Science: New Weatherman

Last week the U. S. got a new No. 1 weatherman—chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau. Appointed to succeed Willis Ray Gregg, who died last September, was Commander Francis Wilton Reichelderfer, U. S. N., an able, earnest meteorologist whose experiences include flying in Navy airplanes, dirigibles and racing balloons, taking part in the search for Amelia Earhart, furnishing weather information (from Lisbon) for the historic transatlantic flight of the NC-4. Quiet, matter-of-fact, Commander Reichelderfer likes dancing, music, an occasional cocktail, spends much time reading up on new developments in weather science.

When Gregg took charge of the Bureau in 1934, it was struggling along on $3,700,000 a year, was generally considered out of date. Today the Bureau is getting ahead. Air-mass analysis (study of weather phenomena in the upper air) has been taken up with a will. At six stations, small automatic radios attached to sounding balloons send upper-air recordings to ground receivers. At twelve stations, airplanes make daily recording nights. At 79 stations, pilot balloons furnish upper-air wind velocities. The Bureau has greatly expanded its special aids to airlines, has put 33 of its men in airport weather offices. It has also extended and improved its warning services for hurricanes, fruit frosts, forest fires, floods. And new Chief Reichelderfer will find his current budget the fattest in years: a trifle short of $5,000,000.