Allen Pearson

Background

Pearson, Allen was born on July 28, 1925 in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. Son of Albert Emmanuel and Esther Luella (Day) Pearson.

Education

Bachelor of Science, University of California at Los Angeles, 1946; Master of Science, U. Hawaii, 1968.

Career

They bounced ideas off each other and the Fujita scale (F-scale) and later the FPP scale was the result. Pearson had devised the computerized encoding of the tornado base, which included the F-P-P estimates. Pearson's major role was to get the cooperation of the NWS State Climatologists and to extend the computerized data base backwards to the 1950s.

Pearson successfully lobbied the United States Congress in the mid-1970s for satellite readout and computer equipment that the National Weather Service could not provide. This ultimately led to the sophisticated methodology in use today at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. He retired from the National Weather Service in 1981, and lives in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Pearson was born on July 28, 1925, in Mankato, Minnesota, served in the U.S. Navy and joined the U.S. Weather Bureau (now NOAA) in 1951. He holds an M.S. from the University of Hawaii and B.A.S. from University of California, Los Angeles.

Achievements

• Pearson was awarded the Department of Commerce's Gold Medal in 1974 for "...forecasting of severe local storms...which included the Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974".

Membership

With United States Navy, 1943-1946, retired United States Air Force Reserve. Fellow American Meteorological Society (chairman severe storms committee 1970, national councilor 1976-1978). Member National Weather Association (national secretary 1980).

Connections

Married Jacqueline Loretta Naujoks, October 5, 1946. Children: Jan Pearson McCune, Debra Day, Mark Allen, Sally Pearson Coon.

Father:

Albert Emmanuel Pearson

Mother:

Esther Luella (Day) Pearson

Spouse:

Jacqueline Loretta Naujoks

child:

Debra Day Pearson

child:

Jan Pearson McCune Pearson

child:

Sally Pearson Coon Pearson

child:

Mark Allen Pearson