Science: Weather for All

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Member states of the United Nations seem more willing to work smoothly together in science than in politics. This week the first phase of a U.N. global weather information service went into operation. Its four communication centers are at New York, Frankfurt, New Delhi—and Moscow. They are connected by radio or land-line teletypewriter circuits, and their job is to gather weather data from their areas of responsibility and pass it along to the others, either direct or by relay. In the spring of 1961 a Tokyo center will start work, completing the five-station chain around the Northern Hemisphere.

Eventually the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, which pools the weather services of 102 member states and territories, will establish a similar network in the Southern Hemisphere. Reports will be broadcast twice each day, so anyone with the proper receiving equipment can tune in on the weather in all parts of the world.