Dear Tom,
Are the new cloudscape stamps meteorologically accurate?
Joe Barnes, Maywood
Dear Joe,
They are indeed! That beautiful 15 stamp series was issued on Oct. 4 of this year by the U.S. Postal Service–in collaboration with the Weather Channel, the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Service–to educate the public about atmospheric sciences and increase awareness of our environment. The stamps are based on photographs of various types of clouds and are sold in a 15 panel stamp pane with the different clouds arranged according to altitude.
The first-day-of-issue ceremony for the stamps was held near Boston at the Blue Hill Observatory, where weather records have been taken non-stop since Jan. 31, 1885–the longest period of continuous weather records at one location in North America.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
