Neil Burgher Ward (June 26, 1914 – April 12, 1972) was an American meteorologist who is credited as the first scientific storm chaser, developing ideas of thunderstorm and tornado structure and evolution as well as techniques for forecasting and severe weather intercept. He also was a pioneering developer of

physical model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

s of tornadoes, first at his home, then at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma. He significantly furthered the modern scientific understanding of atmospheric vortices, particularly tornadoes.

Biography

Ward first studied mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma (OU). In 1939, he began working for the Weather Bureau as a weather observer, eventually becoming a forecaster. Earning two scholarships, he attended graduate school at Texas A&M University, the University of Oklahoma, and

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

(CSU), beginning in late 1956. He studied fluid mechanics and developed an increasing interest in atmospheric vortices by the early 1950s. Neil was a research scientist at NSSL from the first year of its operation in 1964 until his death in 1972. He began actively pursuing storms on the road in 1961, coordinating with radar information via the

Oklahoma Highway Patrol The Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) is a major state law enforcement agency of the government of Oklahoma. A division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, the OHP has traffic enforcement jurisdiction throughout the state. OHP was legislat ...

radio.

References

* * 1914 births 1972 deaths People from Purcell, Oklahoma University of Oklahoma alumni Texas A&M University alumni American meteorologists Storm chasers {{climate-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References