Old Weather Forum

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On the weather page, please enter: date, locations, distances (nautical miles and tenths), courses, and all the weather data in the columns outlined in red in the spreadsheet.
It is not necessary to record State of the Sea.
However, ice mentioned in the weather grid should be transcribed using the magenta Sea column.

On the events page please enter: ice, location information, and sailing information.
Aurorae, volcanic, and seismic activity should be reported in the forum.
The names of US Navy and Coast Guard ships met should be noted. This gives the science team a chance to compare weather readings. You can include all ships mentioned in a single entry without a time or any additional data.
Other events are optional.

One person can do both weather and events (Stream 1), but the system also allows one person to do the weather page (Stream 1) and a second person to do the events page (Stream 3).
Unlike in OW3, where three transcriptions were required for each page, we are doing only one transcription per page.

Every transcriber needs to enter the date.
The date is used to organize the pages.

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See Omaha: general for some general background and discussion.
See Omaha: examples for a quick introduction to transcribing or a refresher.

See Transcribing Guide to learn how to transcribe the data.
Post in Ask Questions Here or this topic if you have questions.

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5 February
Noon : Lat 43° 32' 00"S, Long 53° 39' 00"W

7:15 PM

While laying down from aloft Jril Jackson (Sea) fell overboard from main rigging & saved himself by means of a life line. Port buoy was dropped, hove to with main + mizzen topsail to the mast, hauled up mainsail, lowered life boat and picked up life buoy, hoisted boat, braced by & set mainsail at 7:40.

23 February
Noon : Lat 25° 17' 00"S, Long 42° 13' 00"W

Passed through quantities of yellowish + brownish material, having the appearance of dust, lying in streaks, in and upon the water.

25 February
Near 22°44'S 43°55'W

At 11:40 PM, observed a brilliant meteor passing from east to west over an arc of about 90^o.

01 March 1878
Near 23°03'S 34°05'W

At 1030 PM observed a very bright meteor, its bearing about NW. It commenced about 30^o above the horizon and pursued a westerly course at angle of 20^o with the horizon, and disappeared about 5^o above the horizon. When first seen, its color was purple, rapidly changing to green and white.

06 March
Noon : Lat 20° 54'S, Long 30° 41'W

By order of Comd'g Officer; Those men who are now without white clothes & who should have them, will be considered as on extra duty when the crew are dressed in white or partially in white, and will perform such work as they may be called upon to do during the time the crew remain in whites.

This reminds me of the time I was in Basic Training many years ago. I had applied to work as a meteorologist in Germany, but I had to transfer to the Canadian Armed Forces. When my tour was up, I transferred back to Environment Canada.

When I had to get my uniform, there were two problems: none of their standard uniforms nor their shoes fit me. Three of us had to go to a tailor in Vancouver. (Our base was in Chilliwack, about 90 miles away.) On Saturday, a car was dispatched to take us there, and waited until we were measured, and then it would take us back to the base. Because my home was in North Vancouver, I told the driver that I would make my own way back on Sunday. So, I spend two days at home, eating home-cooked meals, sleeping and relaxing.

When the tailor was measuring us, the other two were hassling him to see how quickly they could get their uniforms. He asked me if I was in a rush too? I said I wasn't. The sooner I got it, the more time I would have to spend ironing it. He liked that, and we chatted. It turned out that he made robes for judges in the B.C. Supreme Court. One of our neighbours was on that court, and he really liked her. I told him I would be spending the weekend at home, and I would say hello to her. Needles to say, we became buddies, and he said that my uniform would be a challenge, so it might take awhile to make.

The next Saturday, we returned to the tailor. The other two got their uniforms, but he was having difficulty with mine, and needed more measurements. The other two went back to the base with the driver, and I spent Saturday and Sunday at home, returning to the base Sunday night. The following weekend, more measurements for me, and another weekend at home. The tailor didn't think he could stretch it out anymore, so the following weekend I got my uniform.

However, I also had a problem with shoes. I told the man working in the base Stores Unit, that it was civvies who did all the work and got nothing but crap from the guys in the military. (He was a civvie, and I pointed out that I'd be one on a couple of bases, too.) So, he ordered shoes that he thought might fit. They took two weeks, but they didn't. So, he ordered another pair. Two weeks later, they didn't fit either.

By this time, my uniform was ready, but I couldn't wear it because I didn't have black shoes. He tried twice more - another month - and finally our C.O. was so fed up with me always wearing combats, that our Warrant Officer drove me to a shoe store in Chilliwack, had me fitted with shoes and bought them.

And so, the days of polishing shoes and ironing uniforms began, two months into a three month course.

Wow, that's quite a story Michael! I love it

18 April 1878
Noon : Lat 36° 01'N, Long 74° 27'W

I think they crossed the edge of the Gulf Stream at 1130. These are their sea surface temperatures:

Time	Temperature
11:00	73
12:00	66 | 60
13:00	61
14:00	57
15:00	52
16:00	50

Between 11 and 11:30 o'clock, the wind moderated considerably, the water changed from a blue to light green in color, and in temperature fell from 73^o to 66^o with moderate sea; at the same time there was a corresponding fall of wet and dry bulb thermometers.

The voyage for 1878 has been completed. You can see a plot of the voyage here and, for more detail, you can download the KML file and view it with Google Earth. There was one person mentioned here.

These are the weather statistics for this voyage:

• 2916 records for DirT
• 2912 records for Kts
• 2917 records for Baro
• 2918 records for Attd
• 2917 records for Dry
• 2916 records for Wet
• 2180 records for Water
• 2916 records for Weather
• 2809 records for Clouds
• 2912 records for Clear

There were 28313 weather records for Omaha in 1878.
Omaha travelled a total of 10963 miles.