Famous American Meteorologists

US extreme meteorologist and storm chaser Reed Timmer soared to fame with his Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers. He is also popular on Facebook and YouTube, where he posts videos of tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones. He has previously worked for AccuWeather and KFOR-TV.

US meteorologist and mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz is remembered for proposing concepts such as the chaos theory/deterministic chaos and the butterfly effect. He also laid down the Lorenz 96 model. The Kyoto Prize winner was associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology throughout his research career.

Japanese-American meteorologist Tetsuya Theodore Fujita, also known as Ted Fujita, is remembered for his research on severe weather. He devised the Fujita Scale, or F-Scale, for measuring the intensity of tornadoes. In his later life, he was associated with the faculty of the University of Chicago.

Starting his career with NASA as a research meteorologist, Piers Sellers later became a NASA astronaut. The British-American astronaut and climate scientist was a Space Shuttle mission expert and had visited the International Space Station thrice. He also appeared in the documentary Before the Flood, partially produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

US meteorologist Owen Daniels is also a former American football player. A tight-end, he has been a Super Bowl champion with the Denver Broncos. He has also represented the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens. He is now mostly seen on TV, discussing the impact of weather conditions on American football.

Popularly known as Snowflake Bentley, US meteorologist and photographer Wilson Bentley had taken the world’s first detailed photographs of snowflakes and had thus pioneered snowflake photomicrography. He thus laid the foundation of the study of atmospheric ice crystal formation. Hailing from a farming family, he spent his entire life on his farm.

William Morris Davis was an American geologist, geographer, meteorologist, and geomorphologist. Often referred to as the father of American geography, Davis is credited with founding the Association of American Geographers. He is also remembered for his association with the Geological Society of America, where he served as the president. In 1919, he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal.

Nobel Prize-winning Japanese-origin American meteorologist Syukuro Manabe is a pioneering figure in the use of computers to stimulate climate change. He also conducted research on the prediction of global warming. He has been associated with the faculty of both the Princeton and Nagoya universities. He also received the Japanese Order of Culture.

Though mostly self-taught, William Ferrel grew up to be a school teacher and later joined the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. He was later part of the U.S. Army’s Signal Service and is best remembered for his meteorological research and his explanation of the deflection of air currents on Earth.

US physicist and meteorologist Thomas Corwin Mendenhall is remembered for pioneering the use of the ring pendulum for the measurement of absolute gravity. He taught at the Ohio State University, the US Signal Corps, and the Tokyo Imperial University. He also developed the weather service of Ohio.

US meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, who proposed the use of time zones, was also known for his contribution to the development of the US Weather Bureau, or the National Weather Service, through his daily weather maps and forecasts. Initially an astronomer, he also served as the director of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Observatory.

Jacob Bjerknes was a Norwegian American meteorologist known for his works on the dynamics of the polar front and the mechanism for north-south heat transport. He was the son of meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes. Jacob Bjerknes began his career working under his father and later pursued an academic career. He was a recipient of the Royal Meteorological Society’s Symons Gold Medal. 

US meteorologist Jule Gregory Charney is remembered for his pioneering work on modern dynamical meteorology. He developed numerical weather prediction. Starting as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he later headed the meteorology department at the same institute. His work won him honors such as the Hodgkins Medal.

US chemist and meteorologist Vincent Schaefer is remembered for his pioneering studies on the physics of precipitation. He developed cloud seeding, a weather modification system, using dry ice pellets. He taught at the State University of New York and was later named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Carl-Gustaf Rossby was a Swedish-born American meteorologist. He played an important role during the Second World War, organizing the training of military meteorologists. Over the course of his career, Carl-Gustaf Rossby was honored with many prestigious awards such as the Applied Meteorology Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1959.

US meteorologist James Pollard Espy developed the first known theory to explain the thermodynamics of cloud formation. He also made pioneering use of the telegraph to collect meteorological observations. He also served as a meteorologist for US War and Navy and penned the iconic book The Philosophy of Storms.

US meteorologist Jerome Namias is largely remembered for his research on the El Niño. His studies helped in the development of climate prediction immensely. He also helped the Allies with forecasting during World War II and was associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for most of his career.

GE mechanical engineer William D. Bond is best remembered for his contribution to the development of three-wheeled cars and electric cars. He had also served as part of the National Guard during the Korean War. His vintage inventions now adorn the GM Heritage Center in Michigan.