935 
Mr. Kerrn. They have a monster buoy up about 40 feet in elevation. 
Dr. Wutre. Forty feet in diameter, sir. 
Mr. Kerra. And how tall? 
Dr. Wurrr. Well, that can go to various heights depending on the 
functions the buoy is going to be used for, but it is not excessively tall. 
Mr. Kerri. Would the buoy to a large extent accomplish the pur- 
poses of the weather ship ? 
Dr. Wurrtr. Only limited functions of a weather ship, sir, the point 
being that a weather ship has the capability for taking upper air 
soundings which is the critical piece of information that you need 
in forecasting coastal storms, whether they be hurricanes or north- 
easters. 
Mr. Kerrn. You mean by met messages ? 
Dr. Wuire. No, I am talking about upper air soundings. You release 
a radiosonde by a balloon from the ship. 
Mr. Kerr. You call them met messages, I believe, in the trade, 
meteorological messages. 
Dr. Wuirr. Yes, the data is transmitted as a meteorological message. 
The buoy at the present time and in the foreseeable stage of develop- 
ment as we see it would only be able to give you surface weather 
observations. 
I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. Congressman, and I think 
you are referring to Hurricane Gerda which went up the coast. re- 
cently and fortunately spared your district in Cape Cod and just 
glanced it with gale winds, to say that you mentioned that we lost 
track of Hurricane Gerda. 
I don’t know where that information comes from. Hurricane Gerda 
was under excellent reconnaissance at all times. We knew where the 
storm was at all times. It was not lost at all. 
Mr. Kerru. Well, the news which I listened to at 6 o’clock on that 
day couldn’t make ‘any reference to the path of the storm. The news 
which T listened to at 7 o’clock had great details and according 
to the people with whom I talked—Don Kent, the Boston weather 
forecaster, and Oscar Tannenbaum—there was a period of time when 
the aircraft in the eye of the hurricane found the turbulence so great 
that they had to leave the storm and for a period of 6 hours it was lost. 
Dr. Wurirte. Hurricane reconnaissance, Mr. Keith, is carried out to 
provide six hourly readings of the location of the eye of the storm and 
its intensity. 
In this particular case the Air Force was asked to make additional 
reconnaissance flights, which they did. Their crews were operating 
18 hours a day. They did a magnificent job in the reconnaissance of 
Hurricane Gerda. 
They gave us more information than we would normally request 
or require from a hurricane, so that I would say that the hurricane 
position was quite well tracked by reconnaissance. 
This does not say that there 1s not a need for additional weather 
observations in the ocean south of New England to enable us to predict 
New England storms better. I think this is also a correct statement. 
Mr. Kerrn. Well, the New England press indicated in a story dealing 
with this, that the hurricane was lost for a period of approximately 
6 hours, and during this time the radio stations and the press were 
publishing as fact the forecast that had been made the evening before. 
