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Our Office » History
Florida has a long storied history beginning with the
indigenous Indians encountering the Spanish explorers in the 16th
century.
St. Augustine is its
oldest city with over 440 years since its founding in 1565. Even so,
many
of the cities and towns in Florida are very new, especially in the
central
and south sections. Habitation by people in the central and south
counties
of Florida was uncomfortable and unhealthy before the advent of air
conditioning
and mosquito control.
Miami is perhaps the best known city in Florida, and it has
experienced
boom and bust throughout its short history. It has known the
Spanish-American
War, Henry Flagler and his railroad, the Roaring Twenties, the
Depression,
World War II, segregation and civil unrest in the 50s and 60s, the
Cuban
missile crisis and the Mariel Boat Lift, and the tremendous influx of
Latin
American immigrants in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The character of Miami
has
changed dramatically through all this time, and today it is a vibrant,
multi-cultural city with a pervasive Latin flavor of its many Latin
American residents.
The following narrative is taken from the Historical
Museum of Southern Florida's web site:
"Hundreds of years
earlier, before
Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) discovered the New World, the
Tequesta
Indians lived here. The first to appreciate South Florida's mild
climate,
the Tequestans lived simply. Abundant food supplied from the land and
sea
made agricultural activities unnecessary. In 1566, the Tequesta
settlement
was visited by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, his men, and Brother Francisco
Villareal. One year earlier, Menendez had founded St. Augustine, the
oldest
city in the United States, and now came to South Florida to establish a
Jesuit mission. Within a few years it was abandoned and another attempt
to Christianize the Tequestans was not made until 1743. That effort was
also short-lived.
During the more than two
centuries
that Florida was controlled by Spain, the Tequestans and other
Prehistoric
Indians of Florida were decimated by European diseases and warfare. The
lands they vacated attracted people from several of the Creek tribes in
Georgia and Alabama who had entered Florida as early as 1704.
Collectively,
they became known as Seminoles, and during the nineteenth century they
would engage in a series of bloody wars against the United States
partly
to defend their right to live in Florida. After the conclusion of the
Third
Seminole War in 1858, the few hundred Indians remaining in the state
lived
in the Everglades.
The first permanent white
settlers
in the Miami area arrived in the early 1800s. During the decades that
followed,
a wide variety of individuals left their mark on the history of this
area.
In the 1830s, statesman Richard Fitzpatrick from South Carolina (later
William English) operated,
with slave labor, a successful plantation on the Miami River. He
cultivated
sugar cane, bananas, corn and tropical fruit. Fitzpatrick was driven
from
his plantation by the Seminole Indians. Major
William S. Harney, in command at Fort Dallas which was located on
Fitzpatrick's
Plantation on the north bank of the Miami River, led several raids
against
the Indians during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842)." |
Fort Dallas (established 1837) was one of a series of forts
built
by the U.S. Government
during the Seminole Wars from 1816-1818, 1835-1842, and 1855-1858. The
first weather observations taken in what is now the Miami area were at
Fort Dallas during the Second Seminole War. The first observer at Fort
Dallas was Assistant Surgeon I.H. Baldwin, U.S. Army, beginning in
October
1839. Temperature records, with many
breaks, are available from 1839 to 1855 from the Fort Dallas site near
present day 2nd Avenue SE and 4th
Street SE. Temperatures and rainfall are available from the Fort Dallas
site from 1855 to 1858 with many breaks.
Fort Dallas Slave Quarters, in 1904 and today, now
located in Lummus
Park, downtown
Miami
U.S. Army Assistant Surgeons at Fort Dallas kept
meteorological
records during the Second and Third Seminole Wars
from the Battle of Olustee, Fla. (Baker County),
1864, web page
The War Between the States (1861-65) had little effect on
South
Florida outside
of Key West, because of the very few residents and the lack of any
strategic
reason for Confederates to defend the area. Fort Dallas likely remained
in Union hands throughout the war and probably served as a base for
ships
participating in the naval blockade of the Confederacy. After the war,
refugees and desperadoes were often residents at Fort Dallas, including
Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate statesman, who used the fort as a
hideout during his successful flight through Cuba and back to his
native Great Britain in 1865. In 1866
all-but-abandoned Fort Dallas was occupied by Yankee carpetbaggers
W.H. Hunt and W.H.Gleason and their families, who later became
reconstruction Radical Republican politicians from then sparsely
populated Dade County. Gleason's political escapades (The Gleason
Gang) during Reconstruction in Tallahassee are well documented.
Hunt later became the first cooperative weather observer in the
Biscayne
community (see below).
In 1870,
President
Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution of Congress establishing a
weather
service within the Army. Observations were taken at 22 sites by the
Army
Signal Corps and the word 'forecast' was first used. An Army Signal
Corps
weather observation site was established in November 1871, at Punta
Rassa (near Fort Myers) on the west coast and at Jupiter Inlet in July,
1879, on the east coast. (More information from a national
perspective on the Signal Service era of the National Weather Service
can be found at the NWS history
web site.) The Jupiter Signal Service station is the ancestor
of today's Miami National Weather Service offices.
Jupiter Lighthouse complex,
1908. Weather Bureau is the rightmost building.
Courtesy Lynn Lasseter Drake collection
Early meteorological observations (under the direction of
the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington) were also taken in Dade County at
'Biscayne',
which was a small settlement of a dozen or so homesteads in the
present-day Miami Shores area. The first observer in 1870 was W. H.
Hunt,
previously mentioned Yankee carpetbagger and radical Republican state
senator
from Dade and Brevard counties,
which at
that time adjoined each other. He turned over the observing
duties in 1872 to Ephraim
Sturtevant, a fellow carpetbagger and native of Connecticut,
graduate of Yale, who had
lived and taught in Ohio before moving to post-bellum Florida in
1870. He was also the father of Julia
Tuttle (the 'Mother' of Miami), who was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
You
can see the records
entered by Sturtevant in early September of 1878 when
a strong hurricane moved north-south across South Florida just west of
present-day Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach. In 1880, the
Biscayne temperature and
rainfall records
ended as the Sturtevants returned to Ohio (Sturtevant died in 1881).
The other settlers of Biscayne either moved on (Gleason and his family
moved to Eau Gallie, a town he founded in Brevard County), some going
south to Fort Dallas or
other Dade County communities, or passed away, and the town
fell into disrepair. Julia Tuttle moved to the old Fort Dallas in
1891 (a few years after her husband died) and converted it to a
homestead.
In 1890, at the request of President Benjamin
Harrison, Congress
created the Weather Bureau within the Department of Agriculture. On
July 1, 1891, the meteorological mission of the Signal Service was
officially transferred to the Weather Bureau. The Jupiter Signal
Service station therefore became the Jupiter Weather Bureau with
Alexander J. Mitchell as the Official-in-Charge (Mitchell was later a
long term Official-in-Charge of the Jacksonville Weather Bureau)
followed in 1894 by James W. Cronk. On
December 29, 1894, the State of Florida experienced its worst freeze
since 1835 and another severe freeze occurred February 8-9, 1895. The
only South Florida meteorological record of those two freezes was at
Jupiter, where the temperature dropped to 24 on December 29, and to 27
on February 9. Partially as a
result of those two severe freezes which were reportedly much less
severe
near Biscayne Bay (local legend contends that Julia Tuttle sent an
orange blossom to show that the freeze had not affected the Miami
area), Henry
Flagler decided
to extend his railroad south from West Palm Beach to the northern shore
of the Miami River and build a luxury hotel there.
While the Jupiter Weather Bureau was keeping accurate records of
meteorological conditions for (at that time) northern Dade County,
unfortunately no meteorological records were kept in the Miami area
again until September, 1895, when a new station was established at
Lemon
City (possibly as a result of those two freezes farther north in
Florida). Lemon City was a town located near the present day
intersection
of NE 2nd Avenue and 60th Street. From Larry
Wiggins'
study entitled "The Birth of Miami" available on the Historical Museum
of Southern Florida's web site:
The Miami area, in
the years leading
up to the railroad's arrival, was better known as "Biscayne Bay
Country."
The only overland transportation to the area was by a hack (or
stagecoach)
line that ran from Lantana on them southern end of Lake Worth to Lemon
City on Biscayne Bay. The few published accounts from that period
describe
the area as a wilderness that held much promise. Lying five miles north
of the Miami River, Lemon City could boast of only fifteen buildings in
1893. However, many homesteaders had settled on land up to five miles
away
from the core of the settlements. One of these buildings was a new
hotel
that could accommodate twenty-five to thirty guests. Two miles south
were
several people living in Buena Vista. "Cocoanut Grove" (as it was
spelled
then) sat ... south of the Miami River; it contained twenty-eight
buildings
"of a very neat and tasteful character," two large stores doing an
"immense
business," and a hotel run by Charles and Isabella Peacock. Cutler,
eight
miles south of Cocoanut Grove, also contained a few settlers. |
The Lemon City site (first observer was the Rev. Charles W.
Kimball, who only lasted one month, followed by E.L. White, who later
administered Julia Tuttle's estate after she died in 1898), recorded
temperatures and rainfall sporadically for five years
from September 1895 to April 1900 (with a break in July 1897 and
another break from June through August 1899). It was during this time
that the
Biscayne
Bay area experienced the first "boom" in anticipation of the Flagler
railroad.
The town of Miami was set out on land previously owned by Julia Tuttle
and William Brickell on the north and south sides of the Miami River,
respectively.
The railroad tracks reached Lemon City on April 3, 1896 and the new
town
of Miami (7 miles to the south) only 4 days later on April 7.
As the town of Miami rapidly began to develop, the economic
importance
of spreading information about the mild climate undoubtedly influenced
the establishment of a cooperative temperature and rainfall recording
site
at 131 SE 1st Street, now near the heart of downtown, in
December,
1900 (observer was the Rev. E.V. Blackman,
Methodist minister). The
Rev. Blackman also received telegrams with weather warnings from the
Weather Bureau in Washington, DC, which he posted at the door of the
Post Office. Instruments remained there until June, 1911 (the
Jupiter Weather Bureau under Official-in-Charge at that time H. P.
Hardin was closed in May 1911) when the city's first official Weather Bureau Office (WBO)
was established.
The following narrative is taken from Local Climatological Summary for
1949:
In June, 1911, a
first order Weather
Bureau station was opened in the Bank
of Bay Biscayne Building, at the
northwest corner of Miami Avenue and Flagler Street. Instruments were
exposed
on the roof. Height, in feet above ground and above roof, respectively,
were for the anemometer, 72 and 44; rain gage, 32 and 4; thermometers
37
and 9. The exposure was excellent. In August, 1914, the instruments
were
moved to the roof of the Federal Building,
on
the corner of Northeast First
Avenue and First Street. The heights were, anemometer, 79 and 19; rain
gage 64 and 4; thermometers, 71 and 11. Exposures were excellent until
November, 1916, when the erection of an eight story building 110 feet
south
of the instruments reduced the velocity of south winds by 25% or more.
In October, 1919, a six story building was erected about 100 feet to
the
northeast, affecting the velocity of winds from that direction. In
November,
1925, a 17 story building was erected east of the instruments resulting
in the recording of only a small percentage of east winds. This
building
was torn down to the fifth floor in December, 1926, greatly improving
the
exposure. In July, 1927, the wind instruments were moved to the roof of
the Seybold Building (picture
circa 1920s, picture
today), near the center of the block bounded by Miami and
Northeast First Avenues and Flagler and Northeast First Streets. Height
of the anemometer was 168 and 31 feet. ... In July, 1929, the rain gage
and thermometers were moved to the Seybold Building. Elevations were,
rain
gage, 117 and 4; thermometers, 124 and 11. The exposure was excellent
until
1939, when a 17 story building 1-1/2 blocks east reduced the velocity
of
winds from that direction. In January, 1943, the instruments were moved
to the roof of the
Congress Building, 111 Northeast Second Avenue. Heights
were, anemometer, 249 and 19; rain gage, 234 and 4; thermometers 242
and
12. The exposure was excellent except for a slight effect on southwest
winds caused by a 17 story building about 250 feet to the southwest. In
June, 1948, the instruments were moved to the roof of the east
penthouse
of the Vocational Education Building (later called Lindsey Hopkins
Building), 1410 Northeast Second Avenue. Heights,
anemometer 229 and 45; rain gage, 188 and 4; thermometers, 193 and 9.
The
exposure is excellent except apparently there is some diminution of
rainfall
catch during high winds. |
This renewed interest in weather in Miami corresponds
well with the national demand for weather information. In 1898,
President
William McKinley ordered the Weather Bureau to establish a hurricane
warning
network. Around 1900, the Weather Bureau began to experiment with kites
to measure temperature, relative humidity, and winds in the upper
atmosphere.
In 1909, the Weather Bureau began to use balloons for upper air
information,
a method still in use today. The advent of aviation changed the Weather
Bureau substantially. In 1926, the Air Commerce Act directed the
Weather
Bureau to provide for weather service to civilian aviation. By the
early
1930s kites were becoming a hazard to airplanes in flight, causing kite
observations to be discontinued in 1931.
The first Official-in-Charge (OIC) of the newly established
WBO in 1911 was Richard Gray,
who transferred from the old Army Signal Service weather office at
Jupiter,
Florida. He had one assistant, C.B. Moseley, Jr. Gray's legacy
includes his now famous actions during the
devastating
category 4 1926 hurricane which struck Miami September 17-18, killing
more
than 100 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. In the first
part of the 20th century, warnings for hurricanes were often
late and inadequate without modern satellite pictures, computer models,
and surface observations. Although storm warnings were issued by the
Damage in downtown Miami after the 1926
hurricane
WBO at noon on the 17th, hurricane warnings
were only issued as the barometer was falling and winds were rising at
11 PM local time, after most Miamians were asleep. You can read a
description of what the WBO staff were doing in the office that night
in parts 1, 2, and 3 of the official observation forms
for September 1926. Some reports have
Gray
running through the streets of Miami shouting the warning in an effort
to warn the sleeping population of the imminent danger before the worst
winds began.. At 1 AM local
time,
2 hours after the warnings were issued, winds reached hurricane force
along
the coast. Gray also apparently returned to the streets during the
passage
of the eye of the storm (the calm lasted about 35 minutes) to warn
residents venturing outside that the
lull
would not last and that the wind would return from the opposite
direction
with greater force that before. Gray's narrative (parts 1926-a, 1926-b,
and map) of the 1926
hurricane was included
in the American Meteorological Society's publication Monthly
Weather Review. [The National Weather Service sponsors a State of Florida historical marker commemorating
the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 which stands at the corner of NE 1st
Avenue and 1st Street, downtown Miami. The marker was dedicated on
September 18, 2007, the 81st anniversary of the hurricane.]
A direct result of the 1926 Air Commerce Act, but not in operation
until September 4, 1929, the Miami Weather
Bureau Airport Station was first established at 11229 Northwest
42nd Avenue (near today's East 10th Avenue and 56th Street in Hialeah)
at Miami Municipal Airport. Official
psychrometric observations were not taken at that location until
September 1, 1930. Dry and wet bulb thermometers, mounted
on standard whirling apparatus, were exposed in an instrument shelter,
over a sod covered plot, bounded 20 feet on the east
and 30 feet on the west by paved roads. The location was about 13 miles
northwest of central Miami. Biscayne Bay was about 7 miles to the east
and
Everglades about three miles west. Pibals
(pilot balloons) began at the site on November 1, 1930, and rawinsonde observations (raobs)
began on July 12, 1939, showing the importance of upper air
observations to aviation. Ralph L. Higgs was the Junior
Meteorologist in charge of the station. For many years, 1929
through 1975, the City
of Miami had a WBO downtown and a WBAS at the airport.
In early 1935, Ernest
Carson became the MIC of the Miami
WBO. In mid 1935, tropical cyclone forecasting was reorganized
from one
centralized operation in Washington to four tropical cyclone
forecasting offices (San Juan, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and
Washington) based on geographic areas of responsibility, along with
increased funding ($80,000). Hurricane
forecasters Grady Norton (senior) and Gordon Dunn (junior) worked at
the Jacksonville
office. The new setup was severely tested within a few short
weeks. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, a very small but viciously intense
category 5
storm, devastated the middle Florida Keys killing hundreds of World War
I veterans who were working on the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA) Overseas Highway project as well as scores of
local
residents. The reaction to the Labor Day disaster was loud and
contentious. Congress appropriated even more money ($128,000) in
late 1935 to improve observations and reports for tropical cyclones.
In 1940, the Weather Bureau was moved from the Department of
Agriculture to the Department of Commerce, showing the
increased importance of aviation weather. In
1943,
when the downtown weather instruments were moved to the roof of the
Congress
Building in downtown Miami, the primary hurricane forecast office was
moved
from Jacksonville to Miami as well. Grady
Norton became the Meteorologist-in-Charge of the new office which
established
a joint hurricane warning service with the Weather Bureau, Air Corps,
and
Navy. Norton served as MIC of the Miami office until his death in
1954.
During
World War II, the first radar, a WSR-3 radar, was installed at Miami.
The first airplane flights into hurricanes occurred during the decade
of the 1940s as well, heralding the beginning of the hurricane research
effort. Over at the WBAS, the Miami Municipal Airport site was
purchased by the U.S. Navy in
1942, and on July 31, 1942 the WBAS moved to (then) Pan American Field,
site of today's Miami International Airport, 5010 Northwest 36th
Street, about 5-1/2 miles
northwest of
central
Miami. Ralph Higgs transferred to San Juan, PR, in 1942, and Earl S.
Hanlon became the Assistant Meteorologist in charge of the WBAS,
followed by Paul H. Kutschenreuter in 1943 (Kutschenreuter went on to
later become Deputy Director of the National Weather Service). The
thermometers were exposed about 5-1/2 feet above the ground,
100 feet north of the main
terminal building, over a sodded area bounded
by asphalt drives 20 feet to the east, west, and south. Beginning in
February,
1949, the readings were obtained from a telepsychrometer, exposed in
the
same location, over a sodded area of 1000 square feet,
surrounded by a paved parking area. Biscayne Bay was 6 miles to the
east;
the Everglades area was 3-1/2 miles to the west. Wilmer L.
(Tommy)
Thompson became the WBAS Official-in-Charge in 1947.
From 1947 through 1950, South Florida endured very active hurricane
seasons. Two
hurricanes struck South Florida in 1947, the first very large Cape
Verde storm made landfall near Fort Lauderdale on the morning of
September 17 as a category 4 with maximum reported one-minute sustained
wind of 155 mph at the Hillsboro Lighthouse. It moved west very
slowly, around 10 mph, and finally exited the state near Naples late
that night. The second hurricane to strike South Florida came
from the northwest Caribbean to make landfall near Cape Sable on
October 11. This hurricane produced tremendous flooding from
torrential rainfall as well as at least two tornadoes. Two
more hurricanes struck South Florida in 1948, on very similar paths
that originated in the Caribbean, crossed western Cuba and the Florida
keys, and moved across the extreme south part of the Florida peninsula
from southwest to northeast. The first struck on Sept. 21-22 and
the second came on October 5. In
1949, only one hurricane struck South Florida, but it did great
damage to the Delray Beach/Palm Beach area of South Florida where it
made landfall on August 26 before moving across the north part of Lake
Okeechobee toward the Tampa Bay area. In 1950, a very small but
intense hurricane
named King made landfall near Miami Beach just before midnight on
October 17 and the eye passed directly over Miami. Hurricane King
caused a damage path that was only 7 to 10 miles wide that, according
to Weather Bureau MIC Grady Norton, looked like a large tornado damage
path.
In 1948, the WBO moved to the Lindsey
Hopkins
Building
(referred to as the Vocational Education Building earlier) at 1410 NE
2nd Avenue. Grady Norton died from a stroke in 1954 after working
a 12 hour shift at the Weather Bureau forecasting Hurricane Hazel.
Walter Davis became the
Acting
MIC until a new MIC could be selected. The 1954 hurricane season
produced three storms that affected the densely populated Middle
Atlantic and New England states (Hurricanes Carol, Edna, and Hazel),
forcing increased attention from politicians in Washington.
Congress then appropriated increased money for the Weather Bureau in
1955 that included a new radar network, an improved hurricane warning
network, and hurricane research (The National Hurricane Research
Project). Gordon Dunn,
at that time MIC of the WBO in Chicago, Illinois, was
eventually selected as the new MIC for the Miami WBO. In 1955, the
Miami WBO was designated the primary national Hurricane Center but
hurricane forecast responsibility remained assigned to
San Juan, Miami, Boston, New Orleans, and Washington, DC offices based
on geographical areas.
On February 28,
1957, the WBAS (airport station) was moved 1 mile south and 0.4 mile
east to the CAA&WB Building located on the 20th St. side of Miami
International Airport. Walter Davis became the Chief Airport
Meteorologist at the WBAS in 1962. On July 1, 1958,
the WBO/NHC (city office) moved to the Aviation
Building
at 3240 NW 27th Avenue while WBAS (airport) records continued at the
Miami
International
Airport. The WSR-57 network radar was
installed at the Aviation Building on June 26, 1959. Temperature
records for the downtown site ended with this move. It must be
mentioned
that prior to the establishment of the airport site, the location of
thermometers
on top of tall buildings in downtown Miami made the accuracy of
temperature
records for the period 1914-1958 very suspect, especially in
radiational
cooling or inversion situations. Even the airport records, because of
proximity
to asphalt roads, parking areas, and runways, must be considered
somewhat
suspect until winter 1977, when instruments were moved near the west
end of the runways at Miami International Airport.
On December 23, 1964, the Miami WBO/NHC moved again, this
time to the campus of the University
of Miami and the Computer
Building, 1365 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables.
The WBAS remained at the airport, but came under the supervision of the
WBO/NHC rather than a separate office. In 1966, the WBO/NHC was
officially designated the National Hurricane
Center (NHC) with primary hurricane forecast responsibility for the
entire Atlantic
basin.
Official Miami weather records continued to be taken at the Miami
International
Airport. From 1967 until administrative division in 1984 the National
Hurricane
Center/National Weather Service histories are the same (numerous
articles
have been written about NHC history and published in AMS journals, see
references below).
Gordon
Dunn retired at the end of the 1967 hurricane season, succeeded by Dr.
Robert H. Simpson.
Gables One Tower on South Dixie Highway,
WSFO Miami/NHC home 1979-1995
(note WSR-57 radome on top of building was
blown down by Hurricane Andrew)
In 1970, the Weather Bureau became the National
Weather
Service (NWS). After the 1973 hurricane season, Dr. Simpson retired and
was succeeded by Dr. Neil Frank.
The WBAS at Miami International Airport was finally contracted out by
the NWS in 1975, and personnel either transferred to NHC or were
employed by the
contract observer. On January 19, 1977, flurries of snow were
observed all across peninsular Florida, including the metro West Palm
Beach/Fort Lauderdale/Miami areas extending as far south as
Homestead. This established a new record for the farthest south
observance of snow in Florida, besting the previous record set in 1899
when trace amounts fell as far south as Fort Myers on the Gulf coast to
Fort Pierce on the Atlantic coast. In June 1979,
the NHC moved from the University of Miami to the 5th floor
of Gables One Tower, an office building across from the university on
Dixie
Highway. At this time, computers were already being used for forecast
modeling
purposes at NWS national headquarters in Washington and, to a lesser
extent,
at field offices. Even so, it wasn't until the early 1980s that the
Automation
of Field Operations Services (AFOS) system was installed at Miami as
part
of the first nationwide operational computer and communications system
for the NWS.
Miami Weather
Forecast Office and the Tropical Prediction
Center on the FIU campus, 1995-present
Administrative changes in 1984 resulted in the
separation
of the research and operational groups of NHC as well as the creation
of a separate Miami Weather Service Forecast Office (WSFO). The
WSFO
assumed forecast and warning responsibility for Florida east of the
Apalachicola
River under longtime hurricane forecaster Paul
Hebert as its new MIC
and the Southern Region of the NWS. The NHC was administratively
reassigned
under the National Meteorological Center (NMC) in Washington, DC as a
national
center called the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC). The hurricane
research effort was moved to a new Atlantic Oceanographic and
Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) building on Virginia Key (a good
history of the U.S. hurricane research effort can be read in Dorst's
article, see reference below). In 1987, Dr. Frank retired and
accepted a position in broadcast
meteorology in Houston, Texas. Dr. Bob Sheets
succeeded Dr. Frank as the Director of TPC.
Category 5 Hurricane
Andrew struck south Dade County on August 23-24, 1992. The NWS
WSR-57
radar on top of the office building blew down that night. The
devastation
across south Dade County was severe, making Andrew (then) the costliest
hurricane (since eclipsed by devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with
more than 50 billion dollars in damages) in American history with about
26.5 billion dollars in
damages.
The new Doppler
radar, the
WSR-88D, was installed ahead of schedule due to Andrew in April 1993,
at a location near the Miami Metro Zoo. The WSR-88D was commissioned on
April 20, 1995. In May 1995, the TPC/WSFO moved into a new hurricane
resistant building in the extreme southwest corner of the Florida
International
University
campus close to the intersection of the Florida Turnpike Extension and
the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). On the TPC side, Dr. Sheets retired in
1995 and was succeeded near the beginning of the 1995 tropical cyclone
season
by Dr. Bob Burpee. Dr. Burpee was succeeded
in 1997 as Director by Jerry Jarrell.
Jerry led the National Hurricane Center through Hurricane Georges and category 5 killer
Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
On May 12, 1997, an F1
tornado moved through downtown Miami, witnessed by thousands as it
happened and then millions more as the pictures made national
headlines.
The tornado was detected and warned for in advance using the WSR-88D
Doppler
radar. This event, and the Groundhog
Day
tornadoes in February of 1998, were wakeup calls for South Florida
residents that hurricanes are not the only severe weather threat for
our
region.
In the early 1990s, the NWS embarked on a massive modernization
and restructuring plan, which included not only upgrading all the old
WSR-57
radars to the new 'Next Generation Warning Radar' (NEXRAD) WSR-88D
Doppler
radars, but also upgrading computer equipment and reorganizing forecast
offices away from state boundaries to radar coverage oriented county
warning
areas (CWAs). Under the CWA concept, the State of Florida's forecasts
and
warnings changed from two WSFOs with forecast and warning
responsibility
(Birmingham, Alabama, and Miami, west and east of the Apalachicola
respectively),
and a number of smaller WSOs with warning responsibility only (Mobile,
Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers,
West
Palm Beach, and Key West) to seven Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) (Mobile, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa
Bay, Melbourne, Miami,
and Key West) with warning
and
forecast responsibility based on radar coverage. In August 1998, the
new
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) was delivered
and
accepted at the Miami NEXRAD WSFO (NWSFO) as an eventual replacement
for
the aging AFOS system. On
November 15, 1999, the CWA concept with seven WFOs was officially
started
and the old Miami WSFO became the WFO for mainland South Florida. The
Miami
WFO assumed warning and forecast responsibility for seven counties
(Glades,
Hendry, Collier, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and mainland Monroe)
and their coastal waters out to 50 nautical miles as well as Lake
Okeechobee. The Miami WFO retained state responsibility for the
temperature and precipitation tables and the state forecast
product.
Computers continue to be a huge part of weather
forecasting
and warning. As computer technology improves each
year,
the many calculations required to predict atmospheric motions become
easier
and faster. Better and better models will be developed in the next
several
years to provide more accurate and timely forecasts. Automation due to
computers is rapidly taking over such duties as broadcasting forecasts
and warnings on NOAA Weather Radio, taking routine surface observations
(ASOS - Automation of surface
observing systems), and upper air balloon
observations.
Paul Hebert retired in June 1998, ending a
39 year career in weather. Russell (Rusty)
Pfost,
then science and operations
officer at the NWS office in Jackson, Mississippi, was selected as the
new MIC for WSFO Miami in August 1998. In 2002, the Miami WFO
began issuing gridded weather forecasts
using a Graphical Forecast Editor as well as our traditional text
forecasts.
A gridded weather forecast enables our users to see the forecast in a
graphical
form as well as read it through text. Gridded forecasts from WFOs
across
the country are now being combined into a National
Digital Forecast Database (NDFD). In 2005, additional radar
information from the FAA Terminal Doppler Weather
Radars (TDWR) for Palm Beach International Airport began flowing into
AWIPS, providing redundant radar coverage for the Treasure Coast and
Lake Okeechobee and TDWR radar data from Fort Lauderdale
International
Airport and Miami International Airport was added in spring 2008.
In 2007, a GPS
rawinsonde
replacement system was installed across the country, including WFO
Miami, which greatly improved the accuracy and timeliness of upper
atmosphere data for operational forecast model input.
At the TPC, Jerry Jarrell retired in
2000, and was succeeded by veteran hurricane forecaster Max
Mayfield. Since 2000, TPC/NHC has begun issuing graphical and
probabilistic tropical cyclone forecasts in addition to text products,
greatly expanding the amount of information available to decision
makers everywhere. For the 2003 hurricane season, forecasts for
tropical cyclones were extended from three to five days. Recent
studies have shown that the five day track forecast is as accurate as
the three day track forecast was 15 years ago. Max Mayfield was
Director
during the record-breaking hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005,
including Hurricane
Katrina which devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf
coasts. The NWS, led by Max Mayfield and TPC, provided proactive
early
notification of political and emergency management officials in
Louisiana and Mississippi. The proactive information enabled
emergency managers to initiate mass evacuation plans and was credited
with saving many lives from Katrina's devastating storm surge and
damaging winds and rain. Max became a trusted face and voice of
the National Hurricane Center during the experiences of the trying 2004
and 2005 seasons. Max Mayfield retired in January, 2007
and was
succeeded briefly by NWS Southern Region Director Bill
Proenza until June 2007. On January 25, 2008, then WFO
Houston/Galveston MIC Bill Read was
selected as the new Director of TPC.
In 2004 and 2005, South Florida also experienced a very active
hurricane period. Three hurricanes (category 4
Charley on August 13 near Punta Gorda,category 2
Frances on Sept. 5 near Stuart, and category 3 Jeanne
on Sept. 25 also near Stuart) made landfall on the south part of the
peninsula in 2004 and two (category 1
Katrina on August 25 near Hallandale Beach and category 3 Wilma
on October 24 near Everglades City) made landfall on the south part of
the peninsula in 2005. It is likely that the next several years
will be quite active for tropical cyclones across South Florida given
the
global circulation patterns that are now in place across the planet.
LIST OF WBO/WSFO/WFO Miami
OICs/MICs and NHC Directors
U.S.
Signal
Service, Jupiter, Fla.
Sgt. Henry Pennywitt (1888)
Pvt. M. W. Liehty (1888-1891)
Weather
Bureau, Jupiter, Fla.
A. J. Mitchell (1891-1894)
P. J. O'Brien (1894)
J. W. Cronk (1894-1899)
C. J. Doherty (1899)
H. P. Hardin (1899-1911)
Weather
Bureau, Miami, Fla.
Weather Bureau Office
(WBO)/
Weather Bureau Airport Station (WBAS)
National Hurricane
Center (1966-)
R. W. Gray
(1911-1935)
R. L. Higgs (1929-1942)
E. Carson
(1935-1943)
E. S. Hanlon (1942-1943)
G. Norton
(1943-1954)
P. H. Kutschenreuter (1943-1947)
Dr. G. E. Dunn
(1954-1967)
W. L. Thompson (1947-1962)
Dr. R. H. Simpson
(1967-1970)
W. R. Davis (1962-1964)
National
Weather
Service, National Hurricane Center, Miami, Fla.
Dr. R. H. Simpson (1970-1973)
Dr. N. M. Frank (1974-1987)
National
Weather
Service, Miami, Fla.
National Hurricane
Center/
Weather Service Forecast Office/
Tropical
Prediction
Center
Miami - South Florida Weather Forecast Office
Dr. N. M. Frank
(1974-1987)
P. Hebert (1984-1998)
Dr. R. C. Sheets
(1987-1995)
Dr. R. W. Burpee
(1995-1997)
J. Jarrell (1997-2000)
R. L. Pfost (1998- )
M. Mayfield (2000-2007)
X. W. Proenza
(2007)
W. L. Read (2008- )
Former NHC Directors
Here is a picture of some of the past directors of
the National
Hurricane Center at a recent Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, LA.
From left, Brian Jarvinen (former NHC storm surge program leader and
SLOSH model expert), Max Mayfield (Director, 2000-2007), Jerry
Jarrell (Director, 1998-2000), Billy Wagner (emeritus Monroe County,
Florida, Director of Emergency Management), Robert Burpee (Director,
1995-1997),
Robert Sheets (Director, 1987-1995), Neil Frank (Director, 1973-1987),
Robert Simpson (Director, 1967-1973), and Herbert Saffir (engineer and
creator of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale). The past directors
not pictured are the late Gordon Dunn (Director, 1966-1967, MIC of WBO
Miami
1954-1966), Bill Proenza, and current Director Bill Read.
SELECTED
REFERENCES
Burpee, R.W., 1988: Grady Norton: Hurricane Forecaster
and Communicator Extraordinaire. Wea. Fcstg.,
3, pp. 247-254.
Burpee, R.W.,
1989: Gordon E. Dunn:
Preeminent Forecaster
of Midlatitude Storms and Tropical Cyclones. Wea. Fcstg., 4, pp. 573-584.
Dorst, N.M., 2007: The Nationa Hurricane Research Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 88, pp. 1566-1588.
Douglas, M.S., 1958: Hurricane.
Rinehart and Company, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Gray, R.W., Jr., interview with J. Watters, 1972(?). Reichelt
Oral History Program, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.
Scott, P., 2006: Hemingway's
Hurricane. International Marine / McGraw-Hill, Camden, ME.
Sheets, R.C., 1990: The
National Hurricane
Center—Past, Present, and
Future. Wea. Fcstg., 5, pp. 185-232.
Whitnah, D.R., 1961: A History of
the United States Weather Bureau. University of Illinois Press,
Urbana, IL.
The Miami Daily News,
numerous articles.
The Miami Herald, numerous
articles.
Miami Public Library, List of Obituaries.
Top Ten U.S. Natural Disasters
(in terms of death toll)
1. Galveston (Texas) Hurricane, 1900, estimated 8,000 deaths
2.
Great Okeechobee Hurricane in Florida, 1928, estimated 2,500-plus
3. Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Flood, 1889, estimated 2,200-plus
4. Cheniere Caminada (Louisiana) Hurricane, 1893, 2,000-plus
5.
Hurricane Katrina (Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida), 2005, estimated
1,836-plus
6. Sea Island (South Carolina-Georgia) Hurricane, 1893,
1,000-2,000
7. San Francisco Earthquake, 1906, 700-800
8. Great New England Hurricane, 1938,
estimated 700
9. Savannah (Georgia-South Carolina) Hurricane, 1881, 700
10. Tri-State Tornado in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, 1925, 695
* (interviews also with Gil Clark, Paul
Hebert, Jim Lushine, Max Mayfield,
Bob Burpee, Alvin Samet, Suzanne Cawn, articles by Don Gaby, and the
South Florida
Historical Society)
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