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In 1931, the Weather Bureau began to replace kite stations with airplane stations. In Jackson, this change was reflected in
the
establishment, albeit short lived, of a Weather Bureau Airport Station(WBAS) in June of
1931. According to Mr. Smith's
history,
the instruments were located on the ground level of the Municipal Airport at Hawkins Field. However, these were also the
years of
the Great Depression, and the station was closed as an economy measure in June of
1935.
So, weather records in Jackson reverted to a cooperative observing station with instruments located in the rear of an
automobile
repair shop on the south side of Silas Brown Street about 300 feet west from the end of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the
Pearl River. The need for weather information at Hawkins Field continued, however, and aviation authorities took some
observations
during this period as well.
The nation was beginning to come out of the Great Depression in 1939, and a Weather Bureau Airport
Station(WBAS) was
re-established
at the Jackson Municipal Airport at Hawkins Field in June of 1939. The first Official-In-Charge
(OIC) of the first WBAS at
Jackson
from 1931-1935 is not known, nor is the OIC of the re-established office in 1939. However, as early as
1941 Mr. George V.
Fish was
the OIC. Mr Fish remained the OIC at Jackson into the 1950s. In the late 30s and
40s, forecasts for Mississippi were issued
from
New Orleans, Louisiana, while the office at Jackson issued adaptive forecasts and warnings, as well as taking observations.
The
WBAS at Jackson was first located in the Hawkins Field terminal building, but was later relocated to the airport managers
building.
As the Weather Bureau became more associated with the aviation community, it became apparent that the agency belonged in the
Department of Commerce. On June 30, 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt transferred the Weather Bureau to the Department of
Commerce where it remains today. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, meteorological services by the
Weather Bureau increased significantly, especially in aviation.
The use of airplanes as an upper-air observational tool expanded during the 1930s, but they were a dangerous and expensive
way to
obtain data. It was frequently impossible to use airplanes during bad weather, which was a time when observations were most
important. The advent of sounding balloons carrying meteorological instruments and radio
transmitters(radiosondes) resulted
in
airplane observations being discontinued prior to World War II. The first radiosonde observation in Mississippi was launched
from
Hawkins Field on March 1, 1953.
During the late 1940s, the Weather Bureau entered the radar age as a result of World War II. The military gave the Weather
Bureau
25 surplus radars which were subsequently renovated to detect weather echoes. Information gained from the operation of these
radars eventually led to the formation of a network of surveillance radars to keep a weather watch on the nation. The first
weather
radar in Jackson was an old World War II shipboard 3 centimeter wavelength radar that the Navy gave to the Weather Bureau.
Dubbed
the WSR-3, it was first installed at Hawkins Field in 1959.
Jackson Municipal Airport was served by a Delta airlines trunk line in the east-west direction, and by a Chicago&Southern
trunk
line in the north-south direction, as well as local flying schools. With the development of bigger, faster jet aircraft for
public air transportation, Hawkins Field soon became too small for the city's needs, and a new airport was begun in western
Rankin County east of Flowood. Named Allen C. Thompson Field in honor of the mayor of Jackson, an office (Weather Bureau
Office WBO) was established in the terminal building of the new airport on July 8,
1963. Mr Don Munro was the Meteorologist-in-Charge
(MIC) of the Jackson office at the time. |
weather.gov 
