NOAA LISTS FIRST EARTH DAY AS “TOP TEN HISTORIC EVENT”

By Ella Tyler

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was formed in 1970, when the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Weather Bureau, and the US Commission of Fish and Fisheries were brought together as a single agency within the Department of Commerce. President Nixon’s speech when he signed the order creating NOAA said, “The oceans and the atmosphere are interacting parts of the total environmental system, upon which we depend not only for the quality of our lives, but for life itself.”

The new agency inherited an impressive history. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey was the successor to the Survey of the Coast, which was founded in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson to provide nautical charts to allow safe passage into American ports and along our coastline. The Weather Bureau was founded in 1870 and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries was founded in 1871. The organizations were our first physical science agency, our first agency specifically for the atmospheric sciences, and our first conservation agency.

NOAA is celebrating the Coast and Geodetic Survey’s 200th birthday throughout 2007 and has assembled a fascinating web site. The site includes a new set of feature articles each month, a history of the predecessor agencies and of NOAA, a vision for the future, historic images, and postcards from the field. NOAA also compiled lists of its top ten History Makers, Breakthroughs, Historic Events, and Foundation Data Sets.

The list of historical events includes Earth Day 1970 because, “This grassroots political movement helped establish a political climate conducive to forming both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency on October 3, 1970.”

The passage of significant environmental legislation during the 1970s made the historic events list because the agency credits five bills – Marine Mammal Protection Act; Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act; Coastal Zone Management Act; Endangered Species Act; and Fishery Conservation and Management Act – with significantly expanding its stewardship activities.

Hurricane Katrina is on the top ten list, as is the blizzard of March 1993, which is called “the Storm of the Century.” It dumped snow from Alabama to Maine, accumulating over four feet in some places. Along the track of the storm, residents experienced record low temperatures, record low barometer readings, and heavy winds, sometimes exceeding 100 miles per hour. Eleven tornadoes battered Florida. More than 250 people died. This storm cost more than $3 billion in damage.

NOAA explains that this storm is historically important because it was the first test of the National Weather Service’s numerical weather prediction models. NOAA says damage and deaths from the storm would have been significantly greater but its new forecast capabilities allowed it to predict the storm five days in advance.

The Top Ten Breakthrough and the Top Ten Data Sets lists include a lot of material that supports conclusions that the world is indeed getting warmer.