Grice, Gary K.

National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service (NESDIS)

"The goal of this study is to document the primary weather observational path at Jackson, MS leading to the Weather Bureau observing program in the mid 20th Century. Descriptions of Jackson weather observations since around 1960 are available through easily obtainable climatic records, with the challenge being to identify and define the roots of the path that began in the 1800s and continued through times of significant transition in the early 1900s. Extrinsic observations, i.e., those by Smithsonian, Army Medical Department, cotton region, and voluntary (or cooperative) observers, are considered in relation to the beginning of the central observational stream eventually established by the Weather Bureau. This does not minimize the importance of these collateral observations, but rather focuses on the original events that led to the routine, formal weather observing program of modern times"--Introduction.