Weather conditions studied at field lab

The skies were clear and light winds blew in an easterly direction on the day nearly a half-century ago that federal officials insist was the only one during a 14-day partial nuclear meltdown when the Santa Susana Field Laboratory might have emitted radioactive materials into the air. Lisa Friedman in the Daily News.

The first look at wind direction that day emerged Thursday from mounds of meteorological data the Boeing Co. recently turned over to federal officials after years of denying the information existed.

But federal officials cautioned that many factors have yet to be analyzed and it still could take months to develop the data into a useful model for better understanding the 1959 meltdown.