Fawbush and Miller

An F3 tornado tracked through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City just before 10 p.m. on March 20, 1948. The twister destroyied 52 aircraft. More than 10 million dollars damage was done making this the costliest tornado on record up to the time in Oklahoma.

Major Ernest W. Fawbush and Captain Robert C Miller were on duty when the tornado hit. The pair had been studying the conditions that led to the formation of tornadoes, hoping to develop a bona fide tornado forecasting system. Investigators from Washington the following day interviewed the pair. While the official military stance was that tornadoes were unforecastable given the state of the art in meteorology. But Fawbush and Miller were asked to see if a operational tornado forecast was possible.

They carefully scrutinized all of the available weather charts, looking for signs of developing tornadoes.

On March 25th, Fawbush and Miller recognized that conditions were identical to those of the 20th and issued a forecast for heavy storms. The base commander prepared for the possibility of a tornado and measures were taken to prevent the loss of property. If Fawbush and Miller were right, they would be heroes. If not, they would be subject to ridicule.
More tomorrow.

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