In the January issue, I discussed changes being made

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LETTER FROM HEADQUARTERS

AMS COMMUNITY:

A NEW RESOURCE FOR ALL MEMBERS

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n the January issue, I discussed changes being made at AMS Headquarters to provide new resources for members and offer easier ways to engage with the Society. A key component of these new member engagement activities was the launch of the “AMS Community” platform. During January and February, AMS Community was rolled out for use by the more than 140 volunteer boards and committees in the AMS—and yes, that is sort of a staggering number of boards and committees, but it shows the incred- ible level of volunteer activities that make up AMS.

The response to this new resource has been terrific.

In the words of one of our board chairs, “I love the AMS Community platform!”

The boards and committees have been using the

AMS Community to discuss issues; plan webinars and conference calls; develop agendas for future meetings;

and share documents, videos, and links to resources so that all board and committee members have easy access to those materials whenever they need them. I have found the resource library aspect especially useful—no more searching through old e-mails trying to find the elusive report attachment that I need. Now everything is readily available and searchable on the Community associated with that committee. While each board, committee, commission, and working group has its own Community that allows internal discussions and document sharing, the platform also has an AMS Community Open Forum that provides a place for everyone (general members, board and committee members, staff, and so on) to share information with each other.

It is this Open Forum that all members will now be automatically subscribed to as a benefit of member- ship. The AMS Community Open Forum has several tools I think members will find very useful:

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Discussions: This is the main place to communicate.

Members can connect with each other and learn from their colleagues: ask questions, solicit advice, troubleshoot, and solve problems, all within the Community.

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Libraries: The place to share documents, files, videos, etc. If something is useful to you, it might be helpful to share with others, creating a centralized pool of shared resources tested and recommended by fellow members.

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Announcements and Events: This is where Society- wide notices and upcoming events are shared, providing the ability to stay up to date on all of the latest AMS news, meetings/conferences, volunteer opportunities, webinars, briefings, etc.

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Directory: A tool to look up and connect with friends and colleagues and add them to your own Community network of contacts.

All of this translates to new resources for all members and better oppor tunities for connec- tion and networking with other members of the weather, water, and climate community. It also provides a way for AMS to be more transparent to all members so that their engagement with the Society can be as positive and useful an experience as possible.

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The following individuals were recently granted the Certified Consulting Meteo- rologist (CCM) designation. For more in- formation on the AMS CCM program, go to www.ametsoc.org.

734 Daniel Minor 2018

735 John Lavin 2018

736 Matthew Jones 2018

737 Jared Rennie 2018

738 Tyler Dewvall 2018

739 Mark Estes 2018

740 Davis Nolan 2018

CERTIFIED CONSULTING METEOROLOGISTS (CCM)

I am very excited about having this great tool that has been working so well for our many committees and boards over the past few months now be available for all members. I hope you all find it as productive and helpful as I have. I encourage all members to log in regularly to the new AMS Community and become more familiar with the platform. Connect with peers and colleagues in new ways, share with other AMS

members, and learn more about what AMS and our Community can do for you.

K^eith L. S^eitter, CCM exeCutive DireCtor

AWARDS

2017 ASLI CHOICE AWARD WINNERS

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t the January 2018 AMS Annual Meeting in Austin, the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) announced their ASLI Choice winners for 2017. The awards, now in their 13th year, are presented annually for the best books in atmospheric sciences, meteorology, and climatology. Selections are based on nine criteria: uniqueness, comprehensiveness, usefulness, quality, authoritativeness, organization, illustrations/

diagrams, competition, and references. Awards were given in three categories: Science, History, and Popular.

SCIENCE. Meteorology of Tropical West Africa: The Forecasters’ Handbook, edited by Douglas J. Parker and Mariane Diop-Kane and published by Wiley- Blackwell, was the ASLI Choice winner “for bringing together the science of climate, weather, and forecasting that many will reference as they work in and with this important geographical area.”

Honorable mentions went to the updated and now online International Cloud Atlas: Manual on the Observation of Clouds and Other Meteors, created by

the Task Team at the World Meteorological Organiza- tion and hosted by Hong Kong Observatory (https://

cloudatlas.wmo.int/home.html), and to Modeling of Atmospheric Chemistry by Guy P. Brasseur and Daniel J. Jacob (Cambridge University Press).

HISTORY. Make it Rain: State Control of the Atmo- sphere in Twentieth-Century America, by Kristine C.

Harper, published by University of Chicago Press, won the ASLI Choice award “for a history of U.S.

weather control that will be widely consulted in the future to explain what happened in the past.”

Honorable mentions included A Farewell to Ice:

A Report from the Arctic by Peter Wadhams (Oxford University Press) and Climate Change and the Health of Nations: Famines, Fevers, and the Fate of Popula- tions, by Anthony J. McMichael, with Alistair Wood- ward and Cameron Muir (Oxford University Press).

POPULAR. ASLI was also proud to present an award in the Popular category. The winner, A Hole in the Wind:

A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey across the United States, written by David Goodrich and published by Pegasus, was noted “for a book that will, and a journey that did, bring climate science to many along the way.”

An honorable mention went to Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken (Penguin Books).

Congratulations to all the authors, editors, and pub- lishers. ASLI invites everyone to nominate books for the 2018 awards by visiting the ASLI Choice Award page at www.aslionline.org/wp/asli-choice/. The deadline is November 1, 2018. ASLI is a professional organization devoted to communicating and disseminating information among libraries and educational institutions in- volved in atmospheric science research and scholarship.

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AMS PUBLICATIONS

AMS JOURNALS WELCOME REVIEW ARTICLES

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ll AMS journals now accept review articles.

During its May 2017 meeting, the AMS Publi- cations Commission approved a motion that all AMS journals encourage the publication of Reviews.

Reviews are articles focused on a specific topic that synthesize previous research accomplishments, sum- marize the state of the science, and suggest avenues for future research. Reviews can be valuable additions to the AMS suite of publications, being well-read articles on a specialized topic readable for a more general audience than research articles. This editorial describes the purpose, content, and the process of Reviews.

The purpose of a Review is summarized in an edi- torial in Monthly Weather Review (Schultz 2008, p. 5):

Review might more properly be called literature synthesis. For students and scientists alike, many Reviews are as valuable as textbooks, albeit more current…A common perception is that a Review is a quick publication, lacking new scholarship and merely summarizing previously published literature.

This perception is inaccurate, for a good Review often requires more time and effort to research and write than does a regular research article. In a Review, the overarching theme should be clear.

Boundaries of what will and will not be discussed should be stated explicitly early in the paper. Authors of Reviews should not be afraid to address the failures and limitations of research previously published, although fairness is imperative. Controversy is healthy in science, and all authors should dare to address these issues. In fact, the best Reviews can resolve outstanding controversies in the literature, especially if the agents of the controversy did not cleanly resolve them within their own published works. Furthermore, synthesizing the previous literature can be quite demanding as the author faces the scrutiny of all the previous authors cited—these cited authors depend on the Review to explain and cite their literature accurately.

For submission to one of the AMS journals, author(s) of prospective Reviews must submit a proposal to the target journal through Editorial Man- ager. The proposal will be evaluated by the journal, and feedback will be returned to the corresponding

author. If submission of the full manuscript is recommended, then the corresponding author should submit a Review in the same manner as for a regular submission within a fixed time period before the proposal expires. More specifics of the process may be found on the AMS website at www.ametsoc.org /PubsReviewArticles.

Reviews must meet the high standards of AMS journals. They should be comprehensive across the discipline and not address only the authors’ own work. Reviews should be well written and aspire to be highly read. Authors of prospective Reviews are en- couraged to read Boote and Beile (2005), who provide criteria for well-written literature reviews. Section 4.7 of Schultz (2009), titled “Literature synthesis,” also has guidance that authors may find useful as they prepare their Review.

All Reviews from the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences can be accessed from the journal website at www.ametsoc.org/JASReviewArticles. Reviews from across all AMS journals are available from the main AMS Journals Online page at www.ametsoc .org/ReviewArticles. Prospective authors may wish to explore these sites for examples of previously published Reviews.

For any further questions about Reviews, please contact the chief editor of the target journal.

—David M. Schultz (Chair, Subcommittee on Reviews, and Chief Editor, Monthly Weather Review), Timothy M. DelSole (Co-Chief Edi-

tor, Journal of Climate), Robert M. Rauber (AMS Publications Commissioner), Walter A.

Robinson (Co-Chief Editor, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences)

FOR FURTHER READING

Boote, D. N., and P. Beile, 2005: Scholars before research- ers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educ. Res., 34, 3–15, https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034006003.

Schultz, D. M., 2008: The past, present, and future of Monthly Weather Review. Mon. Wea. Rev., 136, 3–6, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007MWR9047.

——: Eloquent Science: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Better Writer, Speaker, and Atmospheric Scientist.

Amer. Meteor. Soc., 440 pp.

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10 QUESTIONS WITH…

A new series of profiles celebrating AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologists and Sealholders ON-AIR METEOROLOGY

Michael Page

Meteorologist, NBC10 Boston and NECN What inspired you to go into broadcast- ing? Growing up on the coast, it’s hard to not be mesmerized by weather. Nor’easters in particular gripped me from a young age, first driving me to document daily weather in observation books, and then figuring out how to forecast. I’m fortunate that several television meteorologists were so generous with their time while I was in middle and high school, making all of that possible.

What is the best thing about what you do? The simple fact that I’m paid to talk about what I love: weather, the environment, and science. I feel incredibly fortunate that I get to share my interest in all of those things with viewers at home.

How do you deal with criticism over forecasts that don’t pan out? Honestly and humbly. If I miss a fore- cast, and obviously that is going to happen from time to time, I have no problem owning up to it. Most times people appreciate that. And if someone actually wants to know what happened, I’m happy to get into the details of what went wrong. After that I always go back and review guidance from before the missed forecast. I want to know what I could’ve seen but didn’t.

What weather myths do you hear the most? In Massachusetts, many people still don’t think we get torna- dos. And of course there’s always the myth that forecasts are “always wrong.” We’re not always right, but we’re certainly right more often than we’re wrong.

What types of weather or weather phenomena do you get most excited about? I personally love synoptic-scale storms, whether it’s a hurricane or a Nor’easter. I love the forecasting run-up to these storms more Weather, Climate, and Society Reaches Ten Years

Originally posted February 22, 2018

This morning I came to work ready to tackle a work- shop report and a research proposal that urgently need attention, but the mail in my chair decided me on a brief delay.

That’s because the stack included the latest print copy of the AMS journal Weather, Climate, and So- ciety, for January 2018.

Volume 10, Number 1. What a milestone!

FOR THE AMS. Ten years ago, the American Meteorological Society was approaching 90. For all of those years its purposes included 1) the advancement of science and technology, and 2) the application of those advances for societal benefit. The strategy for the former was clear and longstanding, revolv- ing around technical conferences and comprising a range of journals. The approach to the latter included conferences for and certification of the broadcasters and those in government and the private sector pro- ducing operational forecast products. The consensus

LIVING ON THE REAL WORLD

[Editor’s Note: The following post is adapted from William Hooke’s blog, Living on the Real World (www.livingon therealworld.org/). Hooke is the former director of the AMS Policy Program and currently a senior policy fellow.]

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ON-AIR METEOROLOGY

than actually experiencing the event in some cases. I like playing offense. Sometimes I feel like mesoscale systems have us playing more defense than anything else.

What was the most important way to prepare yourself for this job? While observing and forecasting the weather since middle and high school was a tremendous help, taking time to understand the fundamentals of television were equally as helpful. I spent a lot of time in high school meeting not just meteorologists at the local stations but managers and producers too. That really helped me grasp what I needed to do in order to be successful in the industry.

How do you keep up with the current science? Reading. A lot. Whether it’s reading BAMS, scanning Twitter, or just keeping tabs on research going on at major universities through their press offices, I make time to ensure I’m not missing anything.

What are the biggest meteorological challenges in your job? I’d say there are two. The first being time.

Some days there just isn’t enough time in a newscast to really deliver all the details you want for the viewing area. This is especially true since we cover all six New England states. The second is social media. While there are so many benefits to things like Facebook and Twitter— ranging from gathering real-time observations to spreading critical information—there are huge negatives. Armchair meteorology from untrained professionals, weather apps displaying one number and one icon for a day, and things like dated snow maps making the rounds even after the forecast has changed, all muddy the message. That’s where our job is still very relevant—cutting through all of that.

What does being a Station Scientist mean to you? It means being able to talk about basically anything science-related at the drop of a hat on live television. This is part of the reason I make such a point to follow the latest research and news from so many different fields. Not only that, but it involves bringing science to life—showing people how science impacts them. I’m very fortunate that I get to report from the field almost as much as I’m in studio. To me, that’s where all the good stuff really happens.

What questions in atmospheric science would you like to see answered? I have so many. The most sig- nificant has to involve tornado formation, though. Understanding which storms will produce a tornado, more than just a few minutes before it happens, would be truly life changing. I’m confident it’ll happen, thanks to people far smarter than I am.

Michael Page earned his CBM in 2015. For more information on AMS Certification Programs, go to www.ametsoc.org.

was that societal benefit from weather forecasts was limited primarily by the quality of those physical forecasts. Attention focused on their improvement.

And improvement there was, thanks to new physical understanding, new observing platforms and instru- ments, and computing power.

Over the more recent past, however, societal benefit had failed to keep pace with improvements in forecasts of atmospheric conditions. The reasons?

These were numerous but included limitations in communication of forecasts; insufficient attention to the links connecting weather conditions to economic and social impacts; little information for users about their options for action; inadequate characterization of uncertainty; and much more. It was time to be dis- ciplined and structured not just in the development

of meteorological information (broadly construed, to include not just weather but hydrology, climate, space weather, etc.) but also in the application of that information.

These realities posed a challenge for AMS staff, AMS volunteer leadership, and ultimately, every AMS member. Science—and the integrity of that science—

would of course remain paramount. But should AMS sharpen its focus to study of the physical atmospheric and oceanic sciences per se, or should it expand and step up its activities to support the application of that science for societal benefit? To focus on the former would allow AMS to rely on existing resources and stay in its comfort zone. To do justice to the latter—an ambitious job—would carry both financial implications and risk.

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After considerable discussion and de- bate, the AMS opted for the latter course.

The implications have shaped every AMS action and decision since, but two of the more consequential decisions were 1) the establishment of an annual Symposium on Societal Applications, Policy Research, and Practice, and 2), standing up a new scien- tific journal, Weather, Climate, and Society (WCAS), to be published quarterly.

The initial issue of WCAS was published in October of 2009. The first slim number contained only 90 pages; in the 10 years since, the issues have doubled or tripled in size, as the journal’s reputation has grown, the numbers of social scientists entering the research space have multiplied, and as AMS has adapted its business model for the journal, making it more congru- ent with practices elsewhere in the social sciences.

None of this has been easy! To achieve this growth in submissions, breadth, and quality has required vision and sustained hard work from Keith Seitter, the AMS executive director, Ken Heideman, the AMS director of publications, and AMS

editorial staff; from AMS volunteer leadership, including two publications commissioners, Dave Jorgensen and Bob Rauber; three chief editors, Roberta Balstad Miller, Amanda Lynch, and most recently Henry Huntington; and from their WCAS editorial board and the hundreds of authors who’ve been doing the research and writing the journal articles themselves.

FOR METEOROLOGY AND SOCIAL SCI- ENCE, AND FOR THE LARGER WORLD.

But the accomplishment isn’t limited to the AMS per se; it’s changing our field—how we view ourselves and how others view us. WCAS and the related technical meetings at the intersection of meteorology, social science, and policy have shaped AMS priorities and impacts in subtle but important ways.

Earth scientists or geoscientists or meteorologists and social scientists can today see career paths and opportunities without limit, spanning the physical and social sciences; public, private, and academic

sectors; and basic research and applications, with few constraining boundaries or barriers to impede progress. They can bring their attention and ener- gies to bear on solving big challenges—capturing Earth’s energy, water, and agricultural bounty;

building community-level resilience to hazards globally; and protecting the environment, habitat, and ecosystems.

Increasingly, the larger society sees the Earth scientists and social scientists working in this space as pivotally important to national and global aspirations to live a little better, a little more safely, and a little longer on this generous but dangerous and fragile planet. They see community values of innovation, inclusion, and international reach as invitations to partner and collaborate to make a better world. And increasingly, political leaders, business leaders, and publics domestically and internationally are accept- ing that invitation.

And all this stemming from a single—and singu- lar—technical journal.

ABOUT OUR MEMBERS

In the history of the AMS and its certification programs, there are only four members who have been named Fellows, Certified Consulting Meteorologists, and Certified Broadcast Meteorologists. All four attended the 2018 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas: (Left to right): Jay Trobec, John Morales, Bob Ryan, and Paul Gross.

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Charles J. Neumann

OBITUARIES

CHARLES J. NEUMANN 1925–2017

C

harles J. (Charlie) Neumann passed away peace- fully surrounded by family on November 14, 2017. He was born in New York City on July 14, 1925, and attended Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, for one year before entering the U.S.

Navy Meteorology Cadet Program at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1943. The program was established to address the critical need for trained meteorologists in World War II. At MIT Charlie became close friends with fellow cadet, John A. Knauss, the future administrator of NOAA.

Upon graduation and commissioning, Charlie was assigned to a navy forecast center in San Diego.

Eager for a more challenging assignment, he volunteered for the recently formed Navy Aerial Typhoon Reconnaissance Squadron as a flight aerologist. The formation of the unit was prompted

by a disastrous typhoon that struck Admiral Halsey’s fleet without warning in December 1944. Thus began Charlie’s exceptional meteorological career that spanned 70 productive years until the time of his death.

After a brief training period, he arrived at his first reconnaissance assignment in Guam in the spring of 1946. He soon learned what an ardu- ous, dangerous—but interesting and exciting—duty he had volunteered

for. Since military units were rapidly demobilizing after the war, the few flight aerologists who remained often flew typhoon missions of 12 hours or more, sometimes on consecutive days. Typhoon missions were flown in the PB4Y2 Privateer, which was derived from the B24 Liberator patrol bomber. Navigation was by dead reckoning since there were few long-range navigational aids. Typhoons were penetrated below cloud base at about 500 feet so the flight meteorologist, positioned in the nose of the aircraft, could observe the state of the sea that was used to estimate the surface winds. Neumann refined the technique by compiling a catalog of his aerial photographs of sea state compared to flight-level winds.

Upon separation from active duty, Charlie enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he earned an M.S. degree in meteorology in 1949. He then gained employment at the Air Weather Service Scientific Services Directorate in Washington, D.C.

On June 9, 1941, Charlie married Betty Brown on Long Island, New York, and they settled in

Washington, D.C. However, he was recalled to active duty by the navy in 1952 during the Korean War.

Once again he was assigned as flight aerologist, this time with a hurricane

reconnaissance squadron based at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. Returning from a mission in 1953, the

crew made a short stop at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Within days he contracted polio and was completely incapacitated. He suspected that he contracted polio from drinking contaminated water at Guantanamo.

Following an extended period of hospitaliza- tion and rehabilitation, he was granted a disability retirement from the navy. Charlie was confined to a wheelchair, although he could walk short distances with crutches and heavy leg braces. Yet he never gave in to adversity and left an outstanding legacy of groundbreaking work in tropical cyclone data analysis, statistical prediction, and risk analysis.

Charlie began his career in south Florida in 1956, when he and Betty moved to Miami and he became chief forecaster at the reactivated Home- stead Air Force Base. In 1962, he trans- ferred to the U.S. Weather Bureau as an aviation forecaster at Miami International Airport. In 1965, Miami Weather Bureau operations, including the National Hurricane Center (NHC), were con- solidated on the campus of the University of Miami in Coral Gables. The facility also housed NASA’s Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG), which pro- vided support to the Gemini and Apollo programs.

In 1966, Neumann joined SMG, which consisted of meteorologists Jess Gulick and John Hope, plus three meteorological technicians. When the unit was abolished in 1971, Neumann joined the newly formed NHC Research and Development (R&D) Unit, headed by Banner Miller. Upon Miller’s retirement in 1976, Neumann was promoted to chief R&D, a position he held until his retirement in 1987.

The main thrust of Neumann’s research throughout his career was to produce results that addressed operational needs and added value to critical products and services. His tropical cyclone research began with John Hope while they were still in SMG in the late 1960s. NASA operations at Cape Kennedy required

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longer-range guidance on hurricane motion. Neu- mann and Hope developed an objective technique that used historical hurricane tracks as analogs to define probability ellipses showing possible paths of a hurricane based on the current NHC forecast.

The technique was christened HURRAN (hurricane analog). HURRAN was used experimentally at NHC during the 1969 hurricane season and operationally in 1970. It continued in operational use for many years. An analysis of its performance by Neumann and Hope was published in Monthly Weather Review in 1972.

Since the performance of statistical hurricane prediction techniques depends on the accuracy of historical tracks, Neumann undertook a challenging project, called HURDAT, to reanalyze existing track data to correct numerous errors, an effort begun by Jose Partagas and Henry Diaz. After heading the project for several years, he turned the leadership over to Chris Landsea, who continues to direct this growing task. Without HURDAT, advances in statistical hurricane prediction and risk would be unachievable.

Neumann’s transfer to the NHC R&D unit in 1971 was the start of his prolific production of a succession of increasingly sophisticated statistical and statistical–dynamical prediction models, including NHC72, NHC73, NHC83, and NHC90, in addition to the SHIFOR intensity model with Brian Jarvinen. Several of these were adapted for use in tropical cyclone forecast centers worldwide and some are still in use. Particularly noteworthy is his NHC Risk Analysis Program (HURRISK). HUR- RISK produces a set of 17 graphics that illustrate the probabilities of various tropical cyclone parameters using Monte Carlo simulations based on historical tropical cyclone data.

As his models and techniques were adopted by tropical cyclone centers around the world, Neumann’s reputation grew and he was frequently invited to speak at international conferences. In spite of physical limitations, he traveled widely to meetings in the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific, including Australia, usually accompanied by Betty. In a memorable trip in 1989 to a tropical cyclone conference in Manila, an attempted coup d’état caused the attendees to be confined to their hotel for several days.

And in 1979, Charlie was U.S. delegate to the USSR Academy of Science, XIV Pacific Science Congress in Khabarovsk, USSR. Charlie and Betty returned home by way of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Lake Baikal.

Neumann retired from the federal government in 1987 after 40 years of service. For the next 12 years, he was employed as senior scientist by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He continued to develop statistical–dynamical tropical cyclone track prediction models for use by NOAA, the Navy/Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center, and the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. Other projects included risk models for use by insurance and utility companies, analysis of seaports worldwide for possible tropical cyclone havens, and im- proved analysis of meteorological fields. From 2002 until the time of his death, Neumann worked part time for SAIC. He also performed tropical cyclone research for various private organizations. During his long, productive career, Charlie authored more than 100 professional articles, many published in AMS journals.

Neumann received numerous awards throughout his long career. A sample includes the Department of Commerce Silver Medal (1971), Department of Commerce nominee for Federal Handicapped Employee of the Year (1972), AMS Banner I. Miller Award with Miles Lawrence (1977), AMS Fellow (1981), AMS Annual Award for Outstanding Con- tributions to Advancement of Applied Meteorol- ogy (1983), Department of Commerce Gold Medal (1986), World Meteorological Organization recom- mendation that the Charles J. Neumann Award be established in recognition of sustained excellence in applied research in global aspects of tropical cyclones (1989), and, most recently, the National Tropical Weather Conference Robert and Joanne Simpson Award (2015).

Upon his retirement from the civil service, he had an addition built to his house that consisted of a spacious office on the ground floor with an elevator to the second level. There he built his model railroad that eventually occupied the entire space, complete with realistic scenery of countryside and towns. The trains were all computer controlled by a network that he designed and built himself.

Charlie and Betty especially enjoyed their time spent at their vacation home in Sugarbush Valley, Vermont. Before his National Weather Service retirement, they spent vacations there, and during retirement they stayed for the entire summer. The highlight of each summer was their annual family reunion with their children, Donald, Charles, Suzan, Nancy, and Barbara, along with their spouses, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

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Each summer for more than 30 consecutive years, Charlie packed his computers and supplies for the long drive to Vermont. There he continued his tropical cyclone work. Several colleagues and

friends visited during those summers. Charlie had kept his logbook of every one of his reconnaissance flights.

Visitors enjoyed listening to him recount some of his more exciting missions. While returning from one long typhoon flight and running low on fuel, they headed to the closest coastal base and requested permission to land. They were told they couldn’t land because the base was closed due to high winds, low ceilings, and torrential rain. The pilot declared an emergency and made a harrowing landing. Upon entering base operations, the duty officer yelled, “Are you guys crazy?

Don’t you know there’s a typhoon out there?”

Charlie will always be remembered for his gener- osity in sharing his data and expertise with others.

He devoted much time and effort to helping foreign visitors who came to NHC for periods of up to a year

to learn the latest developments in tropical cyclone analysis and prediction. He never spoke an unkind word about anyone. The volume of his scientific output would be considered remarkable even with current technology. Yet he accomplished so much with minimal resources. He could often be found assembling a computer program on IBM punch cards using a manual keypunch. Graphics were frequently drawn by hand.

Charlie Neumann’s career extended from a time when tropical cyclone prediction was based mainly on climatology to the advent of today’s high-resolution global models. He played a key role in the creation of techniques to improve the accuracy of hurricane forecasts and risk assessment. Charlie was an admi- rable model and mentor to scores of meteorologists who had the good fortune to work with him. Everyone who knew him was captivated by his friendly, modest, and unassuming personality.

—Joseph Pelissier

PHILIP ERROL MERILEES 1940–2018

IN MEMORIAM

From roots in radio to graphics-laden TV segments, this history is an entertaining read for anyone fascinated by the public face of weather!

Weather on the Air:

A History of Broadcast Meteorology

ROBERT HENSON

From low humor to high drama, Weather on the Air documents the evolution of weathercasts, including the people, technology, science, and show business that combine to deliver the weather to the public. Meteorologist and science journalist Robert Henson has combined decades of research, dozens of interviews, and historical photos to create the first comprehensive history of its kind, featuring:

• Entertainers, scientists, and the long-term drive to professionalize weathercasting

• The complex relations between government and private forecasters

• How climate change science and the Internet have changed the face of today’s broadcasts

www.ametsoc.org/amsbookstore

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