Conner, Glen

"The goal of this study is to document the primary weather observational history in Indianapolis that was part of the path that led to the current National Weather Service's observing program. Climatic data from stations in Indianapolis that made weather observations throughout the period of record are readily available from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina; the Midwestern Regional Climate Center in Champaign, Illinois; and the State Climatologist of Indiana at Purdue University in Lafayette. The station's history in recent years is well documented and also available through easily obtainable climatic records. The challenge of this study was to identify Indianapolis' role in the development of the formal weather observational program and where it fit in the route from the Army surgeons, through the Smithsonian Observers, the Signal Service 2 Observer Sergeants, the Weather Bureau meteorologists, to the National Weather Service modern observational network of today. Therefore, the focus of this study was on the period before 1948, the generally accepted start of the modern era of the documentation of weather observations"--Introduction.

National Environmental Satellite and Data Information Service (NESDIS)