have chosen as the subject of this present organization was formed within the Army Signal memorial lecture the development and status of modern Service. The first forecasts were issued by the Signal weather prediction. My primary aim will be to trace Service shortly thereafter. and assess the progress made in weather prediction since The basic tool used in early forecast practice, and in- national weather services first began issuing forecasts deed an important tool to the present day, was the shortly after the middle of the last century. Once the synoptic weather map. The first rudimentary weather historical record is laid out, I will pause to consider maps were constructed as early as 1820 by H. W. what can be learned from this record concerning the Brandes, a German astronomer, mathematician, and factors and conditions that have been responsible for engineer. The maps wrere prepared for the whole of the the important advances that have taken place. Next I year 1783 and were based on data collected by the will attempt a limited evaluation of the increase in fore- Mannheim Meteorological Society from a network of cast skill that has resulted from these advances, and European stations. These maps, and others prepared finally I will offer some comments on the future prospects elsewhere during the first half of the last century, indi- of weather prediction. cated the potentialities of synoptic mapping for weather Where appropriate, I will point out specific contribu- study and prediction, but they were hardly suitable for tions of Jack Bjerknes (as he preferred to be called) to making forecasts, since they were of necessity prepared the progress that has been made in weather forecasting, long after the event. It was not until the invention of but I will not attempt an overall assessment of his re- the telegraph about the year 1845 that a means existed markable career. Hopefully others more qualified than for the rapid communication of weather information I will undertake this important task in future lectures and hence for the preparation of weather maps on a current basis. As early as 1851, James Glaisher con- 1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wash- structed a series of maps from telegraphic reports for ington, Seattle, Wash. 98195. display at the World's Fair held that year in London. 2 Presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Tucson, Ariz., 18 January 1977. Nearly a decade elapsed, however, before routine prepa- 390 Vol 58, AJo. 5, May 1977 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/07/21 01:41 PM UTC Bulletin American Meteorological Society 391 ration of current maps was begun in France, England, and the Netherlands. The maps were soon used for issuing storm warnings and other forecasts. During the next 50 to 60 years, experience gained in the use of weather maps constituted almost the sole basis of prediction. Forecasting was essentially an exer- cise in isobaric geometry, seven fundamental configura- tions being recognized in accordance with a classification scheme proposed by Abercromby. Past movements of the pressure systems, statistics on storm tracks, and a host of empirical rules were employed to project low-pressure centers and other features forward in time. The at- tendant weather conditions were estimated from the observed relationship of clouds and precipitation to the pressure pattern, from models of such relationships, as for example given also by Abercromby (Fig. 1), and from a knowledge of local effects. FIG. 1. Abercromby's model of weather distribution in a The status of weather prediction at the end of this era cyclone (1883). (Taken from Petterssen, 1969, p. 13; repro- duced by permission of McGraw-Hill and F. H. Ludlam.) is well documented in a book published by the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1916 entitled Weather Forecasting in the United States. Although forecast practice differed somewhat from one country to another, this book gives foundation of sorts existed during the era in question, no doubt a faithful account of the state of the art at but its impact on forecast practice was obviously slight. that time. In a preliminary statement on the forecast It must not be supposed, however, that efforts to inject problem, Prof. A. J. Henry, one of the contributors to scientific ideas into forecast practice were totally lacking. the book, noted that "After an experience of many Indeed, at one time a small group, known as the "Study years, the forecasters of the Weather Bureau continue Room," was formed within the Signal Service, with to make forecasts of every character as to future weather Cleveland Abbe as its leader and Ferrel as one of its conditions solely on the basis of synoptic weather members, for the purpose of upgrading the scientific maps. ... By the continuous use and study of daily capability of the Service. But this effort was temporary synoptic weather maps meteorologists generally recog- and seemed to have little lasting influence. nize . the two fundamentals of modern weather fore- Weather forecasting during this era also suffered from casting. These are (1) weather travels; (2) the character a lack of regular upper air measurements. Sporadic of the weather is in general largely determined by the soundings were taken by manned balloons and later by atmospheric pressure distribution." He then described unmanned balloons and kites. But adequate, three- the charts employed at that time—the isobaric chart dimensional mapping of the atmosphere on an opera- (which also contained isotherms) and auxiliary pressure tional basis had to await the introduction of the radio- change, temperature change, and cloud charts. Most of sonde in the 1930s. the remainder of the book was devoted to a detailed Despite these shortcomings and limitations there can description of the application of these charts to the be little doubt that forecasting had become a useful art forecasting of cold waves, frosts, high winds, fog, snow, during its early years. This is attested to by the steady sleet, thunderstorms, and the like, with copious use of increase in the level of public support that it enjoyed examples and frequent reference to a bewildering va- and by the wide range of special weather services that riety of empirical rules. were continuously added. By 1920 these included, in the From the foregoing account it would appear that United States, marine, river and flood, agriculture, fruit physical principles and theoretical concepts played little, frost, hurricane, forestry and fire weather, and finally, if any, role in practical weather prediction up to the at the very end, general aviation services. It must not be time of the First World War. Certainly the basis for a forgotten, too, that a substantial improvement in ob- more scientific approach to forecasting existed. The servational practices and networks was achieved during fundamental laws of mechanics and thermodynamics this era. Contributing to this improvement was a had long been known, and application of these laws to strengthening of the international cooperation that has the atmosphere had been and was being made.
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