Pearson had devised the computerized encoding of the tornado base, which included the F-P-P estimates.

Pearson's major role was to get the cooperation of the NWS State Climatologists and to extend the computerized data base backwards to the 1950s.

Pearson was awarded the Department of Commerce's gold medal in 1974 for "...forecasting of severe local storms...which included the Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974".

Pearson successfully lobbied the United States Congress in the mid-1970s for satellite readout and computer equipment that the National Weather Service could not provide.

This ultimately led to the sophisticated methodology in use today at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.