242 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



be flatter and that the center of the storm would go ashore over 

 eastern Connecticut or Rhode Island and pass near Boston. 



In forecasting, the winds at 10,000 feet were considered fairly 

 definitive, though some weight had to be given the wind at 20,000 

 feet in view of the great vertical extent of the storm, which, accord- 

 ing to Major Wexler's estimate (see fig. 3) reached 48,000 feet. 

 Range-finder measurements on the cirrostratus over Blue Hill, Mass., 

 in advance of the storm indicated some 36,000 feet. 



Cloud observations, which at such times are the quickest and easiest 

 way of following rapid changes in the upper and middle winds, were 

 made assiduously all day on the 14th at Blue Hill (see fig. 2) and 

 were reported at frequent intervals to the Boston Weather Bureau. 

 A comparison of these with similar observations made at Blue Hill 

 on September 21, 1938, throws an interesting light on the direction, 

 speed, and other aspects of the 1944 storm. For instance, in 1938 

 the clouds were mostly from the south at about 60 miles an hour, 

 drifting in the fast general current in which the storm was moving 

 rapidly straight northward. In 1944, at about 1 p. m. on the 14th, 

 cirrostratus and cirrocumulus, with a fine halo, emerged from behind 

 a breaking layer of low clouds. They were from the southwest at 

 close to 100 miles an hour. These were on the advanced edge of the 

 vortex and were traveling much faster than the center at the surface. 

 Four hours later the base of the sheet of ice crystals had fallen to 

 18,000. At that level, already well within the whirl of the hurricane, 

 the wind was from the south at 37 miles an hour. The observer, a 

 few hundred miles northeast of the surface center, thus measured the 

 directions and speeds of clouds on a cross section of the vortex. This 

 last was probably inclined forward to the northeast and spread out 

 aloft over a vast region. 



A DARING FLIGHT INTO THE HURRICANE 



A view of the storm from the air as it passed Virginia was under- 

 taken by three intrepid Army Air Forces weather officers, Col. F. B. 

 Wood, Maj. Harry Wexler, and Lt. Frank Record. Their observations 

 of clouds, rain, and vertical currents did not fit into conventional text- 

 book patterns. Colonel Wood describes the flight of the airplane 

 virtually to the center of this terrific storm; 8 and Major Wexler at- 

 tempts to coordinate these observations into a reasonable dynamic 

 structure. 9 The results of his efforts which he worked out in diagram- 

 matic form are reproduced from his article in figure 3. The most 



8 Wood, F. V.., A flight into the September 1944 hurricane off Cape Henry, Va., Bull. 

 Anier. Meteorol. Soc., vol. 2fi, pp. 153-156, May 1945. Includes weather map for 1830 h. 

 September 14 and a map of the flight. 



"Wexler, Harry, The structure of the September 1944 hurricane when off Cape Henry, 

 Va., Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc, vol. 26, pp. 156-159, May 1945. Includes generalized map, 

 and a cloud, rain, and circulation cross-sectional diagram. 



