Recently in WEATHER HISTORY Category

By Meteorologist Tom Skilling

Here are the original weather forecasts which were sent out by teletype to radio and television stations for the Blizzard of 1967 courtesy of Frank Wachowski.  The night before the forecast, the prediction was for a 50 percent chance of rain or snow. There was NO word a storm was on its way. The Blizzard of 1967 caught Chicagoans completely by surprise.  The temperature had hit 65-degrees only two days earlier.

Forecasters in that era had NO satellite imagery, NO in flight aircraft observations, hand plotted their maps and had access to an upper air forecast off  one one very simple computer model--the so-called "barotropic" model, which didn't perform well in developmental situations (like the 1967 blizzard situation) and predicted the flow pattern at only one level of the atmosphere.

Today's models which take into account atmospheric developments in up to 90 vertical layers and on a global basis, focusing on small scale features of developing storms, something forecasters in 1967 couldn't even imagine.. 2012 computer projections are run on supercomputers which can perform 80-trillion mathematical operations per second. And forecasters can look at dozens of different models to hone forecasts.





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Veteran Chicago weather observer and historian Frank Wachowski was kind enough to supply these fabulous historic pictures of key staff members from Chicago's National Weather Service offices (back when the organization was known as the U.S. Weather Bureau):

IVAN W. BRUNK: Mr. Brunk was in charge of the Bureau's downtown Public Service Unit during the 1950s. The Public Service Unit served Chicago's media and TV stations. (Note: The Weather Service currently has no offices in downtown Chicago.)

JOHN J. SULLIVAN: Mr. Sullivan served as Chicago's climatologist from 1952 through 1972. He was stationed at the Federal Building in downtown Chicago, and was responsible for preparing the Bureau's monthly data forms, which included a narrative summary of the month's weather events (a feature missed in current-day weather summaries). Mr. Sullivan passed away in the early 1970s.

Special thanks goes to Frank Wachowski for supplying the pictures and information on their careers.
-- WGN Weather Center

The Weather Bureau maintained an office in Chicago's old Federal Building from July 1, 1905 through Nov. 30, 1964. The city's official weather records were taken at this location during the period from July 1, 1905 through Dec. 31, 1925.

Weather Bureau meteorologist Ellis Burton preparing a forecast at the Federal Building during the 1950s.

National Weather Service observer Frank Wachowski at Midway Airport in 1972 preparing to brave the elements during a heavy rainstorm.