Infinitely descriptive phrases are nothing new to famous Oklahomans and seem to be somewhat homogenous for the greatness that has come from this state. For instance, “World’s Greatest Athlete” was Wa-tho-huk Jim Thorpe’s moniker, and Will Rogers was dubbed “America’s greatest trick Roper”. Those are some pretty significant nicknames. However, when one hears, “The world’s greatest Weatherman”, it seems to resonate a little deeper considering the horrific weather that Oklahoma tends to endure.
HaroldTaft,BornSeptember 5, 1922, in Enid, Okla., is the recipient of this descriptive phrase along with another onethatsaysevenmore about his greatness, “The Dean of TV meteorologists”. Taft’s birth isn’t the only significant event that impacted Oklahoma. On March 13, 1922, an F2 tornado touched ground at Gowan, Latimar County and killed 10 people. A few months later, in the fall November 4, 1922, an F4 tornado near Drumright and Shamrock killed 11 people.
Taft began his journey to a well-sought out weatherman after a well-suited background including a stint in the United States Army Air Corps and graduating from Phillips University (a private university in Enid, Okla).
According to the internet, an interesting fact describing Taft’s prediction and observation abilities was that he assisted President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Texoma Native, in setting the actual date of the D-Day invasion. Thisfactledhimtoevenmore contributions to this great country in that during the Korean Conflict, he was part of tactical planning and how the weather would impact the invasion..
Taft possessed such talent in weather forecasting that hecapturedtheinterestofthe film industry. In 1989, Taft was named in Star Trek referencebook,“Worldsofthe Federation”, as the United Federation of the Planets Ambassador to planet Izar.
There was an interval during Taft’s life that he and his weather power was known to everyone across the globe, in fact, he was so well known that bumper stickers reading, “I Believe in Harold”, was inimitable as all knew exactly who “Harold” was.
Taft’s internal radar was so precise it was said that if Santa Claus was soaring across the sky in a sleigh full of packages pulled by eight reindeer, Taft could detect it. Taft began, fictionally perhaps, tracking Santa’s course in 1956.
It is believed that Taft began this task after a simple call from some children in Colorado Springs, Colo. to the Santa Hotline. This call was erroneously connected to the defense post where a senior officer answered and humored the children by turning to office staff and playfully asking them to detect Santa’s current location.
According to an article by Bud Kennedy in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, a simple poster board hung behind Taft’s desk with a charting of Santa’s Sleigh (handwritten and colored by Taft) from the year 1956 to 1991. What a great honor Taft assumed by humoring children, yet he took his radar tracking serious in that he influenced and literally developed the way weather forecasts are determined today.
The final loaded question will never be definitively answered in that we all wonder, did Taft influence the weather, or did the weather influence him? Taft left this world the same month that he arrived, September 27, 1991 and he will never be forgotten.