http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Dr. TERENCE MEADEN, TORRO, AND THE JOURNAL OF METEOROLOGY Index Page INTERVIEW FOR THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MAGAZINE "WEATHER", JANUARY 2003. This is the first of an occasional series of interviews to be published in Weather. They take the form of a number of questions submitted to prominent meteorologists. Mike Brettle wrote the questions below for Dr. Terence Meaden. Q 1. "It is more than 25 years since TORRO was founded. What do you see as its major achievement over this time? "Since1974 TORRO's objectives have centred on the collection, analysis and publication of data on the incidence, strengths and origins of tornadoes and severe storms in Britain and the Continent of Europe. Tornado track and damage investigations, synoptic analyses, and tornado forecasting and warnings are part of our ongoing research. At the same time TORRO's studies embrace hail and lightning damage, ball lightning, flash floods, windstorms and snowstorms, and temperature and rainfall extremes. Some TORRO members also take part in storm chasing (with approved safeguards). Above all else, TORRO serves the international public interest by making its hard-won data readily available for world scientific use. A strong organisation has grown up based on seven research divisions that produce comprehensive files and databases and publish numerous papers and conference reports. Much useful fundamental research has been initiated that would otherwise never have been undertaken. In addition, TORRO has co-operated closely with The Journal of Meteorology, and this has resulted in 27 volumes of material including the publishing of the entire TORRO data bank on British and Irish tornadoes from 1960 onwards. Part of the database may be found too in the Ph.D. thesis of David Reynolds whose research TORRO supported during the 1990s (supervisor Dr. Allen Perry, University of Wales in Swansea)." Q 2. "Why did you follow a policy of creating an additional, independent meteorological organisation?" "We pursue the grand British tradition whereby institutions -- like the Royal Society and the Royal Meteorological Society, no less -- are founded by competent enthusiasts wishing to promote research into fields hitherto not catered for. The motivation was there. TORRO was needed because dedicated tornado research had never been undertaken in Britain and Europe, and because it was recognised how helpful such databases would be for the future understanding of other types of extreme weather too. Even in the USA tornado research was in its infancy when TORRO was born in 1974. We now know that England and Wales suffer on average at least 33 tornadoes a year, a figure not greatly different from the annual average for a North American state of similar area like Oklahoma. In one year,1981, Britain had as many as 152 known tornadoes, 104 of which developed in the space of five hours on 23 November. Only a dedicated organisation could succeed in documenting data to such a degree." Q 3. "The position of TORRO, outside the academic world and without the sponsorship of a major organisation, is unusual. What advantages and disadvantages does this give?" "TORRO and The Journal of Meteorology have wide support from academics and weather forecasters. Since 1994, Professor Derek Elsom at Oxford Brookes University has been TORRO's keen hardworking head. Autonomy has the advantage of limiting bureaucracy. The organisation's executives meet six times a year, usually in Oxford, besides which there are open meetings and conferences in spring and autumn which any of the 300 members and the public may attend." Q 4. Have you considered other sources of funding for TORRO? "There has been no need so far, but we shall be glad to discuss proposals with interested parties." Q 5. "Do you think this model of organisation could work in other areas?" "Yes. An example has been the British Rainfall Organisation (BRO) that G. J. Symons founded in 1860. The BRO was popular and successful for a century. It was run initially as a private body and later by the Meteorological Office, and could be born again if enthusiasts so wished." Q 6. "Are we near a final understanding of the more elusive phenomena like ball lightning and crop circles?" "Ball lightning continues to attract the attention of theoretical physicists worldwide, although solutions remain equivocal. Continuing good reporting of uncommon natural events is fundamentally essential for interpretation by inquiring scientists. As for wind-induced crop circles, progress has been made towards understanding the origins of natural occurrences ever since the first scientific observations of 1880. Mr. J. Rand Capron, who reported weather and other scientific data to local newspapers for many years, described in Nature in 1880 (vol. 22, 290-291) crop circles that he had studied in a wheat field in Surrey: "There were a few standing stalks as a centre" and other stalks "prostrate, with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside these a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered". Mr. Capron concluded that the circles "were suggestive of some cyclonic wind action". There have been occasional eyewitnesses to genuine events ever since. Two theoretical papers published about ten years ago explain how breakdown of a natural eddy or other vortex could cause these phenomena." Q 7. "The media interest in crop circles some years ago brought mixed publicity. Do you think that, overall, the reputation of the science of meteorology was enhanced by that episode?" "Unfortunately, hoaxers were attracted by the beauty and simplicity of natural circles, and their efforts at creating their own designs attracted media interest and compromised serious research. In 1992 Stephen Hawking appropriately commented: 'Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air'. Yes, they are caused by both". Q 8. "How do you see the future prospects for TORRO?" "TORRO has a long life ahead of it, and a rising profile because its research agenda embraces all the costly weather risks and disasters. There is much to be done. TORRO's International Tornado Intensity Scale has gained wide support in Europe because of its sound theoretical base related to the extended Beaufort Scale. Moreover, TORRO's aim is to play a major role in the pan-European investigation of severe-storm events. Dangerous and extreme weather has an ongoing appeal for amateur meteorologists and a professional interest for researchers anxious to learn more about the origins of these conditions. Weather cannot be tamed but we can try to understand severe happenings in order to limit or avoid the consequences. TORRO welcomes new members. Applications may be made through Prof. Elsom (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP) who will forward requests to the Membership Secretary." Brief Biography. Terence Meaden is a professional physicist and meteorologist with M.A. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University. He started his first weather station while at school and subscribed to Weather from 1950 onwards. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1957. A postdoctoral fellowship at Oxford was followed by university appointments at Grenoble University in France and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, where he became an associate professor of physics. He has authored almost a hundred papers in solid-state low-temperature physics. Upon returning to England, Dr. Meaden founded the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation and for 27 years edited The Journal of Meteorology. In meteorology he has authored more than a hundred articles, 41 of them for Weather (from 1963 onwards). He is married with three children and four grandchildren. He has written ten books on physics, meteorology, history, prehistory and archaeology. Pastimes include the study of cosmology, astronomy, prehistory and archaeology, and enjoying classical music. Tornado and Storm Research Organisation.