Ivan Ray Tannehill (March 17, 1890 – May 2, 1959) was a commissioned US Army Lieutenant at Fort Story, Virginia and soon after World War I,Monthly Weather Review (October 1919
Note on Pilot-Balloon Flights in a Thunderstorm Formation.
Retrieved on 2007-02-17. became a forecaster with the

United States Weather Bureau The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

and a prolific writer, focusing on

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

. His text on hurricanes remained the defining work on the topic from the late 1930s into the early 1950s.

Career

First a newspaper reporter and a teacher, Ivan began work for the

as a weather observer in Houston in 1914. He served during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a weather officer in the Signal Corps. After the war, he became the Officer in Charge (OIC) at the

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

weather office. Moving to

Washington, D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

, he became the Assistant Chief of the Forecast Division in 1929. He later served as Chief of the Marine Division, SR&F Division, and Assistant Chief of Bureau for Operations. He retired in October of 1954 and moved to

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

Thoughts on the warming of the 1930s and 1940s

Scientists were aware of the warming of sections of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

by about 3˚F since the 1860s. The American Meteorological Society held a convention in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

where the topic was discussed. Dr. Tannehill came away from the meeting thinking the cause was due to a slow increase in the radiation of the sun.

Connection to 1947 UFO sightings

After a flurry of

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

reports were witnessed across the United States, including one at Roswell, the then-chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau's division of synoptic reports and forecasts was asked about the objects being seen in the sky. His quote was "I’d like to see one first before I make a guess." He did, however, rule out

weather balloons A weather balloon, also known as sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a ...

, stating they were unlikely to have been mistaken "all over the country and all in one week" for mysterious objects speeding through the sky at

supersonic speed Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

Works published

*All About the Weather (1953) *Cloud forms according to the international system of classification. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1938.ii, 8 p. : plates ; 24 cm. *Drought and Its Causes and Effects *Dusters and Black Blizzards (1936-07-09). Los Angeles Times. *The Hurricane Hunters, Illustrated With Photos (1955) *Hurricanes, their nature and history, particularly those of the West Indies and the southern coasts of the United States (1938) *Note on Pilot-Balloon Flights in a Thunderstorm Formation (1919) *Weather Round the World. (1913)Wiley Interscience
Book Review.
Retrieved on 2007-02-17.

Personal life

At the time of his death, Ivan had two brothers, a sister, a wife Mary Gertrude (Mamo), a daughter Doris, son-in-law William Ulrich Hutterly II., and three grandchildren Ric, John, and Jane.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tannehill, Ivan Ray 1890 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers American meteorologists