Isaac Cline

Cline attended Hiwassee College, then in 1882, joined the meteorology training program of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Isaac was first assigned to Little Rock, Arkansas, in order to take daily readings, as well as to observe the Rocky Mountain locusts and the relationship between their behavior and the climate.

[5] In 1892, Isaac's younger brother, Joseph Cline, also began work as a meteorologist at the Galveston Weather Bureau.

[2] In his autobiography, Isaac Cline claimed that he had taken it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm's approach.

It is known that around noon on September 8, he did breach Weather Bureau protocol by making a unilateral decision to issue a hurricane warning without first securing authorization from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C.. Cline estimated that thousands of lives were saved because of his decision not to wait for approval.

The center for the Gulf Coast was initially located in Galveston, with Isaac Cline as chief forecaster; his brother Joseph, a fellow meteorologist, worked for him there.

[7] In 1934, by that time well respected and highly admired in New Orleans, Cline received an honorary doctorate from Tulane University.

[10] His brother, Joseph Leander Cline, discusses the storm and its aftermath in his autobiography, When the Heavens Frowned (1946, originally published by Mathis Van Nort & Co.).