What is the difference between a “piner” and a “pisachee”? What”s a “pingo”? Or a “pirry”? The answers may be found on page 425 of the Glossary of Meteorology, originally published by the AMS in 1959. But search for terms such as “helicity,” “climate change,” and “nested grid model” from among the over 7 000 available, and you”ll come up empty. In fact, entire branches of meteorology have been born and evolved since the Glossary's first publication. For that reason, the AMS is in the midst of producing the second edition of the Glossary.

Funding for the new edition of the Glossary has been obtained through the National Science Foundation, with support from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the Department of Energy. In addition, the AMS is contributing more than $90,000 annually to the project to support overhead and publication costs. These funds are from AMS’s special initiative fund, generated from interest on reserve.

Under the leadership of chairman Ronald Taylor, the AMS Glossary Advisory Board, which includes members William Bandeen, Werner Baum, Russell Dickerson, Ralph Huschke, John Stackpole, and Ferris Webster, has been providing policy guidance to AMS staff overseeing the project.

The project is being carried out in large part by volunteers from all sectors of the Society. At the beginning of the project, editors for 35 subject areas were appointed. These editors, in turn, appointed writers and reviewers to assist within their subject areas. Currently, hundreds of individuals are in the process of reviewing terms from the first edition (and updating them as necessary), as well as identifying and defining new terms for inclusion in the second edition. When definitions have received final approval from the area editors, they are returned to AMS Headquarters for technical and copy editing. The editor of the first edition, Ralph Huschke, reminds us that for the first edition, each term”s definition was written on an index card. Now, all terms are handled electronically and stored by a database management system designed specifically for the Glossary.

The second edition contains approximately 12,300 terms in the 850-page volume. Both the print and CD-ROM versions will be available for delivery in late December or early January. Ordering information is published beginning with the November, 2000 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and the 2001 dues statement.

Further questions regarding the Glossary may be addressed to the managing editor, glossary@ametsoc.org).