From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Sep 09 2001 - 09:55:44 MDT
Dr. Krick pioneered observational long-term weather forecasting and ground
generator cloud seeding. Inertia and the "weather bureaucracy" have relegated
his work to the proverbial dusty Smithsonian basement.
Anyone having further information on Dr. Krick and his work please send me an
e-mail. Dr. Krick died in 1996.
Terry
-------------------
Following information is compiled from various sources including my own review.
Subj: Irving Krick (Weather Wizard)
Original message (now edited for completeness) sent to
NOAA et al in Feb 97:
Just finished reading a book about the career of Irving P. Krick,
long-range weather forecasting, and cloud seeding.
_STORM, Irving Krick vs. the U.S. Weather Bureaucracy_ by Victor
Boesen. I found it a very good read. Krick was/is ahead of his time.
This is just the sort of science dogma that Charles Fort railed about
over 60 years ago.
Krick's forecasts were 85 per cent accurate out to two years. For
example, he predicted the general weather for both the second
Eisenhower and Kennedy inaugurations in 1957 and 1961.
His rain making and hail reduction jobs between about 1950 and
1977 involved two million generator hours (silver iodide) in 29 U.S.
states, seven provinces in Canada, Mexico, Central America,
the West Indies, Spain, France, the Alps, Italy, Sardinia, Israel,
Syria, North Africa, and the Congo. The U.S. Weather Bureau
fought his long-range weather forecasting and cloud seeding efforts
and results through Congressional censure, public censure, control
of the media, etc. I'm flabbergasted by the scope of U.S. Weather
Bureau attempts to control him.
Quoting Tom Birchard in Hawaii: "Well, I don't know a whole lot
about Irving P. Krick except that he was the chief meteorologist who
called the day for the Normandy Invasion.......i.e. D-DAY! What a
gutsy forecast that was... basically catching the opposition
off-guard because their meteorologists were saying that we would never attack
with the forecast conditions. Irving P. Krick is/was a member of Tau
Kappa Epsilon (TKE) International Fraternity and I love to ask our
new members about this famous man.....Anyway, that is about
all I know about that....This extra-terrestrial weather thing...is he
implying that our Moon and other planets are having some sort of an
effect on our weather?? Very interesting, as I was recently involved
in a discussion with a friend recently on the very same
topic...Aloha."
OBIT: Pasadena, Calif. (AP) -- Irving P. Krick, a meteorologist who
helped determine crucial weather conditions for the invasion of
Normandy, died June 20 (1996). He was 89. Krick founded the
meteorology department at California Institute of Technology.
He left Caltech as an Army colonel to run a U.S.-British meteorology
team ordered to find a three-day stretch of calm weather for the
invasion. [...] Krick left Caltech again in 1948, to devote full
energy to his consulting firm, Irving P. Krick Associates. Though he sold
the firm to Strategic Weather Services six years ago (1990), he stayed
involved as chairman emeritus.
--------------------
Forwarded privately from Mr. X in April 2001:
Here are some recent news items concerning Irving Krick.
< http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/980413/13weat.htm >
< http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/Aug/24/front_page/STRAT24.htm >
< http://www.dallasnews.com/editorial/columnists/1215editcoltatum.htm >
< http://edweb.sdsu.edu/sdhs/journal/98fall/palomar.htm >
Also, here is an abstract:
Lewis, J.M., 1994: Caltech's program in meteorology: 1933-1948. Bulletin
of the American Meteorological Society, 75(1), 69-81.
The California Institute of Technology established a course of study in
meteorology in 1933. It was intimately tied to the upsurge of activity
in commercial and military aviation that occurred in the period between
the world wars. The tragic crash of the airship U.S.S. Akron provided
the stimulus for including meteorology as a sub-program in the
aeronautics department at Caltech. Theodore von Kármán, head of the
department and director of the school's Guggenheim Aeronautics
Laboratory, masterminded the design of the program and geared it toward
the solution of practical problems using the principles of dynamic
meteorology. One of his doctoral students, Irving Krick, was groomed to
develop the program. Robert Millikan, head of the Institute, fostered an
approach to science that encouraged the faculty to consult and work with
industry. In this environment, Krick established links with aviation,
motion picture studios, and public utilities that would set the stage
for the research thrust in meteorology. The program was primarily
designed for training at the master's degree level and a significant
number of the graduates became entrepreneurs in meteorology. Based on
letters of reminiscence and oral histories from some of these consulting
meteorologists, it has been concluded that the Millikan/von Kármán
philosophy of science played an important part in directing the
meteorologists into the private sector. Following World War II, Lee
DuBridge replaced Millikan as head of the Institute. DuBridge's efforts
were directed toward making the small elite school scientifically
competitive in the changed conditions of a postwar world. In this
climate, the merging of private business with academic work fell into
disfavor. And without champions such as Millikan and von Kármán, the
meteorology program was unable to survive.
For a photo of Dr. Krick and the device that you referred to, see:
< http://www.weatherplanner.com/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/WeatherPlanner.class?
FNC=about_history2__Anavbar_html >
[copy and paste twice]
Sincerely,
Mr. X
--
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *
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