Old educational films

[Jeff Hawkins]

Given the severity of the SDS I'm suffering, I was digging around YouTube today, and came across this old educational film from the 1960's National Weather Bureau. Anyone have any memories of seeing it back in the day? Comments? Any other old educational films worth watching? The film is about 15 minutes long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gvPU7fAmhg

 

[David Hoadley]

Jeff, thanks for showing that old safety awareness film. I remember visiting the Bismarck Weather Bureau back in the 1960s and watching the old hand-drawn, FAXed weather maps slowly rolling out of a large FAX machine, broadcast all over the country from the Washington “Analysis Centerâ€￾ --as referred to in the film. They came off wet to the touch, so had to be hung up on a peg board for 20 minutes to dry. Then the staff would lay them out on a large table and highlight the highs, lows, and fronts in colored markers or crayons! By the time they were ready for use, the data was already 2 hours old. This was back before satellites or computer generated maps. I still have some of the old ones from July 6, 1962, when I saw my second tornado --near Leola, South Dakota.


Off course, it was funny hearing about 500 MPH winds, exploding buildings, opening windows, and taking shelter in the southwest corner of the basement. I don’t remember many tornado watches since then, that were as small as 80 miles wide and 160 miles long, but maybe they were more accurate “back in the day.â€￾


One additional benefit that I don’t recall was the ability to place *collect* calls to the local Weather Bureau and warn about severe weather (seen at the end of the film). Do any of you old-timers remember this as a common practice where you lived?


- - - David Hoadley

 

[Dave Gallaher]

I think I had a calling card by the time I started seeing significant weather on chases, so I never thought about collect calls.

 

[Mike Johnston]

Given the severity of the SDS I'm suffering, I was digging around YouTube today, and came across this old educational film from the 1960's National Weather Bureau. Anyone have any memories of seeing it back in the day? Comments? Any other old educational films worth watching? The film is about 15 minutes long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gvPU7fAmhg

Yes, I absolutely remember seeing this film as a third grader which would have been in 1968. It was shown in school and it scared the heck out of us kids. This was back in Kansas - I'm pretty sure "Elmville Kansas" was fictional but just the fact that Kansas was mentioned made it seem close enough to home to give us something to think about.

 

[Mike Johnston]

One other thing about this film. Notice how the farmer/spotter refers to the apparent "watch" condition as a "tornado alert." I understand this was never an official NWS term, but I do remember tornado alerts being mentioned back then. I don't know if it was just a media creation or what, but from memory it seemed commonplace.