Oddity of the Week: Weather Ciphers
Created | Updated Apr 13, 2014
Another reason to surf the internet.
Weather Ciphers?
Wow. Can't you just picture that Stepanov? We think he had a monocle and a sinister scar, but then, we're big fans of Rocky and Bullwinkle. We can just see him, smoking his cigarette (in a holder, of course), and muttering, 'Good work, Piterskij." We get a ridiculous thrill out of pulling things from archive.org that have 'Top Secret' on them. With a line drawn through, of course. We don't think Homeland Security will be knocking on the Post's virtual door anytime soon. At least, we hope not. We wouldn't want to go and live in the Transylvanian Embassy.
This month's topic is weather. But what's a weather cipher? Inquiring minds want to know. Apparently, back in World War II, they thought the weather information was a big secret. So they used ciphers. According to the Edited Guide, a lot of these codes were broken at Bletchley Park. Thrilling stuff, indeed. If anybody knows any more about these formerly top-secret ciphers, we'd love to hear about it. A new Guide Entry, perhaps? Or just a note to the Post.
Yesterday's newspapers wrap today's fish. Yesterday's secrets show up on the internet. We think this one is safe to leak. But in case you're cruising through the Bering Sea, you might want to turn your radio on.
