Monthly Weather Review at 150 Years: Its History, Impact, and Legacy

Abstract

Abstract Monthly Weather Review, one of the oldest continuously published meteorological journals in the world, publishes its 150th volume this year. In January 1873, the U.S. War Department’s Army Signal Service began producing this monthly report summarizing weather across the United States. Its first issue consisted of a one-page narrative of weather conditions and storms and one chart depicting tracks of low pressure centers during that month. In 1891, Monthly Weather Review continued as a government publication with the transfer of the nation’s weather service from the military to the newly established U.S. Weather Bureau. Over time and sometimes erratically, it grew into a scientific journal. In 1974, Monthly Weather Review was transferred to the American Meteorological Society, who continues to publish it to this day (although a 2003 proposal might have ended it). This Historical Review discusses some of the journal’s history and impact, as well as its legacy. This review also compiles for the first time a complete list of Monthly Weather Review editors. The research published within Monthly Weather Review has included highly cited, ground-breaking articles on weather and climate phenomena (e.g., extratropical and tropical cyclones, El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Madden–Julian oscillation), general circulation modeling, and numerical weather prediction. The data published in the early issues have been used—and continue to be used to this day—for a variety of applied research and historical analysis purposes. The composition and content of Monthly Weather Review have changed over the past century and a half, continuing to evolve with the modern publishing landscape, with color figures at no additional cost, open-access articles, open data, and, in the near future, embedded figure animations.