George McCormack - Astrometeorologist
His apparent devotion to perfecting the techniques for long-range weather forcasting appeared to take a toll on his personal life. There are stories that indicate that his family was not supportive of his life's work. In addition, his work was not acknowledged by any bureaucracy even though he presented valid documentation and results of his work.
McCormack's work should not go unrewarded in this 21st Century. His natal chart gives indications that his reputation as an astrometeorologist will gain world-wide recognition. Perhaps this web-site will be the vehicle.
Mr. McCormack's career spans many years and the best recollection of some of his work can be found in this book: Our Threatened Planet by Joseph F. Goodavage. Next are excerpts from the book that highlight portions of George's career in Astrometeorology.
Predictions based on George J. McCormack updated synopsis, "The Theory and Practice of Astronomic Weather Forecasting were published along with the U.S. Weather Bureau's "Long-Range Weather Outlook" - plus a purely random or chance series of predictions derived by spinning a pointer in the "wheel-of-fortune" method. Interestingly, the system by which planetary forces were considered was consistently rated 94 percent accurate. The random forecast achieved 17 percent higher accuracy than the Weather Bureau's "Long-Range Weather Outlook." The Weather Bureau, incidentally, has at its disposal highly sophisticated telemetary systems, large computer installations, meteorological balloons, aircraft, rockets, weather-eye satellites, thousands of ground observers and in excess of $250 million a year especially earmarked for finding a reliable system of long-range weather prediction. After nearly 50 years of such lavish subsidies, Weather Bureau scientists are still no closer to such a system. It should be noted, however, that the method of the US Weather Bureau is to observe what the weather is doing in one area of the globe, then try to guess what direction and development it will take next.
At the beginning of World War I, McCormack meticulously duplicated, tested and proved Pearce's methods. By 1925 he had developed a new astronomical factor - the key - for timing atmospheric changes in eastward transit from any point of terrestrial origin to any other point of longitude. After experimenting with the key for 23 years and obtaining increasingly accurate forecasts, he used this key element with fantastic success for the late, unseasonably cold and snowy spring of 1947 in the Midwest.
Then, eight months before the Big Snow of December 26, 1947, which immobilized metropolitan New York, the now encouraged McCormack used his system again. With even more dazzling accuracy, he predicted the exact date and extent of the storm and sent out 400 mimeographed copies of his prediction to every newspaper and radio station whose address he could locate.
On December 27, his local reputation became national and he was inundated with requests for more and more long-range forecasts during the next decade than any one man could possibly provide. As president and general factotum of the New Jersey Astrologian Society, McCormack began publishing his Astrotech Weather Guide and trying to teach his methods to others.
Unfortunately, few students had McCormack's dedication, persistence, scientific objectivity and intelligence. Every so often he'd find raw talent and do his best to inspire someone new to carry on, but he died with his dream of scientific acceptance only half realized.
"Gee-Jay" tried to teach his students (and the steady stream of newsmen and other curiosity-seekers who beat a path to his door) that the astrometeorological laws that govern weather are not at all limited to sunspot activity. Also that the direction and speed of jet streams or the idea that the Sun alone controls the atmosphere. Based on the experimental research of his predecessors and fully supported by half a century of his own work, here's the theory McCormack developed and presented to a special seminar of the U.S. Weather Bureau in New York in 1963. He also presented to the 44th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in 1964:
In 1962, when 80 percent of the celestial bodies were in southern declinations during winter months, McCormack accurately predicted a returning cycle of migratory severely cold winters in the northen hemisphere. At the same time, large segments of the southern hemisphere were hit by scorching heat and drought.
When McCormack formally presented his system to the Weather Bureau and the American Meteorological Society in 1963 and 1964, he made a non-weather prediction: "I will venture to say that by1981 this system of astronomic long-range weather forecasting will be part of the standard curriculum in our universities." They weren't buying it.
It took the combined efforts of Senators Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating, then Sen. Robert F. Kennedy to twist enough arms and bring enough political pressure to bear on the chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau to set up a special seminar in the New York offices. McCormack presented the results of his life's work to the government. It is an understatement to say that these weather bureaucrats were cold and unfriendly. McCormack drew a detailed picture of the relationship between Saturn and influenza epidemics for the reluctant meteorologists, several of whom exchanged snickers when he told them of the connection between weather and health. "Saturn in Aquarius is the key to the next outbreak of influenza," he told them. " On February 19, 1964, the Sun transits 15 degrees and 43 minutes Aquarius on the exact degree of the total solar eclipse of February 4, 1962, which fell on the 6th house over the USA. The deduction should be fairly obvious."
A deadly flu epidemic struck early in 1964. In June, The New York Times published a graph indicating the numbers of hospitalized flu victims over the previous 15-month period. The highest peak of the graph was February 19. In New York City alone, 250 people died of the disease.
No comment from the Weather Bureau.
(b) when in major stations, that is, either on the celestial equator, in maximum declination, in perigee (closest to Earth), in perihelion (closest to the Sun), or when apparently stationary in geocentric longitude;
(c) by angular relationship with the Sun or between each other in longitude, and
(d) by radical occupancy or eastward transit over any given terrestrial meridian or in angular relation to that meridian. These factors may be interpreted from key charts calculated for the exact times the sun crosses the equinoctial or solstice points; secondary charts prepared for the times of the New and Full Moons provide a more exact timing reference.