Cressman, George, 1992-08-24

Oral history interview with George Cressman, 1992. Interviewed by Warren Washington, Norman Phillips, Ron McPherson, and Jim Howcroft. 3 sound cassettes (ca. 5 hrs., tape 3 side B blank) : analog, mono + transcript (56 pgs.). AMS 84-86; two physical versions (one master, one copy). Forms part of American Meteorological Society Oral History Project. George Cressman describes his youthful interest in weather and discusses his undergraduate education at Penn State and training at NYU as an aviation cadet in meteorology during World War II. He discusses postwar research in Puerto Rico and at the University of Chicago under Rossby and Palmen. He comments on the attempt to apply barotropic ideas for forecasting long wave motion. He describes his consultant duties for the USAF Air Weather Service under Sverre Petterssen, including forecasting for atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Proving Grounds. He details his role in the nascent JNWPU and the unit's eventual evolution into the National Meteorological Center (NMC). He talks about NMC activities during his tenure as director. He highlights his attempts through WMO to standardize codes for worldwide data exchange. He describes the first hurricane model and development of the Cressman analysis system. He comments on the breakup of the Weather Bureau and formation of ESSA, NOAA and ERL. Finally, he describes his challenges as director of the Weather Bureau/National Weather Service, comments on the impact of meteorological satellites on forecasting and discusses the development of the limited-area fine-mesh model. He concludes by discussing his meteorological consulting activities in various countries.