T-storm research in the Miami Valley

WILMINGTON, Ohio (WDTN) - The way we know and understand thunderstorms today all started here in the Miami Valley. In the late 1940's the Thunderstorm Project took center stage in Wilmington at the Wilmington Air Park in Clinton County.    

Just after World War II, a battle began on our own soil.  Planes were aiming for a new enemy - thunderstorms.  

In the summer of 1947 the thunderstorm project began at the Wilmington Air Park.  The goal was to learn more about the lifecycle of a thunderstorm in order to reduce air plane crashes.  It was the first large scale multi-agency meteorological study funded by congress.  Army, Air Force, Navy, US Weather Bureau and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (what is now NASA) joined forces to tackle the weather. 

National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Kurz did a lot of research on this project and says "Radar was classified during World War II so this was the first significant study where they used radar with a weather application to it."

Radar wasn't the only tool used to gather data. A dense network of weather sensors and weather balloons took samples of the current atmosphere as thunderstorms developed.  Instead of avoiding storms pilots went right inside seeing and feeling everything.  In order to see all of the different layers, groups of five planes flew vertically into the storms.

"They would continuously record them  then compare the surface observations with the upper air observations with what they saw on radar compare them also to the pilot.  putting all of these together it allowed them to see the life cycle and structure of a thunderstorm," Kurz says. 

The results of the Thunderstorm Project were published in 1949.  Meteorologists diagramed three thunderstorm stages cumulus, mature and dissipating, which are the same stages we still see today. 

Because Wilmington played such a large role in the project, the Clinton County Historical Society is applying for a historical marker.  They want to put at the Lytle Creek Greenway which is right across the road from the Wilmington air park where it all began

Kay Fisher with the Clinton County Historical Society is leading up the effort to get a historical marker. 

"It's got seven-foot aluminum poles then the actual marker is cast out of medal in the shape of Ohio," she said.

The design is complete, the place picked out - now all that's needed is an approval from the Ohio Historical Society.  Which the group is hoping to get sometime later this year. 

If you would like to learn more about the proposed historical marker click here.

To see the full length version of the thunderstorm project production click here .