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John Maunder

I first joined the NZ Meteorological Service in January 1955

as a trainee weather forecaster and along with fellow trainees, we were given initial observer training by John Falconer and I remember that the the Deputy Director Ritche Simmers gave an interesting talk about jokes about the weather and weather weather forecasters, but that after a few months we would have heard most of them. After technical training we began several months of extensive metorological training under the guidance of our able lecture Jack Hutchings. In those days there were no metorological courses offered by any university in NZ. After several months were were moved to the General Forecast Office (GFO) in At that stage we started to learn the art and science of weather forecasting under the careful and watchful eyes of Ted Edie, Merv Browne, Henry Hill, Ian Kerr, and Andrew Dryburgh. Later we were allowed to go "solo" and our forecasting career had begun.

Among my contempories were Jim hesell, Ralph Pannet, Ray Smith, Tony Lopdell, Cliff Revell, Mike Laidlaw, Mike Mc gill, Rod Steiner, and Graham Ward

Of course prior to this period there were many people we met who influenced our careers include the the Dirrector MAF Barnet, Wally Wilkins, John Gabites, John Hickman, Garth England, Neil Robertson, Jack coulter, Bob Ewing, , Jim Hunter from the Christchurch office, Joe Finkestein from the Taieri office, and Laury Larsen from the Auckland office. There were also many observing and technical staff and admin staff who helped us along the way including Max Butterton, Joyce Whitta, Alan Good, Ivory Sanders, Vern Johnson, and Vince Susmilch,

At that stage I returned to complete an MSc degree at Victoria University with my thesis topic "The diurnal variation of rainfall in NZ", but at the same time continuing my forecasting activities at Kelburn. I then took nearly two year leave and worked in the Canadian Meteorologal Service in Canada, first in Toronto for training in northern hemisphere meteorology weather, then at the RCAF base in Trenton Ontario, before be posted to teach nato students meteorology at the RCAF base in Clareshome, Alberta. In May 1958 I returned back to the met service and was posted to Paraparumum airport and the new Wellington airport for aviation forecasting duties.

At that stage I got married to Melva and the opportunity was then offered for me to begin a career at the Universty of Otago when I was appointed lecturer in geography, where I stayed for 6 years. Apart from my lecturing duties I became the 24th person in the university to be awarded a PhD my topic being " The impact of climatic variations on agricultural incomes in new Zealand". I had l several key students during by tenure at Otago including climatologist Blair Fitzharris. In 1966, the Canadian scene beganned me for a second time and I was fortunate to be appointed assistant professor in the department of geography at the University of Victoria in British Columbia where I stayed for 3 years during which I completed my first book " The value of the weather" which turned out to be a best seller and opened up the weather/climate world in a bigger way than I thought possible. I then returned to the NZ Met Service, but just prior to that period 1969/70, I was offered a position in the department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Missouri in Columbia, USA, where I was under the careful guidance of Jim McQuigg (he was the guru on the economic aspects of the weather business).

After 10 years away from the Met Service there were many new people covering research, instuments, computing, technical, climate . Most were not trained as forecasters so it was quite a different weather service that I had left 10 years previously. New people and new names were John Kidson, Tom Steiner, Don Thompson, Neil Gordon, John Revfeim, Ian Brown, Steve Coulter, Bob Lake, Bob Mcdavitt, R. McCann, Ian Miller, Bret Mullan, V. Murray, Edith Farcas, Steve Ready, Steve Reid, Alan Ryan, Rod Steiner, Craig Thompson, John Sanson, In addition, there were the important observing/ technical staff who kept the place going. They included Bob Horridge,Gavin Kidd, Keith Mackersey, Tony Quale, Alan Sharp, Daphnee Watts, Les Wembley, Tony Bromley, ed de st Croix, John Harris, Ken Abbott, Tony Davies, and Vern Johnston.

Early in 1980, Garth England and I were concerned that the weather presentation by the "weather girls" on TV1 were not particular good, so along with Richard Heine we visited the TV! studios in Avalon and indicted to them how the tv weather presentations could be improved. I was pleasantly surprised the following morning when John Hickman the then director said that TV1 would like us to the weather. As it turned out, it was decided that we would present the weather on the Eyewitness News programme of South Pacific television each night at 10 pm, with David Beatson as as he achorman. We each did a week apart for a year which was full of interest. One day the producer ask me if I could explain thunderstorms over Canterbury which were prevalent the time, and on tv that night as part of my broadcast. I was given 20 seonds of extra time. Next day I asked Tom Steiner if he saw my presentation. He said yes, but I got the physics wrong!

During the late 1970's and early 1980's a few professional appointments were made which enhanced the research capabilities of the met service. People appointed included David Wratt, John Refeim, Wallace Armstrong, Tom Clarkson, Brian Taylor, Reid Basher, John Harris, Eric Brenstein, Gavin Fisher, Jim Salinger, John Sanson, Mike Uddstrom, Paul Woolf, Paul Bruce, Peter Kreft, and Ian Lechner

In 1982, I was offered the opportunity of going to the University of Delaware in Newark, where I had a six month appointment with the very exotic title of "Distinguished Visiting Professor " in the departmeny of geography. I met Joe Biden at that time who was one of the two senators from Delaware. Biden many years later became US vice-president.

In the mid 1980's a few key people retired including Wally Wilkins, and the two positions of assistant director were advertised. I was fortunate to be offered the the position of assistant directior services which meant I was responsible for all forecasting and climate services, and my colleague Don Thompson was appointed assistant director research responsible for research, computer service, instuments, and climate archives.

In the mid 1980's when Roger Douglas became Minister of Finance, early retirement packages were being offered to many public servants. We in the met service were not sure if we were eligible but in September 1988, a letter arrived to John Hickman indicting that early retirement packages would be offered. We did not know how many would be offered but the rules given to us by Ministry of Trannsport were (1) it would be granted to those who applied, (2) you had to be 50 years old, (3) you had come to have worked in the NZ public service for at least at least 10 years, and (4) you could choose any retirement date between 1 October 1988 and 31 March 1989. I was asked by John Hickman to administer the scheme which in effect offered one years salary tax free. On putting up a notice about the terms of the early retirement package, I was immediately asked by John Reviem who regretably was killed in a freak accident in Tauranga about 10 later. He said to me " where is the application form" and I said to him have you read the rules about age. He said I am 50 year old today, so John was the first to accept the package. With the concurrence of people who had accepted the package, after a few weeks I put up a list of those taking the package.

At that stage I had not decided what to do but by chance I happened to visit the marketing group late on a Friday afternoon and they said would I like a beer? At the same time Don Thompson appeared and I asked Don what he was going to do. He was non-commiital but said that his accountant said " take the money and run". Don did not do so, but it got me thinking and I wrote around to all my contacts and was offered two six month appointments at them Australian Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, a two year appontment at the Canadian atmospheric science service in Toronto, and two six month appoinmemts with the Stockholm environment institute (SEI) at York univesity in the the UK in Geneva. The later appontment was offered on Christmas Eve at 11pm by the then director of tte SEI Gordon Goldman who I had known from some earlier work I do did.

About 30 people from the met service accepted the early Retirment offer, but I remember that several were quite bitter about this as they wanted to coninued to work. One person I remember felt quite betrayed by the Labour Party, as he had been a strong supporter of the partyfor many years.

During this period lots of things were happening in the corporate scene and most of us were very surprisedto see an adversiment for the potions of "general manager " of the met service. The fact that for

over 130 years the met service had a "director" seem to fall on deaf ears in the ministry of transport , and director John Hickman was politely informed that he should not apply for the position. I felt that this was " not cricket" but that was it way in was. The general manager appointed was a geothermal expert from the DSIR Malcolm Grant who did what he was asked to do, namely reduce the cost of running the met service. At that stage I had decided to take early retirement and I remember Malcolm asking me on his first day in office " how much does it cost to run Raoul Island, I replied about one million dollars. He asked why we had such a station, and I mentioned the world weather watch, ECMWF among other things,, but he was not confiinced that it was important, and said, we wil close it. So it was the end of tte road for many activities. Whether in hindsight this was a good thing, perhaps the dury is still out.

So on March 31, 1989 I did my goodbyes to the met service, and all my colleagues and went to the University of York with the Stockholm. Environment institute and then immediately to the WMO Commision for climatology meeting in Lisbon where I was elected president.

Later NIWA was borne along with a different met service, but that is another story.

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Graham Ward

My interest in meteorology began in England where I was born in 1932. One day as a teenager in the late 1940s I was tavelling on a long-distance train sharing a compartment with a middle-aged lady and her two charming teenage daughters who were reading a National Geographic magazine.

The nice lady asked me if I would like to have a read of the magazine in lieu of looking out the window, observing the milestones as they passed by to see how fast the train was travelling! The magazine included an article on the weather which introduced to me for the first time the concept of fronts. The idea of the similarity to two opposing armies advancing or retreating towards or away from each other at the battle front really fascinated me. Largely as a result of this fortunate encounter, when I got home I started to set up my own weather station which included some of the usual basic instruments and built a structure that resembled a very rudimentary Stevenson Screen. With the aid of observations from this rather primitive site and hourly met reports from airfields throughout the UK, Ireland and parts of western Europe which I was able to receive from the radio station Airmet, I plotted, drew and analysed weather charts and made my own local forecasts. Also

about that time my mother bought me a subscription to the very first issue of the Royal Meteorological Society's Weather Magazine which has been an inspiration to me and I still receive regularly today.

After coming to New Zealand with this background and after completing a BSc majoring in pure and applied maths at Victoria University I decided a career in meteorology would suit me, and so in 1957 joined the NZ Met Service as a trainee forecaster under among others the guidance of Ian

Kerr, Ted Edie, Henry Hill, Merv Browne, Ian Brown, Jack Coulter and Andrew Dryburgh. Also joining the Service about that time were Jim Hessell, Don Thompson, Ray Smith, Mike McGill, Rod Stainer, Cliff Revell, Tony Lopdell, Mike Laidlaw and Neil Harrison. After a while I was allowed to go solo broadcasting the national weather forecasts from the small broadcasting box in the old Kelburn Met Office building.

In 1958 I was transferred to the Service's Mechanics Bay office in Auckland where I quickly learned aviation and marine forecasting in addition to local public forecasting for the Auckland area. At that time Laurie Larsen was Chief Meteorologist with Charlie Stewart his deputy. The forecasting team

included Jim Waygood, Jimmie Croxton, Ted Holly, David Clarke and myself. Among the observing staff were Maurice Brickell, Brian Montague, Bob Green, Mac McPherson, Colleen Mitchell and Esther Cochrane. Morrie Furlong was the Administration Officer. It was a busy office operating 24/7 and especially busy on night shift when the Kelburn Office was closed for most of the night. This meant that we were responsible for all marine gale warnings in New Zealand's large area of responsibility and all aviation forecasts required first thing in the morning which could sometimes mean individual taylor-made forecasts for as many as ten flights to overseas destinations and RNZAF requirements, all this in addtion to early morning forecasts for all of the then NAC network extending from Kaitaia to Invercargill! All this had to be performed by just one forecaster

with the help of two observers. No wonder we were exhausted when it was time to go home at 7 am! Nowadays these duties are performed by a whole team of forecasters using all the latest technological aids whereas in those early days before the computer/satellite revolution everything had to worked out the hard way from basic principles mostly with pencil and paper! It was the time when the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge was nearing completion and I was on duty the night before the final span of the bridge was to be lowered into position the following morning mounted on a barge towed by tugs. The operation depended on a spring tide to gently lower the

span into position. It also relied on the absence of strong winds. The engineer in charge of the operation was understandably unhappy when I issued a forecast of 25 knot winds and he contacted Laurie Larsen who with Charlie Stewart came into the met office later that morning and issued a

final forecast that was apparently more to the Chief Engineer's liking. Postponement I understand would have meant waiting for at least another month for similar suitable tidal conditions. However, as it turned out the winds did become quite strong at the time of the operation around 8am/9am but the engineers managed to get away with it, the span precariously perched atop the barge with two tugs straining to keep it in position!

In 1960 I was granted study leave and completed a DIC course inmeteorology at ImperialCollege, London.On return to NZ in 1961 I was posted to Wellington Airport for aviation forecasting duties under the direction of the meteorologist in charge Russell Copp but in 1962 was transferred to Nadi where in addition to aviation and general forecasting I was introduced to tropical cyclone prediction and monitoring under the supervision of Wally Wilkins and Arnie Anfinson. Other NZ Met staff in Nadi at that time included Mike Pointer, Jack Browne and Clarrie Paiton. Soon after arrival in Nadi Wally introduced me to the game of golf but my main relaxation on off-duty days became a small cabin cruiser which I and three other expats, including Clarrie Paiton and John Harrison (Neil Harrison's brother), purchased for 400 pounds! Frequently we (usually Clarrie and myself ) would take a near entire TEAL (now Air New Zealand) crew, who usually stayed a couple of nights in Nadi before returning to Auckland, on a trip out to one of the then largely uninhabited Mamanuca islands a few miles out from Nadi Bay. Many of those islands are today classy beach resorts! What would

have happened to the TEAL flight the next morning if we had got stranded on an island!?

Returning to Auckland in 1964 after the office had moved from Mechanics Bay to what was the NAC building (later the Auckland Mail Centre) in Victoria Street, preparation of TV material was added to the forecaster's list of duties – maps etc were hand-drawn and the presenters briefed in the afternoon prior to the evening telecast.

Following my marriage in 1965 and the birth of my daughter in 1967 I was transferred once again to Nadi in 1969 accompanied by my wife and daughter. That same year my son was born in Lautoka hospital. During that tour of duty Fiji gained its Independence and was visited by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. During that visit the Royal Couple were scheduled to be taken out to one of the islands in the Mamanuca Group. However, a small tropical storm prevented this and the Couple were invited to visit Nadi Airport (where the met office was then housed). As I was on duty at the time it befell my honour and privilege to show Prince Phillip over the Met Office.

Introducing him to staff and showing him how aviation forecasts were prepared the Duke queried: "Why do you, like so many other government departments, use so much paper? Surely just one sheet of paper would be sufficient." It seems the Duke was well ahead of his time, precursing the

advent of the current global warming issue prescribing the need to cut down on carbon emissions! Arnie Anfinson had an artificial leg which from time to time needed servicing. One day when I was about to go on furlough he asked if I wouldn't mind taking the leg down to Auckland for such servicing. I said that I would but Arnie insisted due to its fragility that I did not check it in but rather took it into the cabin. Imagine the shock of the person sitting in front of me when he saw this long "leg" (much too large to go in the overhead locker) appear from under his seat! Also on the forecasting staff about that time were Steve Ready and Bob McDavitt (known there as "The White

Fijian") both of whom did a lot to promote rugby among the locals.

Back to Wellington in 1972. I was then mostly engaged in general forecasting, including preparation and live broadcasting of forecasts over the national radio network, and preparation of TV weather maps and scripts. In 1978 I moved to the Training Section where under Tom Steiner's direction I assisted in the training of newly appointed meteorologists who included Jim Renwick

and several future Fiji Met Service Directors including Ram Krishna, Rajendra Prasad, Sudha Pandaram and Alipate Waqaceloa . Also working in the Training Section at that time were Daphne Watts and Bill Hislop. During that period largely under the guidance of Jack Hutchings I obtained a

Certificate of Proficiency in Dynamical Meteorology, Maths Honours Course at Victoria University.

In 1981 the Scientific Information Service was formed under the leadership of John Maunder and I was given the job of editing the scientific publications of the NZ Met Service. Also about that time much through the inspiration of John Maunder (and Tom Steiner) the Meteorological Society of NZ was formed and and for short terms I was editor of its journal "Weather and Climate" and its President.

Then in 1985 back to Auckland, now in the new Auckland Weather Centre in Ponsonby where Jim Hessell was Chief Meteorologist. In addition to the other normal forecasting duties including preparation of weather scripts and graphics for National TV the other forecasters and myself had the

job of briefing the weather presenters, then Jim Hickey and Penelope Barr, before their appearance at the TV studio at Sky City. At the same time we were in effect giving them a brief course in meteorology!

All was going well up till then but in 1989 under pressure from government policy I decided to take early retirement under the government's early retirement scheme. Malcolm Grant, the then General Manager of the NZ Met Service, came up specially to farewell Jim Hessell and myself at a

reception on the last Friday of our employment. Little did he know that I already had another short-term position lined up starting the following Monday at the Auckland Art Gallery! Further positions emerged: At the Auckland Herald (part-time shipping and aviation reporter) and Court Clerk in the Auckland High Court, assisting in the running of criminal and civil trials. One day in the middle of a criminal trial sitting at my desk below the judge's bench I received a phone call from the Public Service Commissioner in Fiji asking if I would take up a meteorologist position at Nadi as they

were very short of forecasters. (Fiji by that time were operating their own forecasting services at Nadi after the NZ Met Service's withdrawal). I asked the Commissioner when he would want me to start. He said: "Tomorrow". Within a week I was back at Nadi and for most of the next seven years

and about the start of the new millennium worked in Fiji's brand new met building near the control tower. Occasionally when the Director of the Fiji Met Service was away overseas I acted in his or her stead. Part of the time when my wife and I were in Nadi Garth England also had a spell there in

the forecast office. His family and our family were next-door neighbours in the CAAF airport housing estate. Jack Coulter and Bruce Ereckson were each at different times in charge of the Fiji Climate Section.

Thus ended a varied career, mostly at the forecasting "coal face" which I preferred, and much enjoyed sharing it with an admirable, friendly group of colleagues.

However, I still keep in touch via the internet etc with the latest developments in meteorology and am still particularly interested in the probable effects of the varying solar and inter-planetary

gravitational and electro-magnetic fields on our climate.

PAPERS PUBLISHED

The Motion of Tropical Cyclones in Relation to the Environmental Wind Field – 1966 – (NZ Met

Serv Tech Note No. 165)

Prediction of the Movement of Tropical Cyclones by Use of Tropospheric Mean Flow - 1971 – (NZ

Met Serv Tech Note No. 191)

The Growth of Tropical Cyclones in the Southwest Pacific – 1971 – (NZ Met Serv Tech Note No.

201)

A Comparison Between Hurricane-free and Hurricane-producing Years in the Southwest Pacific -

1973 – (NZ Met Serv Tech Note No. 220)

Prediction of Tropical Cyclone Formation in terms of Sea-surface temperature, Vorticity and

Vertical Wind Shear – p.61-70 – in Australian Meteorological Magazine, Vol 44 No.1 ( March

1995)

Ten reports published on named tropical cyclones occurring in the South Pacific between 1982-94.

The Southern Oscillation and its Effects on New Zealand Weather – p.34-38 – in NZ Agricultural

Science, Vol 19 No.1 Feb 1985

An Apparent Solar Magnetic Effect on Atmospheric Zonal Index in the Australia/New Zealand

region/joint authorship with Steve Goulter – p.4347-4353 – in Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol

90 No.A5, May 1985

La Ronde- The Atmosphere Viewed as part of an Enormous Cosmological Roundabout – p.2-11 –

in Weather and Climate, Vol 8 No.1 Feb 1988

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Allan PENNEY

I grew up on a small 70 acre dairy farm, which was subject to flooding, at the mouth of the Clutha River in South Otago. I joined the weather office in March 1961, initially staying at Antrim House Boulcott Street (Public Service Boys’ Hostel) before going flatting.

1961-1964, Observer in General Forecasting Office (GFO), Kelburn NZMS

Chief Observer Mr. Herb Carter was in charge and we worked on shifts. I passed the Observers Junior Met Exam in 1961, Observers Senior Met Exam in 1962. I did relieving duty at Gisborne Aerodrome, March-May 1963 so that the three staff could take annual leave.

FLASHBACK: USSR 50MT TEST, 1961

On 30 October 1961 the Soviets tested a 50 Megaton [equivalent of TNT] bomb. The next day (31st) I recall standing with several in the GFO, watching the barograph slowly rise and fall, putting a vertical bar on the paper. Within a short time we had various members of Head Office, including the Director M A F Barnett, visiting the GFO to study this wonder of wonders – a pressure wave which had circled the world. I recorded the following in my 5-year diary, ‘Today saw History being made. Saw PRESSURE WAVES from ATOMIC 50 MT bomb (USSR) at 1005M – 13 ½ hours after experiment].’

FLASHBACK: A FORECASTING PROBLEM, c1961

When a F729 map was half plotted, the forecaster would often come and look over my shoulder, assessing how the pressure field had changed since the previous reporting time, how far a front had progressed. He might ask me to step away and he would place his Perspex sheet over my map and sketch in the isobars and fronts using a Chinograph pencil and a rag. He would return to his light table and place the Perspex over the previous map and mull over the changes and begin to formulate the next weather forecast in his mind. I remember a forecasting problem which involved a ship.

Over the previous day or so our forecasters thought a possible tropical storm was developing near New Caledonia but had no idea how powerful it was or where its centre was located. They tentatively sketched a depression on the map. A solitary ship travelling from Sydney to Fiji had reported a falling barometer and increasing winds and it was on the southern side. Mr. Henry Hill (Chief Forecaster) looked over my shoulder, scanning the troublesome area. “There is a ship out there. Let me know when its report comes in.” Sure enough, it came in, I plotted it and Mr. Hill came over to check. It was still being buffeted by a storm. He asked the Senior Observer to contact the ship and ask it to report every hour if possible. Over the next day reports were received but their position seemed to wander and the forecasters had problems matching the reports to a storm centre. In the end Mr. Henry Hill could not make sense of the situation and had to reject the ship’s reports. He asked the Senior Observer to contact Fiji Meteorological Service and ask them to interview the Captain when the ship arrived in port. I learned later that the ‘debrief’ revealed something like this had occurred. The first point was that the ship had travelled for several days under overcast skies, unable to make a star- or sun-shot, and was using ‘dead reckoning’. The second point was that the forecasters were relying on the accuracy of the ship’s positions, and the ship was relying on the accuracy of the forecaster’s storm centre on the maps. The ship’s observer read his barometer and anemometer, then looked at the latest forecaster’s map he had. Uncertain of his exact position, he matched his pressure, wind direction and speed to the latest forecast map and said to himself, “We must be about here”, and adjusted their position, and the next report was sent in. The forecaster took the ship’s new position, pressure, wind direction and speed, and deduced that the centre of the storm must be ‘about there’. Out went a new map and forecast. After several iterations of this process both ship position and storm centre were wandering about the map and the forecasters called a halt. Of course in this modern age (2018) with GPS for ships and satellite coverage of the global cloud cover this situation could not occur.

1964-1992, Computer Programmer in Climate Section, Kelburn NZMS

In August 1964 NZMS wanted to appoint two programmers and arranged IBM Aptitude Tests for staff who were interested – they were very popular and two sessions were needed. In September 1964 Bryan Leeves and I were selected – the first Computer Programmers in NZMS. Of course there were people programming computers before us – Evan Williamson and Bruce Ereckson for example – but they had other job titles.

We joined Climate Section under Chief Observer Bruce Ereckson, and Bryan and I began work in the Thomas King Observatory behind the Met Enclosure, where Mr. Ted Edie was already working.

I had a long working life in Electronic Data Processing (EDP), writing data management programs, statistical summary programs, and special programs, as defined by Climatologists. I became proficient in SPS, Cobol, Algol, and Fortran. I worked on: the IBM1401, IBM360/40, Elliott503 (5-channel paper tape) with Evan Williamson at Applied Mathematics Department of Victoria University of Wellington, ICL1900 and ICL2980 via a terminal at Kelburn. Over the years I was involved in work for a number of the NZMS publications. In 1988 I followed Jim Salinger in a UNDP project for the Chilean Met Service in Santiago Chile.

1992-2005, Database Administrator at Kelburn and Greta Point, NIWA

By 1990 the feeling was that our climate data could be managed in-house in a database, and data collected by the Met Service DEC Vax could be passed to it. After considering tenders, Marco Overdale, John Sansom and I decided that it should be an Oracle database, residing on a Sun computer, and the contract was announced in June 1991. The design and development was managed by John and me, along with contractors Datacom. It was also my job to plan and action the transfer of all of our data, residing on dozens of Mag-tapes, from the ICL2980 to the Sun computer. Climate Section became part of NIWA in July 1992 along with the Climate Database (CLIDB). In 1993 I was a Speaker (about our Climate Database) at the International Oracle Users Group in Orlando Florida USA. In March 1996 we moved to NIWA Greta Point. I wrote the ‘Climate Database (CLIDB) Users’ Manual’ and enhanced it through several editions before it was incorporated electronically within the database. I often developed special SQL scripts for our in-house users. I worked with John to audit the various data tables, correct errors, and delete ‘bogus’ data – we prepared Audit Reports and they were published by NIWA. I retired after 31 years in NZMS, and 13 years in NIWA.

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Bruce Ereckson (courtesy of Lynley Batson, daughter of Bruce)

A little about dad’s service to the met taken from his obituary in the Met Society Newsletter #132 March 2013.

He joined the Met Service in 1946, serving as the initial Officer in Charge of the Kiribati and Tuvalu islands at the Met Office on Tarawa 1951-53 (A most challenging living situation for him and my mother with 3 young children!). He was chief observing officer at the NZ Met Office at Nadi airport from 1954-58. Then he continued with the Met Service at Kelburn in Wellington as Senior Observer EDP, then Principal Observing Officer, then Senior computer programmer, then chief computer programmer, and finally Manager of Data Processing until his retirement in 1985. Since then he actively contributed to Climate Data processing in a number of projects across the Pacific, helping the Fiji Met Service, including the establishing of the WMO CLICOM system – the early climate data management system to help predict weather patterns in the Pacific (so I believe). He was Principal Scientific Officer for the Fiji Met Service from 1995-1999, then retired again! after which he voluntarily helped for a further 5 years with CLICOM issues.

He made a significant contribution to getting climate data into a computer controllable format – in NZ and in the Pacific, even though new technology has overtaken this, his contribution nevertheless was significant at the time.

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Paul Bruce

I may follow-up your proposal to write my own story - meantime, here is some relevant points.

I trained in 1973 together with Steve Ready, Mark Pascoe, Neil Gordon, Peter ?. Rod Stainer joined us later that year.

Tom Stainer was the training officer.

I wasn’t really a researcher, mostly working as a forecaster, though I spent a year in the climate section (Met Service), completing my paper on asthma and weather influences, and another paper on the use of weather forecasts to reduce herbicide use.

I also took leave without pay in 1976 to go to South America, where I volunteered on a pottery cooperative in Izcuchacac, Peru and then worked as a climatologist in Bolivia for a year. I documented a pirate whaling operation in Chile for MFAT (through Greenpeace) in 1982, which led to its cessation that same year, following a presentation at the International Whaling Commission Conference in Brighton.

I was of course quite heavily involved with Greenpeace in the early years, and then from the 1990's, the Green Party. I served three terms (9 years) as a Greater Wellington Regional Councillor after I retired from Met Service.

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Jim Hessell

I joined the Meteorological Service in 1957 working in the Climatological Section while I completed the last unit of my BSc. The computer age was about to born but my first year’s work was entirely manual and somewhat boring- creating statistics of maximum 2 and 3-day rainfalls from the daily falls of over 1000 rainfall stations throughout NZ, some of which had records extending back over 150 years. I was relieved to get my last unit and was thus qualified to become a professional meteorologist with the princely salary of 400 pounds per year and 2 weeks annual leave. However it allowed me to join the Public Service pension scheme for a contribution of 5% of salary. In later years this proved to be a good investment.

After a year’s training on the job I was let loose in the forecast room under the guidance of senior forecasters, before being sent to Paraparaumu Airport then the main centre of NAC’s (later Air New Zealand) domestic fleet of DC3s acquired from the Air Force. This meant living in a “dog box” on the airfield for the last six months before the operations transferred to the new Wellington airport constructed on the Rongotai aero club grounds in the city centre .The shift-work this entailed then became part of my working life for the next 18 years.. All of this was in the days of limited reporting information which combined with lack of experience resulted in many poor forecasts resulting in criticism from the pilots who were uncomfortably close to the forecast office on occasions!

After a few years at the airport I was transferred to general forecast duties at the Met Service head office in Kelburn (Wellington) and a change of work. Here I was placed under the guidance of the old school of forecasters ( see John Maunder’s account) before being let loose on the unsuspecting public.

The work was still done without computer help and charts at various layers up to 200 Hpa, were drawn manually. (Before my forecasting work ceased some 18 years later I estimated that I had drawn about 10,000 charts)

The word was soon put on me to do my bit overseas at Nadi Airport in Fiji then serviced by the NZ Met Service. I duly departed with my new wife, Rhonda, in 1964. This was a new experience but somewhat exhausting especially as our 3 children were born over the 4-year tour of duty- whilst on shift work in the tropics with accommodation on the airfield. Because of the limited range of aircraft at the time they had to refuel mostly at night! Nadi was the centre of action in the SW Pacific at this time and aircraft movements were frequent.

We were relieved at the end of the 4-year term to return to NZ and I chose Auckland as my next work-place largely as my ageing parents who lived there and it was my hometown. However the shift work, I found, was still exhausting and I took the opportunity after 5 years ( my father having died in the meantime) to return to my second hometown in Wellington into another career change as a teacher in the training section – much of the Met Service training still being done on the job.

This involved a large amount of theoretical study for me which I had to do at home in an effort to keep ahead of my students. This was even more increased in the second year as my boss in the section (Tom Steiner) departed for an exchange job in Canada for one year. This meant that I had to take responsibility for new entrants who were straight from university - some with Ph Ds - in meteorological subjects. However we helped each other along the way in the theoretical field but I certainly could help them with practical aspects of weather forecasting!

At this time a vacancy occurred for the Superintendent of the Climate Section. I was appointed to this and spent the next seven years in this position. Wishing for a change in job I then applied for the position as Chief Meteorologist in Auckland and once again transferred back to Auckland.

One of my actions there was to organise the first seminar in NZ on climatic change. This was well attended and fortunately for me included a prominent lawyer who had many clients seeking resource consents for major engineering developments in the Auckland region. This coincided with the assault on the Public Service by the “razor gang” which disastrously (in my opinion) attacked the senior members of the PS with the aim of reducing budgets. I took advantage of the opportunity of taking early retirement having previously increased my pension payments to 6% of my salary to cover future inflation. Had the proponents of this scheme realised that I would draw the Govt pension for (to date) 30 years, they, as a result of many disastrous government decisions, beginning with the Muldoon (National party) era and continuing with the Labour party (Lange) era they may have well thought again. The results of this chaos in the Public Service were wide-spread and echo to this day 30 years later. As indicated above my self- employment as a climate consultant for Resource Management applications made by my lawyer employers did me no harm and resulted in much experience being lost in the PS.

Thus ended my involvement with the New Zealand Meteorological Service,

Along the way I contributed to, or wrote some thirty research papers, climate statistic reports or weather-event reports. My last was a contribution to “Weather and Climate” August 2008, (“A Hypothetical Explanation of Unusual Barometric Oscillations : a Case Study”) which was published without editorial changes.

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Jim Salinger