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First Edition Preface  Second Edition Preface  Acknowledgments

Preface to the First Edition

    The Glossary of Meteorology purports to define every important meteorological term likely to be found in the literature today. It attempts to present definitions that are understandable to the generalist and yet palatable to the specialist; and it intends to be a reference book that satisfies its user in a minimum of his time.

    The collecting of terms appearing in the Glossary began in 1952 with an exhaustive survey of the literature of the preceding five years. This list, plus previous collections (especially Weather Glossary, U.S. Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau, 1946; and Meteorological Glossary, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, MO 225 ii, 1939 reprinted 1953), provided the platform on which the final product was assembled. In the subsequent years many of the original terms were deleted and many more added, resulting in a final count of 7247 entries. By far the majority of these terms are from the mainstream of meteorological nomenclature: synoptic, dynamic, and physical meteorology, theoretical and applied; climatology; and meteorological instrumentation. Most of the remainder are drawn from sister disciplines such as hydrology, oceanography, geomagnetism and astrophysics; some come from the basic sciences of physics and chemistry; some from applicable portions of mathematics, statistics, and electronics; and others from the folk language of weather lore through many ages. It may be argued, favorably or unfavorably, that this book is as much a glossary “for meteorologists” as “of meteorology.”

    Each definition represents the efforts of three or more individuals, at least two of whom are specialists in the subject area involved. Minimally, each definition passed through the chain of production and criticism consisting of subject editor, editor, reviewer, editor, technical proofreader, editor. Usually, more steps were involved. A few ground rules were set down in order to unify this production effort: mathematics would not be used as a substitute for verbal explanation; the first one or two sentences should be able to stand alone as a basic definition; the definitions should be understandable to an undergraduate in a technical college yet contain sufficient pertinent detail to satisfy the working specialist. It is a glossary of United States usage, primarily; but definitions and terms used mainly in other countries are frequently cited. One can see from the above that this Glossary was not merely “compiled”—it was carefully and critically assembled as the cooperative venture of many contributors.

    Any reference book must provide adequate information with a minimum of effort and time required of its user. This glossary has been edited with that principle uppermost in mind. It consists of an alphabetical list, as complete as possible, of words and short phrases as they naturally appear in the literature and conversation of meteorology. Most of these terms are followed immediately by their definition. Others are followed by references to preferred synonyms. Occasionally the reader is referred to a related term whose definition contains an explanation of the term in question. With few exceptions, the “encyclopedic” approach (i.e., extensive information under a single broad heading) is avoided. However, if a reader wishes to review the related terms of a given subject, he should be able to accomplish this by making use of the internal cross-references (in bold- face type) that are a feature of this volume. A few other features and conventions should be mentioned. Where synonyms are involved, the definition,Preface found under the preferred term. (The preference is sometimes arbitrary.) Synonyms, abbreviations, and symbols appear in parentheses preceding the definition. An italicized word in the body of a definition is defined only in that context. Where a term has more than one definition, each definition is numbered and the first definition is the most common and/or meteorologically, the most important. Nearly all of the terms are singular nouns, verbs and adjectives have been kept at a minimum. Abbreviations and contractions which have become adopted as terms in themselves are included, but most common abbreviations (of units, for example) are not.

    In the borderline subject areas, the lines of term inclusion/exclusion were drawn somewhat arbitrarily. If any general tendency is apparent, it is toward over-inclusion. In general, terms that are purely mathematical, physical, chemical, electronic, biological, etc., are not included. Some exceptions have been made in the case of very frequently used terms, where a brief description is given to provide, at least, orientation as to the area of reference of the term.

    It is recognized that literature references are incomplete within this volume. Only those references are listed that were initially submitted by the many contributors. However, readers are referred to documentation of the rapidly swelling volume of the world’s important literature in meteorology and related fields that is provided by Meteorological Abstracts and Bibliography. English abstracts of literature in 30 languages from 100 countries are presented in this monthly periodical. This journal also includes special bibliographies, author, subject and geographical indices of source material in meteorology, oceanography, hydrology, geomagnetism, cosmic rays, etc. With assistance from United States government agencies concerned with meteorological data and research, the American Meteorological Society will have prepared and published 110 special bibliographies and more than 60,000 abstracts on completion of the tenth volume in 1959.

    As of this date of publication, the Glossary of Meteorology is respectfully up-to-the- minute. With every month, however, the growth of our science expands its vocabulary. It is hoped that this volume provides a sound basis for a continuing record of the meteorologists’ language, just as it documents today’s terminology and places it within the grasp of every worker in the field.


Ralph E. Huschke
Boston, Massachusetts
1959