From Weather Watchers to Climatologists

This is the first of several stories commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. 

The headline in the December 1956 issue of Weatherwise—a bimonthly publication for weather and climate enthusiasts—wasn’t particularly remarkable: “A Note on the Successful Identification and Tracking of a Tornado by Radar.”  

The scientific implications found within that article, however, were revolutionary. 

The article was written by Stuart G. Bigler ’57 while he was a graduate student at Texas A&M, then known as The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. In it, he describes the tornado forecast issued on April 5, 1956, for central and eastern Texas; the speeds, distances and directions of the twister; and the areas in and around Bryan-College Station ultimately impacted. He also notes the warnings given by his small team that day to city and school district authorities and to a local radio station. 

What stood out in Bigler’s recounting of that day, however, was the method by which he gathered this information. Just 10 months before the tornadoes hit, the college’s Department of Oceanography and Meteorology had acquired a state-of-the-art radar. Aided by a Weather Bureau meteorologist, with data verified by college faculty members, Bigler used weather echoes and radarscope photographs to track two tornadoes as they approached and moved through the area.  

In doing so, Bigler provided history’s first radar-based tornado warning. 

He received a Special Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1957 for potentially saving the lives of Bryan children during that 1956 storm, as the tornadoes crossed within a block of both Crockett Elementary and Stephen F. Austin High School just as students would have been heading home. Bigler went on to help establish the National Radar Network (now NEXRAD), which Americans routinely rely on not only during severe weather, but for their daily weather reports. 

As Atmospheric Sciences commemorates six decades as an independent department at Texas A&M University, it’s important to remember that meteorology was an evolving science at the university long before the formation of the department or even before Bigler’s groundbreaking tornado warning. Like a lot of things at Texas A&M, the military played a significant role in this development. 

In their book, America’s Weather Warriors: 1814-1985, Charles C. Bates and John F. Fuller detail the increasing reliance on meteorological data in wartime. The authors wrote, “Because weather can truly be a life-or-death matter on the field of battle, meteorologists have repeatedly been asked to contribute their skills to the art of warfare.”

The authors detail how, in the 1800s, seamen aboard naval and merchant vessels turned in meteorological and oceanographic observations to the Depot of Charts and Instruments for weather-mapping. Explorers and wartime surgeons were likewise asked by military commanders to regularly record the weather.  

Reliance on meteorological data was ramped up during World War I when the military made the decision to significantly invest in aviation. Aircraft personnel relied on collected meteorological data for reconnaissance, bombing, artillery fire and defensive cover planning. But meteorological data benefits proved to extend far beyond aviation support, Bates and Fuller noted. 

Gunners increasingly relied upon wind data to determine bullet trajectory and to fire long-range at unseen targets. It was likewise critical in minimizing the impact of chlorine gas attacks. Artillery sound-ranging enabled soldiers to locate hidden guns. And rain predictions helped officers avoid the kind of thick mud that would hinder their troops during offensive efforts.  

Military officers quickly learned that this newfound need for meteorologists far exceeded supply. Hundreds of enlisted men were shuffled off to U.S. Weather Bureau field stations in the United States, England and France for on-the-job training. The field stations were quickly overwhelmed.  

After the first wave of trainees, the Signal Corps Meteorological and Aerological Service decided to send the next batch of enlisted men for training at an actual school. 

Enter the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in College Station. 

In May 1918, some 315 enlisted men arrived on campus to learn how to be weathermen. The soldiers lived in a campus dormitory and ate at the dining hall. Their days were filled with military drills, a full classroom curriculum and lab work. Leading their lectures was Dr. Charles F. Brooks of Harvard University’s Blue Hill Observatory. A year later, Brooks would found the American Meteorological Society, the professional organization of US meteorologists. 

The first class of the Signal Corps Service’s training program graduated in September 1918. Two months later, the war was over—and so was the program. 

In the December 1918 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Monthly Weather Review, Oliver L. Fassig, chief instructor of the Army Signal Corps, touched on the success of the meteorological training.

“At the time of the signing of the armistice about 300 men, trained at Weather Bureau stations and at the school of meteorology In Texas, had been sent overseas; and about 200 men were assigned to a score or more of the firing fields, artillery and ordnance camps, balloon schools, and radio detachments in this country, for the purpose of supplying these branches of the Army with the meteorological data desired.”  

Twenty-five of these new meteorologists, he added, contributed to hydrophone development, designed to detect submarines. 

In the same issue of Monthly Weather Review, Brooks recounted meteorological lessons learned in World War I, particularly as it pertained to a lack of adequate education in that discipline. His criticism was well-founded: a 1919 U.S. Bureau of Education study undertaken for the Weather Bureau found that out of 433 higher education institutions surveyed, instruction in meteorology or climatology was offered at only 70, while a mere eight offered more than two courses in the discipline. 

“The wartime demand for 600 meteorologists well trained in physics and mathematics showed that there were but a handful of such men available in the United States,” Brooks wrote. “Obviously, something had been lacking in our scientific education.” 

“Now that colleges are revising their curricula in the light of lessons taught by the war,” he continued, “meteorology is beginning to receive consideration not accorded it before.” 

In the 1940s, the advent of World War II brought the need for meteorologists back into the spotlight. Nowhere was this more evident than in military aviation. 

Roughly 13,000 aircraft (less than half of them military) were produced in the United States in 1940. Between July 1, 1940, and Aug. 31, 1945, however, the aircraft industry used assembly-line methods to mass produce almost 300,000 military aircraft. Now all that was needed were trained pilots and instructors. 

Once again, the military set its sights on Bryan-College Station. 

In August 1942, construction began on the Bryan Army Air Field. The Army Air Forces (and later the Air Force) trained thousands of World War II and Korean War pilots and instructors at this field, located at what is now the Texas A&M University System’s RELLIS campus.  

The base was also the site of a history-making challenge that an airplane could intentionally fly into the eye of a hurricane and survive.  

Piloting an AT-6 Texas—a typically slow training aircraft—Army Air Forces Col. Joseph Duckworth became the first known airman to intentionally fly into a Category 1 hurricane. Both Duckworth and his training aircraft survived. The following year, the 3rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron repeated this feat, but with much larger aircraft, such as B-25s and B-17s. These missions proved valuable in hurricane reconnaissance efforts and for gathering real-time atmospheric data during severe weather events. 

After the war, the newly created U.S. Air Force developed a program for aspiring military meteorologists that closely mimicked the Signal Corps training program of World War I. As part of their meteorological training, participants in the Air Force Basic Meteorology Course attended one of 13 universities for a 12-month certification program. As a partner in the program until 2003, Texas A&M trained well over 1,000 Air Force officers in basic meteorology.

The post-World War II era also saw Texas A&M hire several notable scientists, including Dr. Dale F. Leipper. During the war, Leipper was involved in amphibious assault efforts, utilizing quantitative methods to predict sea conditions. In 1949, he established at Texas A&M the nation’s first oceanography department. Three years later, meteorology was added to the departmental name to reflect that its academic portfolio also encompassed weather. 

Eighteen years after Leipper arrived at Texas A&M, Dr. Horace R. Byers was named dean of the newly established College of Geosciences, of which the Department of Oceanography and Meteorology was now a part. Byers was a pioneer in aviation meteorology, weather forecasting and weather modification. Under his leadership, oceanography and meteorology split into their own departments in 1966. Dr. Vance E. Moyer, who had served as chairman of meteorology instruction at Texas A&M since 1961, was appointed head of the new meteorology department.

An increased emphasis on meteorological and oceanographic education at Texas A&M included approval of a new structure: the imposing 15-story Eller Oceanography and Meteorology Building. Approved in 1968, faculty of the two departments—along with loads of laboratory equipment—finally moved in upon its completion five years later. 

A push to increase the research efforts and prominence of Texas A&M’s meteorology program began in the mid-1980s. The department recruited new faculty members with well-established research credentials, ultimately increasing external research funding from an annual $100,000 in the early 1980s to about $3 million by the late 1990s. 

Dr. R. Saravanan, Atmospheric Sciences professor and department head, credits this growth to Dr. Gerald North and to the vision of those who hired him. 

North was one of the Meteorology Department’s most high-profile faculty hires. A prominent scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., his climate change research included initiating and serving as first study scientist of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, which pioneered the use of satellites to measure rainfall from space and gathered data for an impressive 17 years.

North became head of the Meteorology Department in 1995. He spent the next eight years hiring research faculty from a broad range of specializations. While he kept the traditional meteorological program focus, he added innovative class and research topics like climate, atmospheric chemistry, and satellite and remote sensing.  

This reimagining of what a modern meteorological education could look like led to a departmental name change in 1998: It was now the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. 

Saravanan said North—now a professor emeritus—changed the department for the better. 

“Until Jerry was hired, it was mostly a teaching department,” Saravanan said. “They were down to about seven to 10 faculty members, and they taught a lot of Air Force students. Jerry transformed the department from one of mostly teaching to one with a significant focus on research.” 

In doing so, Saravanan said, North made Texas A&M an attractive option not only for undergraduates, but for high-caliber graduate students who want to study with well-known researchers. The wide range of disciplines offered within the department likewise attracts a broader range of students. 

As of the fall 2025 semester, the Atmospheric Sciences Department was made up of 24 full-time faculty members teaching and conducting research with 52 graduate students—half master’s, half Ph.D.—and 135 undergraduates. It is the only major department of its kind in Texas, boasting comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and research programs. It is home to several research centers and to the Office of the Texas State Climatologist. In 2022, upon the dissolution of the College of Geosciences, the department moved into the College of Arts and Sciences.

In his 1918 Monthly Weather Review article, Brooks wrote, “Students who desire to specialize in meteorology need no longer be told that the master or doctor of meteorology must look forward to probable unemployment in his chosen field of work. Specifically, what are some of the lines of work demanding services of meteorologists? Business, farming, transportation, aviation, research and teaching all need men who know meteorology.” 

More than a century later, Brooks’ words still ring true. But today, you can add areas like climate science, broadcast media, air quality and environmental consulting to Brooks’ list.  

While the field of atmospheric sciences grows in societal relevance, Texas A&M’s program will continue to evolve with it.