Jerome Namias (March 19, 1910 – February 10, 1997) was an American meteorologist, whose research included El Niño.
Biography
Jerome "Jerry" Namias was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the second son of Joseph Namias, an optometrist, and Sadie Jacobs Namias. He was raised in Fall River, Massachusetts. On graduation from high school, Namias was offered a four-year scholarship to Wesleyan University in Connecticut; however, because of his father's illness and the Great Depression, Namias decided to stay home and try to find a job to help his family out." He took correspondence courses, which allowed him to obtain employment in meteorology-related areas. Later he studied at the University of Michigan for one year, then joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1936 as research assistant. In the 1930s he studied the phenomena of the Dust Bowl. In 1941 he received his Master's degree from MIT.
From 1941 to 1971 he was Chief of the Extended Forecast Division of the U.S. Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service). In the 1940s he developed the 5-day-forecast, and month and season forecasts in the 1960s. Further, he was responsible for forecasting for the Allies during World War II in Northern Africa.
Namias helped to develop the system of passenger flight weather forecasting, and researched the interaction between the oceans and atmosphere. He was involved in the research of the El Niño phenomena in the Pacific Ocean and its relevance to the world climate.
In 1971 he joined the Scripps Institution and established the first Experimental Climate Research Center. His prognosis of warm weather during the Arab oil embargo of 1973 greatly aided domestic policy response.
Education
Namias attended public schools in Fall River, graduating from Durfee High School in 1928. He was offered a four-year scholarship to Wesleyan University, but due to the looming recession and his father's ill health, Jerome elected to remain home at that time. Shortly thereafter, he became infected with tuberculosis and was confined to his residence for several years. During that time he took several correspondence courses, including courses in meteorology, from Clark University. Although he never received an undergraduate degree, he eventually received a Master's degree in Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1941). He also later received honorary Ph.D's from University of Rhode Island (1972) and from Clark University (1984).
While working at the National Weather Service in Washington D.C., Namias entered into correspondence with the head of the newly established meteorology department at MIT, Carl-Gustaf Rossby. At Rossby's urging, Namias enrolled as an undergraduate student at MIT in 1932. However, in 1934 he left MIT to work in the nascent forecasting bureau of Trans-World Airlines in Newark and then in Kansas City, where he stayed until 1934. That job was canceled in 1934 when TWA lost a government airmail contract, and Namias "was happy to return to part-time work at MIT and Blue Hill Observatory, even though he had to learn to live on student pay once again."
In 1934 Namias had determined to obtain a college degree, and had enrolled in the University of Minnesota, which had lower tuition than MIT. However, he had serious health problems (pleural effusion) during that year, and he returned to Fall River, to continue his self-education. While in Fall River he published a seminal paper on atmospheric inversions (1936), which again impressed Dr Rossby, who offered Namias a graduate assistantship at MIT, beginning with the 1936 Fall term. He continued working and studying at MIT, receiving an M.S. degree in 1941.
The University of Rhode Island granted Namias an honorary D.Sc., in 1972; Clark University followed with a similar bestowal in 1984.
Career in meteorology
After recovering from tuberculosis in the early 1930s, Namias sought employment in the field of meteorology. One petition, to H. H. Clayton at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, resulted in a job offer. Namias was hired after a face-to-face interview which included an exercise in extracting predictions from meteorological data, and he was sent to the weather bureau in Washington, D.C. He was put to work compiling world weather records and solar weather studies.
In the NWS library, Namias discovered the scientific reports issued by Carl G. Rossby's new department of meteorology at MIT. He wrote Rossby, questioning some of the papers' assertions. Rossby, surprisingly, soon responded, acknowledging that part of Namias's assertions were indeed correct, and inviting Namias to come visit him.