Johannes Peter Letzmann (19 July 1885 – 21 May 1971) was an
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
n
meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
, and a pioneering
tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
researcher. His prolific output related to severe storms concepts included: developing tornado damage studies, atmospheric vortices, theoretical studies and laboratory simulations, tornado case studies, and observation programs. It generated extensive analysis techniques and insights on tornadoes at a time when there was still very little research on the subject in the United States.
Biography
From 1906 to 1913 Letzmann attended the
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...
in
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, studying meteorology. His career studying tornadoes began in 1918 when the esteemed visiting scientist
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...
introduced him to his copious European tornado climatological and other studies. The
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
awarded Letzmann a PhD in 1924. Most of his studies were done at Dorpat (Tartu), but he did travel with Wegener for a year in 1928 to the
University of Graz
The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria.
History
The unive ...
. He was a professor of meteorology at the University of Graz from 1939 (or 1940) to 1945. There he built a "Forschungsstelle für atmosphärische Wirbel" (Research Center for atmospheric whirls). After the war he lost his chair, but he remained in
Graz
Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...
, Austria. In 1962, he elected to retire to a hostel established for former Baltic Germans at
Langeoog, an island off the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
coast of Germany. Letzmann's antebellum work remained forgotten for decades until rediscovery beginning in the 1990s
See also
*
John Park Finley
John Park Finley (April 11, 1854 – November 24, 1943) was an American meteorologist and Army Signal Service officer who was the first person to study tornadoes intensively. He also wrote the first known book on the subject as well as many oth ...
References
External links
Richtlinien zur Erforschung von Tromben, Tornados, Wasserhosen und Kleintromben*
Alfred Wegener's tornado research and his influence on Johannes Letzmann: Scientific achievements decades ahead of their timeCenter of Competence for Severe Local Storms in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (TorDACH)European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL)
Further reading
* H. Eelsalu, H. Tooming, Eds. (1995). ''Meteorology in Estonia in Johannes Letzmann's times and today''. . Tallinn.
1885 births
1971 deaths
People from Cēsis
People from the Governorate of Livonia
Meteorologists
20th-century Estonian scientists
University of Tartu alumni
University of Helsinki alumni
Academics of the University of Graz
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