George M. Dunnavan

 

George was born in the small USA town of Pasco, Washington, but spent most of his early years in Seattle. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington in 1975, and soon was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy.   He started his naval career as a shift forecaster in Hawaii, then went to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Guam where he was a typhoon forecaster for a little over three years.  Dunnavan later attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA where he received a Joint Master of Science Degree in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography.  From there he served as Meteorological Officer on the Amphibious Assault ship USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3).  After two years at sea, he returned to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center where he took over as Deputy Director/Head of the Operations Department. His next tour was as Commanding Officer of Oceanographic Unit Three, where he conducted deep ocean survey work for one year onboard the USNS H. H. Hess mostly in the South Atlantic.  After that sea tour, he taught two years at the Naval Postgraduate School.  George then finished his navy career as the Senior Watch Officer at the U. S. Navy’s Atlantic Weather Center in Norfolk, VA.

 

While in the Navy, George was fortunate enough to be involved in several special projects. As Chief Scientist onboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft during the Tropical Cyclone Motion - 1990 Field Experiment, he directed the scientific team that accomplished the first ever high-altitude aircraft penetration of a super typhoon.  Two years later, he served as on-site Director of the Tropical Cyclone Motion - 1992 Field Experiment, which involved a team of four research scientists and a WC-130 crew that conducted tropical cyclone research flights into typhoons in the western North Pacific. 

 

After retiring from the Navy in 1994, George worked for three years as a forecaster at Bob Rice’s Weather Window, where he provided specialized weather forecasts for many high profile endeavors which included sailboat day races, long distance sailboat races/distance record attempts, sailboat/super-yacht deliveries, around-the world hot air balloon attempts, long distance aircraft races, super tanker oil off-shore transfers, airship (“blimp”) support, and detailed climatologic studies.  He was the assistant meteorologist for Steve Fossett’s third “Solo Spirit” around-the-world hot air balloon flight.

 

In 1999, George began consultant work for Tactical Weather. George was the lead forecaster for the winning sailboat “LG FLATRON” in the 2000-2001 BT Global Challenge. George developed a detailed climatologic study for the race and gave weather interpretation training to FLATRON skipper Conrad Humphreys and first mate Cian McCarthy. Prior to the start of each leg, George provided a detailed departure forecast covering conditions and recommendations for the first several days (race rules forbid weather routing during active racing).