John Park Finley


John Park Finley was an American meteorologist and Army Signal Service officer who was the first person to study tornadoes intensively. He also wrote the first known book on the subject as well as many other manuals and booklets, collected vast climatological data, set up a nationwide weather observer network, started one of the first private weather enterprises, and opened an early aviation weather school.

Biography

John Park Finley was born on April 11, 1854 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the late 1860s into the early 1870s, he attended Michigan State Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Michigan State University. He graduated with a Bachelors in Science in 1873, specializing in climate impacts on agriculture. In 1877, he enlisted in US Army Signal Service, and was subsequently assigned to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania signal office, where he kindled an interest in severe weather and tornadoes. Finley was soon stationed in Washington, where he was frequently ordered by the service to survey nearby tornado damage. In subsequent years, Finley authored several books, including his Tornadoes: What They Are and How To Observe Them. He died on November 24, 1943 in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Selected works

The University of Oklahoma holds a large collection of Finley's publications. Here are some selected works, which may or may not be contained in said collection: