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Annually, 100 percent of the lower civil service grades turned over: the bureau was training meteorological observers who then left for better-paying jobs. Meteorologists with a bachelor’s degree working for the Army Signal Service started at more than $2,500 per year, while Weather Bureau meteorologists (with master’s degrees and 10 years of experience) only earned $1,800 per year—less than most shop employees earned at the Bureau of Standards or than most clerks received at the Department of Agriculture’s Office of Experiment Stations.

45 But unbeknownst to bureau officials, a political storm was brewing on the horizon that would profoundly affect their operation. The Weather Bureau’s leaders knew there were functional areas needing improvement, but viewed their work as being the best their budget allowed. The American Society of Civil Engineers, however, was not content with the services received by the engineering community. ” The five-member committee presented its report at the ASCE Annual Meeting held 18 January 1933, and published the report in the January 1933 issue of the Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

President Woodrow Wilson convened a special board that heard arguments in support of and in opposition to separate military meteorology services. The Weather Bureau’s leaders vehemently opposed any suggestion that it should not provide all of the nation’s weather services. While acknowledging the necessity of maintaining a small number of trained personnel serving meteorological units at flying fields, naval bases, and ordnance proving grounds, the bureau argued that the United States had too few qualified meteorologists to spread them among several agencies.