| Plunging into the hearts of the great circular | | | | Scotland. Referring to a large weather map and to |
| storms, the flying weathermen of WWII rode | | | | profile charts, the meteorologist told the fliers at |
| patrol on Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes to see | | | | what altitude they should fly to get under clouds, |
| for themselves what went on. While the planes | | | | and advised when the planes should climb in order |
| pitched and tossed and the pilots battled to keep | | | | to fly over them. Thus armed, the pilots knew |
| the wings level, the meteorologists sampled air | | | | when to expect clouds and turbulence, and where |
| and wind velocity, took barometer readings and | | | | to avoid the flying condition of icing. The same |
| added much to man's knowledge of the inner | | | | type of weather study was made for the middle |
| workings of hurricanes. Naturally, because of t h e | | | | Atlantic route from the British Isles by way of |
| important role it played in making their missions | | | | the Azores and Bermuda to the United States. |
| successful and bringing their craft home safely, | | | | The northern route was used mostly for |
| the Air Forces used the AAF Weather Service to | | | | eastbound traffic, for tailwinds there helped the |
| the greatest extent. The pilot's route is a vastly | | | | planes along. Conversely, the westbound trade |
| different one from that of the railroad engineer, t | | | | winds boosted the planes along over the middle |
| h e bus driver or t h e private motorist. On the | | | | route. |
| ground the main barriers remain the same-a | | | | Riding the winds was put to good advantage in |
| mountain stays put, and so does a river, except | | | | the Pacific theater also. By accurately forecasting |
| at rare flood-time intervals. But the pilot may find | | | | wind velocities at various levels, a weather officer |
| that yesterday's favorable route is today filled | | | | saved one gas-free trip out of each eleven |
| with jagged, cloud mountain peaks, vast rivers of | | | | missions over Burma during the monsoon season. |
| moving air, or areas that shoot up and down as | | | | Because the pilots knew at what heights to fly to |
| suddenly and much more unexpectedly than | | | | get the maximum advantage of tailwinds, and at |
| elevators. | | | | what heights to find minimum interference from |
| Bright, clear weather at the take-off point can | | | | headwinds, each trip took from fifty to sixty |
| change dangerously to thick fog, rain and general | | | | gallons of gasoline less. The weathermen in World |
| bad weather at the place of destination. A | | | | War II did not wait for the weather to reach |
| weather officer before their take-off briefed | | | | them. They went out in search of it. Especially |
| pilots, flying the northern Atlantic route from the | | | | trained P-38 pilots flew ahead of many bombing |
| United States by way of Newfoundland to | | | | missions, testing the weather for the big bombers. |