Comments on: Renowned Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Reid Bryson Dies At 88

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:00:17 +0000

My grandfather had a barometer in the middle of the living room and checked it every day. I now have one too.

By: Jay Alt

Jay Alt — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:26:40 +0000

Bryson was a pioneer in looking at paleoclimate indicators.
Global warming skeptics called him an idiot for predicting another Ice Age in the 1970s.
Then they promoted him to visionary for the same prediction in the 21st century.
One goes with what they’ve got, which in this case ain’t very much.

By: leebert

leebert — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:30:59 +0000

I remember my folks telling me this story years ago WRT the Caine Mutiny. They were old hurricane watchers (born & raised in Miami in the 1920′s) and knew all the old stories about steering currents and pressure gradients. The barometer was kept in a central spot in our house.

Before the era of building on the beach, they had both ridden through a number of storms in the 1940′s and 1950′s w/ hand-made shutters bolted through the double-hung windows. Hipped roofs & barrel tile were the best ways to build a house back then.

By: Paul Ahee

Paul Ahee — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:06:58 +0000

The storm in ’44 was called ‘Typhoon Cobra’ and a great account can be found in “Halsey’s Typhoon” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

By: Patrick Powell

Patrick Powell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:43:44 +0000

Dr. Bryson was a truely visionary scientist and a terrific individual. He has been discussed as the “Father of Climatology” by many in the Meteorology and Climatology fields. This is a sad day. I had the chance to talk to him and invite him to be a panelist at an AMS conference. He said he didn’t travel much anymore but made himself available for a teleconference. Just a great man.

“If Global warming is a 100 story building, the human influence is equivalent to the linoleam on the first floor” – Dr. Bryson

By: Evan Jones

Evan Jones — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:45:06 +0000

The fleet would have been a lot smaller in ’43. Halsey’s rep suffered badly from that one.

By: John G. Bell

John G. Bell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:19:02 +0000

Edwin P. Hoyt said that it was fortunate that the storm hit the US Fleet in 1944. Before 1944 our war mobilization effort would not have been able to offset the loss and the
Pacific War might have dragged on. Halsey just escaped a court-martial. After the storm, weather reporting and related information management problems were fixed. Previously, weather messages had had a low priority.

Nice quote from a sharp guy!

By: Bruce Cobb

Bruce Cobb — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:53:37 +0000

Yikes, Pam! Did you have to go and do that? There goes our climate.

By: Dave Hoopman

Dave Hoopman — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:50:08 +0000

When I went to interview Prof. Bryson for the magazine piece that included his “you could go outside and spit” remark, I thought we’d be lucky to get 45 minutes with an iconic scientist who didn’t need uncredentialed scribblers cluttering up his busy day. What we got instead was two hours with one of the most gracious, generous and accommodating people I’ve ever met. Subsequent inquiries about climate issues great and small unfailingly received a cheerful, informative and witty response that proved no effort to get the benefit of Reid Bryson’s knowledge would be considered unworthy of his prompt attention. It is a sad thing that he is gone; a happy thing that he goes out, I am absolutely sure, with no apologies. R.I.P.

By: Brent in Calgary

Brent in Calgary — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:40:41 +0000

That’s just a funny, great, simple , to the point great quote to stick it to Al Gore!

By: Brent in Calgary

Brent in Calgary — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:28:25 +0000

‘You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.’

That’s profound!

By: Leon Brozyna

Leon Brozyna — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:01:31 +0000

A truly huge loss.

Hadn’t heard that Third Fleet part of the story before. But it fits with everything else I’d heard of him as not fitting into orthodoxy and consensus. Very much an independent mind.

By: Pamela Gray

Pamela Gray — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:56:34 +0000

auuuck…sptew.

In honor of a great scientist. He started my many years old fascination with weather.

By: JP

JP — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:50:58 +0000

Reid was part of a pioneering generation of meterologist that laid the foundation for much of the specialization that we see today. He joins the ranks of the late Colonel RC Miller and Major Fawbush (both were in the Army Air Corps and USAF).

By: kim

kim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:36:47 +0000

I’m glad he got to see the carbon paradigm develop cracks, and even gladder he got in a few blows on it.
=========================================