AMS

The Volunteer Power behind Peer Review

by Tony Broccoli, AMS Publications Commissioner

The peer review process is essential for high-quality scientific publication. Most readers of BAMS are aware of this simple fact, but we often hear questions about the many volunteers who take part in the peer review process. What is the difference between editors and associate editors? How do we choose chief editors? To answer these and other questions as part of this year’s Peer Review Week, I will provide a quick look at the roles of volunteers who make the peer review process work.

TonyB

When a manuscript is submitted to one of the 11 technical journals published by AMS, it is examined by the chief editor of that journal. (Two AMS journals, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology and Journal of Climate have two co-chief editors.) If the manuscript meets basic standards of clarity, language, and content, the chief editor will assign an editor to handle it. The handling editor’s area of expertise will typically be consistent with the topic of the manuscript.

The next step for the handling editor is the selection of reviewers for the manuscript. Reviewers are also chosen on the basis of their expertise because they are being asked to make a technical assessment of the manuscript under consideration. Most manuscripts are assigned to two to three reviewers, who are expected to return their reviews in a specified length of time.

Once the reviews of a manuscript have been received, the handling editor is responsible for evaluating them and deciding the outcome of the peer review process. The editor may decide to 1) accept the manuscript without revision (this is quite rare); 2) require minor revisions that will be judged by the editor without further evaluation by the reviewers; 3) require major revisions, after which the revised manuscript will typically be subject to another round of evaluation by the reviewers; or 4) reject the manuscript as unsuitable for publication. In making a decision, the editor is not simply tallying the recommendations of the reviewers, but instead using the reviews to make an informed judgment about the manuscript.

Thus the scientific publication process depends critically on many people who generously donate their time. Reviewers are at the heart of the peer review process; this army of volunteers provides a critical evaluation of each manuscript and offers suggestions on how it can be made stronger. Reviewers who have a history of providing excellent and timely reviews are often invited to become associate editors, who agree to provide more frequent reviews, review manuscripts on short notice, and advise the editors of challenging or difficult cases.

Editors are frequently chosen from the ranks of associate editors who have performed their duties with distinction. Successful editors have certain attributes: they are excellent scientists, they have good judgment, and they have superior time-management skills. Each of these attributes is important for making sound decisions about manuscripts, communicating with authors and reviewers, and managing the unrelenting stream of incoming manuscripts in a timely manner.

Experience and accomplishment in per- forming the duties of an editor are among the primary considerations in identifying candidates for chief editor. Although this may be the most visible position among the volunteers who contribute to the peer review process in AMS Publications, it is by no means the most important. Reviewers, associate editors, editors, chief editors, and the AMS staff who work with them are all crucial to the scientific publishing enterprise. Regardless of which of these roles you occupy, you are making an important contribution to an essential element of scientific research.

To get involved, please follow this link to the AMS publications website.

COVID-19 and the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise

by Mary Glackin, AMS President

In normal times, our thousands of AMS professionals and colleagues are completely dedicated to helping people make the best possible weather-, water-, and climate-related decisions. In this COVID-19 period, were not just providing critical information; we are also receiving it. We are each of us following guidance from public health experts and local officials so that we can keep ourselves, our families, and our friends safe and well. We’re joining in the national and global efforts to “flatten the curve.”

amsseal-blueWe all continue to work, but these duties are now competing with new ones: caring for children who would normally be in school, searching for basic necessities that would routinely be in stock on supermarket shelves, protecting elderly friends and family members. With campuses and laboratories shut down, professors and students have scrambled to adjust to online teaching and reimagining plans for field experiments. Nonetheless, critical weather and hydrologic services are provided with sharp eyes for spring floods and convective weather. Preparations for the coming hurricane season are moving forward.

COVID-19 doesn’t “slightly tweak” the task of building a Weather-Ready Nation; it completely rearranges the landscape. Goals of shelter-in-place and evacuation have to be reconfigured for a world where we are advised by health experts to maintain physical separation from others—more than a challenge in a communal evacuation center.

COVID-19 provides a unique learning opportunity for all of us in the Enterprise. We can experience firsthand how even the best-intended top-down risk communication can sound to someone in harm’s way—and step up our own communications accordingly.

Finally, it’s worth noting as AMS embarks on its second century that our founding coincided with the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. The link between weather, water, climate, and public health (enshrined in the AMS seal) has been integral to building a sustainable and resilient world, and it will likely play a larger role in the future.

Thank you for maintaining essential services and supporting research and education during such a critical, difficult time. Stay well, and stay safe—and at the same time, stay focused, on our contributions to a safer, healthier world.

AMS’s New Culture and Inclusion Cabinet

by Keith L. Seitter, CCM, AMS Executive Director

One of the AMS Core Values is: “We believe that a diverse, inclusive, and respectful community is essential for our science.”

AMS lives this value, which is articulated in the Centennial Update to the AMS Strategic Goals. We work to foster a culture that celebrates our diversity, strives for equity in all we do, and encourages inclusion across all activities so that everyone can experience a sense of belonging in the Society.

To formalize these efforts and provide a clearer path for providing resources toward them, the Council approved the creation of a new entity in AMS in fall 2019. At its meeting this past January, the Council approved the terms of reference for this new component of the Society’s structure and that Dr. Melissa Burt would serve as its first chair. This Culture and Inclusion Cabinet (CIC) has the following charge:

To accelerate the integration of a culture of inclusion, belonging, diversity, equity, and accessibility across the AMS and evaluate and assess progress towards culture and inclusion strategic goals within the Society. Meaningful integration into all areas and components of the AMS will require time and sustained effort. Fully integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) will result in an organizational culture that is accessible, advances science, serves society, and is responsive to social justice.

The Council designates this new body as a “Cabinet” to reinforce that it is not quite like any of the other entities making up the volunteer structure of the Society (council, commission, board, committee, task force, etc.). The CIC will play a unique role and therefore was given a unique name.

The CIC sits at the highest level of the organizational structure for AMS save the Council itself, to which it reports directly. Being at this level it can more readily ensure that issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, social justice, and belonging are addressed throughout all AMS programs and activities.

The CIC does not replace any of the other components of the Society that work in these arenas—most notably the Board on Women and Minorities (BWM), which has a long record of addressing equity and inclusion issues in AMS. The BWM will continue to oversee specific programs aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will likely expand its role in AMS programs as the CIC helps integrate those efforts more broadly in the Society.

AMS has a strong record of addressing diversity and equity issues and a culture of inclusivity that other organizations could learn from. The creation of the CIC builds on those strengths and puts AMS in a position of leadership among scientific organizations in elevating these issues to the highest levels so that they can be threaded through every program in foundational ways.

For many of us, the sense of belonging in AMS is an important part of what makes the Society so special, and we want everyone in the community to feel that sense of belonging as an intrinsic aspect of the AMS culture. I am confident the new Culture and Inclusion Cabinet will take us there and will assist our entire community in creating an even more inclusive environment—strengthening our enterprise in the process.

AMS's New Culture and Inclusion Cabinet

by Keith L. Seitter, CCM, AMS Executive Director
One of the AMS Core Values is: “We believe that a diverse, inclusive, and respectful community is essential for our science.”
AMS lives this value, which is articulated in the Centennial Update to the AMS Strategic Goals. We work to foster a culture that celebrates our diversity, strives for equity in all we do, and encourages inclusion across all activities so that everyone can experience a sense of belonging in the Society.
To formalize these efforts and provide a clearer path for providing resources toward them, the Council approved the creation of a new entity in AMS in fall 2019. At its meeting this past January, the Council approved the terms of reference for this new component of the Society’s structure and that Dr. Melissa Burt would serve as its first chair. This Culture and Inclusion Cabinet (CIC) has the following charge:

To accelerate the integration of a culture of inclusion, belonging, diversity, equity, and accessibility across the AMS and evaluate and assess progress towards culture and inclusion strategic goals within the Society. Meaningful integration into all areas and components of the AMS will require time and sustained effort. Fully integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) will result in an organizational culture that is accessible, advances science, serves society, and is responsive to social justice.

The Council designates this new body as a “Cabinet” to reinforce that it is not quite like any of the other entities making up the volunteer structure of the Society (council, commission, board, committee, task force, etc.). The CIC will play a unique role and therefore was given a unique name.
The CIC sits at the highest level of the organizational structure for AMS save the Council itself, to which it reports directly. Being at this level it can more readily ensure that issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, social justice, and belonging are addressed throughout all AMS programs and activities.
The CIC does not replace any of the other components of the Society that work in these arenas—most notably the Board on Women and Minorities (BWM), which has a long record of addressing equity and inclusion issues in AMS. The BWM will continue to oversee specific programs aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion, and will likely expand its role in AMS programs as the CIC helps integrate those efforts more broadly in the Society.
AMS has a strong record of addressing diversity and equity issues and a culture of inclusivity that other organizations could learn from. The creation of the CIC builds on those strengths and puts AMS in a position of leadership among scientific organizations in elevating these issues to the highest levels so that they can be threaded through every program in foundational ways.
For many of us, the sense of belonging in AMS is an important part of what makes the Society so special, and we want everyone in the community to feel that sense of belonging as an intrinsic aspect of the AMS culture. I am confident the new Culture and Inclusion Cabinet will take us there and will assist our entire community in creating an even more inclusive environment—strengthening our enterprise in the process.

Tornado Researchers Gather to Improve Wind Speed Estimation

The Wind Speed Estimation (WSE) standards committee–jointly supported by AMS and the American Society of Civil Engineers–is holding its 9th meeting this week in conjunction with an NSF-funded Tornado Hazard Wind Assessment and ReducTion Symposium (THWARTS) at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
The WSE committee began in 2014 to develop standards for an improved process to estimate extreme storm winds. Currently, NWS and private post-storm damage surveys use the EF-Scale and treefall pattern analysis, real-time radar and in situ observations, remote sensing, and forensic investigations. The WSE committee includes a data archival team as well as an international working group to broaden the scope of the standard. (Click here for more information about the committee.)
WSE
This is the second joint meeting of WSE/THWARTS and will focus on sharing the latest findings on the multidisciplinary aspects of severe local storms, including the fields of meteorology, wind science and engineering, structural engineering, social science, and policy. A flyer about the symposium with basic information is available online.
Keynote speaker for THWARTS will be Erik Rasmussen. He was the field coordinator of the first of the VORTEX projects in 1994-1995 and a lead principal investigator for VORTEX2 from 2009-2010 and VORTEX-SE from 2016-2017. He currently consults with NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies.
The WSE meeting begins after the final session of THWARTS. The meeting is the first step toward a request for public comment on WSE, likely next year.

AMS Goes for 100% Renewable Electricity for Its 100th Anniversary

by Bob Henson, AMS Councilor and Chair, AMS Committee on Environmental Stewardship (ACES)
Those of us involved with climate change in our professional lives—researchers, educators, authors, students—often feel the need to “walk the walk” in a demonstrable way. AMS is one of the world’s premier organizations involved with peer-reviewed research on our changing atmosphere, so it’s only fitting that the Society is finding ways to demonstrate its environmental bona fides in its own operations. For example, AMS has been a leader this past decade in working toward “green meetings.” An upcoming BAMS article will feature some green-meeting highlights, and a summary can also be found in the “About AMS” section of the AMS website.
Just in time for the Society’s 100th birthday, AMS has now ensured that the electricity supply in its offices in Boston and Washington, D.C., is effectively 100% renewable. The Boston shift involved working with the nonprofit Green Energy Consumers Alliance (GECA), a spinoff of Massachusetts Energy that works to maximize the use of renewables in the state’s electricity supply.
AMS recently finalized a renewable two-year agreement (retroactive to January 2019) to purchase Class I renewable energy certificates (RECs) from GECA. These certificates are equal to the full amount of electricity consumed at the AMS buildings at 44 and 45 Beacon Street. Each certificate mandates the production of one megawatt hour of renewable energy, documenting where, how, and when the energy (in this case, wind energy) was produced. In 2019, energy providers in Massachusetts were required to purchase in-state Class I RECs for 14% of all electricity they generate, a percentage that goes up each year by 1%. When entities such as AMS also purchase Massachusetts Class I RECs, it further stimulates the market for clean energy. In other words, Massachusetts Class I RECs don’t simply buy green energy that is already government-mandated; they actually promote the creation of new green-energy supplies within the state.
AMS Controller Joe Boyd worked with the AMS Committee on Environmental Stewardship (ACES) to research options for renewable energy at the Boston building and shepherded the final agreement with GECA.
“Given the Society’s strong commitment to environmental issues, it was natural that we include 100% renewable electricity sourcing to our efforts to maintain a small carbon footprint,” says AMS Executive Director Keith Seitter.
In Washington, AMS leases office space within the headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at 1200 New York Avenue NW. This building’s electrical supply is also effectively 100% renewable, via RECs that are purchased through a Constellation New Energy contract for transmission and generation. (The RECs do not include electric distribution, and the building also uses a small amount of natural gas.)
“ACES continuously strives to promote the Society’s environmentally progressive standards, complementing the research and efforts of AMS members. Thanks to felicitous timing, the Society is celebrating its transition to 100% renewable energy on its 100th anniversary,” says incoming 2020 ACES Chair C. Todd Rhodes (Coastal Carolina University).

AMS on the Air Podcast: Alexandra Cranford Talks about Women in TV Meteorology

The largest biographical study to date of TV meteorologists shows some disturbing disadvantages for women in the profession.  You can hear Alexandra Cranford, the author of that study, discuss the study on the latest episode of our podcast, AMS on the Air.
Cranford, who is an AMS Certified Broadcaster with WWL-TV in New Orleans, made an exhaustive survey of online information for more than 2,000 weathercasters. She focused on the relation between her colleagues’ professional status and education. The results, which formed the basis of her BAMS article, show women meteorologists have made gains on local TV, yet are not proportionately well represented in the most prominent and prized positions on local stations.
For example, women are much more likely to be on TV during daytime, mornings, and weekends, than on prime time slots:
CranfordChart
And they are far less likely to be chief meteorologist for their station:
CranfordChart2
In the podcast interview, she speculates on some of the reasons for these findings.

Perhaps when a hiring manager is interviewing a man versus a woman as a weathercaster, they are looking at slightly different criteria….Another thing is, maybe women are choosing for some reason…perhaps to work maybe weekends and mornings. Maybe women are staying away from those chief positions for some reason. I have no idea if this is the case—I’m just throwing out ideas here—but…possibly due to family reasons or personal preference. That could maybe be another thing.
Also, women may choose to exit the industry earlier in their careers, so that leaves a pool of mainly older, more experienced, mainly males to fill those chief spots, which are typically filled by an older, more experienced person.
And then, one of the reviewers of my study brought my attention to the effect that all of us think about—but how much of a real effect might it have?—the effects of criticisms of consultants and social media and so forth. We all know about the internet trolls. Anyone who works as a TV weathercaster, I’m sure has gotten emails from viewers….That’s a very real thing too. There is research that suggests maybe that’s a bit worse for females versus males. Maybe that can play a role as well.

Listen to the whole interview on the AMS website or on your favorite podcast app.

World Water Day: An Integrated Appreciation

Wow! It’s World Water Day, as observed by the United Nations. Pretty much everything AMS is about has to do with water—from raindrops to atmospheric rivers to thunderstorms and hurricanes on to ocean currents and groundwater.
Which is why this concluding paragraph from the AMS Policy Program’s recently released study, “Toward an Integrated Approach to Water,” hit home and hits hard for us.

Water is simultaneously a resource and a threat. It is centrally important to every aspect of socioeconomic wellbeing and water becomes a hazard when there is too much, too little, or if the quality is poor. The ever-changing, increasingly human influenced water regime is characterized by localized, uncontrolled, intermittent, and sometimes huge flows of water (fresh and salt) across coastal zones, urban and rural areas, transportation infrastructure, agricultural resources, and through waterways. Earth observations and science provide critical environmental intelligence that help us determine when there is too much water, too little, or of the wrong quality. Services help us manage risks and realize opportunities that environmental intelligence makes possible. Decision-making with respect to water, as with all societal choices, has the greatest chance to benefit people when grounded in the best available knowledge & understanding.

Uncontrolled..intermittent…huge…too much…too little…An unflinching assessment from Paul Higgins, Yael Seid-Green, Andy Miller, and Annalise Blum. Read the whole report here and take in the full flow of interrelated issues that we, as an AMS community, must grasp in knowing and dealing with Earth’s ways.

International Women's Day: Unsilencing the Forgotten Pillars of Meteorology

In the pages of scientific history, one often hears too much silence. A science–especially meteorology–is built by women who are rarely, if ever, remembered, let alone credited.
So maybe on this International Women’s Day, and more broadly, for Women’s History Month, let’s look back in the pages of history at the dedication to meteorology that women have always shown. Consider the dedication to a very essence of science—observation—shown in this item tucked into the January 1929 BAMS:

MRS. MORGAN IS POINT BARROW OBSERVER
When the Weather Bureau announced in the fall that radio weather reports were beginning to come in from our northernmost station, Point Barrow, Alaska, at latitude 71°…nobody would have guessed that the observer at this coldest and most inaccessible station, 450 miles north of other radio weather outposts, is a young woman, Mrs. Beverly A. Morgan, wife of the Army Signal Corps radio operator at the trading post there. …Mrs. Morgan and her husband live in the most primitive surroundings with only a few score people within hundreds of miles. Their only communication with the outside world, with the exception of their radio, will be a steamer once and sometimes twice a year. Occasionally even this powerful icebreaker is unable to penetrate to the post for months after her scheduled arrival. Shortage of food and other supplies has often caused serious handicap at the station, necessitating rationing of food. The temperature averages 19° F. below zero during the coldest winter months, and has been known to reach 55° below zero. Despite these hardships, Mrs. Morgan has pledged herself to make the routine observations twice a day regardless of weather, storms, sickness or other conditions. Many of the instruments require considerable mechanical attention and Mrs. Morgan is performing these duties in addition to her work as observer. The arduous observing is of great importance to cold wave forecasting in the United States, for Charles L. Mitchell, chief forecaster of the U. S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D. C., has found, by studies of reports for earlier years received by mail from this station and others, that the great invasions of cold air that sweep over much of the North American continent come in most frequently off the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska and are first observed at Point Barrow. Thus the reports from Mrs. Morgan will probably give us warnings of the approach of cold periods in winter some days earlier than heretofore.

And let’s listen to the commitment of one Mrs. Ross Morgan, a noted Weather Bureau Cooperative Observer, as recorded in her address to an AMS meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, later published in the January 1928 BAMS:

DUTIES AND EXPERIENCES OF A COOPERATIVE OBSERVER
By MRS. ROSS WOODS, Cooperative Observer, Palmetto, Tenn.
For years it has been my desire to have a convention of the weather observers of our state, that I might meet my fellow cooperatives and exchange experiences with them, but such a convention up to this time has not seemed feasible.
But now two mighty luminaries in the scientific world are in conjunction and with their combined attractive force, are drawing all the earth, great and small, toward them. The American Meteorological Society, for the first time in its history, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for the second time in its history, are met in our capital city. Truly opportunity is at the high tide of the spring tide and my erstwhile dream for years of too little importance to warrant fulfillment, is now a reality.
And now that I have the opportunity to speak, my heart fills so with emotion the words are choked back and with Tennyson I cry, “And I would that I could utter the thoughts that arise in me.” That little latticed shed, or instrument shelter, in the yard back home does not seem to me to house mere instruments of wood and metal. Those instruments are a part of my family and as dear to me as some cherished heirloom to another. And why shouldn’t I love them when I recall the days that used to be?….

At first I loved them because of my father, later for their own sake or shall I say because through association with my own babies they became almost like one of the children. For more than twenty-two years they have stood in my yard with the pride of their thirty-eight years of unbroken record which…had stood until last summer I was absent for ten days and not even the most insistent S.O.S. could secure a substitute.
How very, very often, I have the pleasure of showing a visitor or newcomer the maximum and the minimum thermometers, how they keep their register till I set them, explain the way to measure the rain, of keeping a daily record and noting the direction of the wind and character of the day, all of which must be made out once a month and sent to the Weather Bureau at Nashville. Usually this information calls forth words of appreciation and commendation, but there are some who are wont to ask, “Why do you do all this for nothing?” The easiest reply is: the compensation the Government could allow for this work would be small yet there are many incompetent and irresponsible persons, who would take it for the price, small though it be. But the truest and best reason is deep within my heart and could not be understood by a disinterested listener.

In fancy I stand before the instrument, not at the time I set the thermometer and make my daily record, but this is the hour before bedtime and this is my observation; above me is the sky “that beautiful parchment on which the sun and moon keep their diary….I see it “sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together, almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity,” and I am glad I am numbered even though in a humble way among those who scan the sky.

Yes, we will remind readers of the exploits of the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences, the late Joanne Simpson who also served as AMS president (for example, today is a good day to listen to Carol Lipschultz’s biographical presentation on Dr. Simpson, here). And we will remember the story of Ann Louise Beck, who earned her Master’s degree in our science in 1922 while being instrumental in pioneering the use of the Norwegian cyclone model in weather analysis and forecasting in the United States. Her review paper on what she learned from her fellowship year in Bergen was probably the introduction to modern scientific forecasting for many American meteorologists in her day.
But lets remember that despite the all-too-often silence of history, women have long been a pillar of meteorology. Because of course they were, even if the journals are mostly silent.
In Dr. Simpson’s words, when she accepted the AMS Rossby Research Medal in January 1983.

Women meteorologists can now stand on their own, without defensiveness—and soon without, I hope, the prefix “woman ” preceding “meteorologist.” They no longer need, want, nor should expect special treatment or attention. For this alone I’m very glad I’ve survived to this day. My receiving this wonderful, encouraging—though simultaneously humbling—recognition is not an anomaly, but on the contrary, is a harbinger. It says—loudly and clearly—to that increasing number of younger women contributing to our science that each of you can expect an opportunity comparable to that of your male colleagues to receive the recognition that you earn. I am confident, in fact, if I am accorded a normal life span, that I will be here to cheer for the next several of you when one of these great honors comes your way.

 
 
 

International Women’s Day: Unsilencing the Forgotten Pillars of Meteorology

In the pages of scientific history, one often hears too much silence. A science–especially meteorology–is built by women who are rarely, if ever, remembered, let alone credited.

So maybe on this International Women’s Day, and more broadly, for Women’s History Month, let’s look back in the pages of history at the dedication to meteorology that women have always shown. Consider the dedication to a very essence of science—observation—shown in this item tucked into the January 1929 BAMS:

MRS. MORGAN IS POINT BARROW OBSERVER

When the Weather Bureau announced in the fall that radio weather reports were beginning to come in from our northernmost station, Point Barrow, Alaska, at latitude 71°…nobody would have guessed that the observer at this coldest and most inaccessible station, 450 miles north of other radio weather outposts, is a young woman, Mrs. Beverly A. Morgan, wife of the Army Signal Corps radio operator at the trading post there. …Mrs. Morgan and her husband live in the most primitive surroundings with only a few score people within hundreds of miles. Their only communication with the outside world, with the exception of their radio, will be a steamer once and sometimes twice a year. Occasionally even this powerful icebreaker is unable to penetrate to the post for months after her scheduled arrival. Shortage of food and other supplies has often caused serious handicap at the station, necessitating rationing of food. The temperature averages 19° F. below zero during the coldest winter months, and has been known to reach 55° below zero. Despite these hardships, Mrs. Morgan has pledged herself to make the routine observations twice a day regardless of weather, storms, sickness or other conditions. Many of the instruments require considerable mechanical attention and Mrs. Morgan is performing these duties in addition to her work as observer. The arduous observing is of great importance to cold wave forecasting in the United States, for Charles L. Mitchell, chief forecaster of the U. S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D. C., has found, by studies of reports for earlier years received by mail from this station and others, that the great invasions of cold air that sweep over much of the North American continent come in most frequently off the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska and are first observed at Point Barrow. Thus the reports from Mrs. Morgan will probably give us warnings of the approach of cold periods in winter some days earlier than heretofore.

And let’s listen to the commitment of one Mrs. Ross Morgan, a noted Weather Bureau Cooperative Observer, as recorded in her address to an AMS meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, later published in the January 1928 BAMS:

DUTIES AND EXPERIENCES OF A COOPERATIVE OBSERVER

By MRS. ROSS WOODS, Cooperative Observer, Palmetto, Tenn.

For years it has been my desire to have a convention of the weather observers of our state, that I might meet my fellow cooperatives and exchange experiences with them, but such a convention up to this time has not seemed feasible.

But now two mighty luminaries in the scientific world are in conjunction and with their combined attractive force, are drawing all the earth, great and small, toward them. The American Meteorological Society, for the first time in its history, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for the second time in its history, are met in our capital city. Truly opportunity is at the high tide of the spring tide and my erstwhile dream for years of too little importance to warrant fulfillment, is now a reality.

And now that I have the opportunity to speak, my heart fills so with emotion the words are choked back and with Tennyson I cry, “And I would that I could utter the thoughts that arise in me.” That little latticed shed, or instrument shelter, in the yard back home does not seem to me to house mere instruments of wood and metal. Those instruments are a part of my family and as dear to me as some cherished heirloom to another. And why shouldn’t I love them when I recall the days that used to be?….

At first I loved them because of my father, later for their own sake or shall I say because through association with my own babies they became almost like one of the children. For more than twenty-two years they have stood in my yard with the pride of their thirty-eight years of unbroken record which…had stood until last summer I was absent for ten days and not even the most insistent S.O.S. could secure a substitute.

How very, very often, I have the pleasure of showing a visitor or newcomer the maximum and the minimum thermometers, how they keep their register till I set them, explain the way to measure the rain, of keeping a daily record and noting the direction of the wind and character of the day, all of which must be made out once a month and sent to the Weather Bureau at Nashville. Usually this information calls forth words of appreciation and commendation, but there are some who are wont to ask, “Why do you do all this for nothing?” The easiest reply is: the compensation the Government could allow for this work would be small yet there are many incompetent and irresponsible persons, who would take it for the price, small though it be. But the truest and best reason is deep within my heart and could not be understood by a disinterested listener.

In fancy I stand before the instrument, not at the time I set the thermometer and make my daily record, but this is the hour before bedtime and this is my observation; above me is the sky “that beautiful parchment on which the sun and moon keep their diary….I see it “sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together, almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity,” and I am glad I am numbered even though in a humble way among those who scan the sky.

Yes, we will remind readers of the exploits of the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences, the late Joanne Simpson who also served as AMS president (for example, today is a good day to listen to Carol Lipschultz’s biographical presentation on Dr. Simpson, here). And we will remember the story of Ann Louise Beck, who earned her Master’s degree in our science in 1922 while being instrumental in pioneering the use of the Norwegian cyclone model in weather analysis and forecasting in the United States. Her review paper on what she learned from her fellowship year in Bergen was probably the introduction to modern scientific forecasting for many American meteorologists in her day.

But lets remember that despite the all-too-often silence of history, women have long been a pillar of meteorology. Because of course they were, even if the journals are mostly silent.

In Dr. Simpson’s words, when she accepted the AMS Rossby Research Medal in January 1983.

Women meteorologists can now stand on their own, without defensiveness—and soon without, I hope, the prefix “woman ” preceding “meteorologist.” They no longer need, want, nor should expect special treatment or attention. For this alone I’m very glad I’ve survived to this day. My receiving this wonderful, encouraging—though simultaneously humbling—recognition is not an anomaly, but on the contrary, is a harbinger. It says—loudly and clearly—to that increasing number of younger women contributing to our science that each of you can expect an opportunity comparable to that of your male colleagues to receive the recognition that you earn. I am confident, in fact, if I am accorded a normal life span, that I will be here to cheer for the next several of you when one of these great honors comes your way.