APPENDIX A METEOROLOGY PART I General, A measure of the complexity of the meteorological problem confronting a joint task force, and more particularly its weather personnel, is indicated by two basic conditions which must be accepted at the outset of the approach to planning for atomic detonations at Fniwetok, The first condition is that weather statistics, though useful, prove nothing unless the results are subject to complete physical explanation. And, of course, most meteorological pheno- mena are not subject to such explanation. During short periods of a month or a season, for example, the atmosphere may behave in a manner strikingly in contrast to what statistical records might lead a planner to anticipate, The second condition is that know- ledge of weather and wind in the Central Pacific is still surprisingly meager. The region lies far from the chief Pacific trade routes and, as a consequence, there does not exist the abundance of marine records from the area that exists for surface weather conditions occurring in the higher oceanic latitudes and along the Ameri- can and Asiatic coasts. Despite the long occupations in the Mar- shalls first by the Germans and then by the Japanese, and despite World War II and AEC experience in the area, the Marshall Islands are among the least known, meteorologically speaking, of all the archipelagos of the Central Pacific. 158 The reason lies partly in the