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== Hydrological Achievements ==
Warren Thornthwaite has been described by some peers as ''the most influential climatologist of his generation.'' This praise was earned in part for his fundamental studies into the nature of evaporation and his formulation of the concept of potential evapotranspiration, for his outstanding 1948 paper "An Approach Toward a Rational Classification of Climate," for his establishment of the Laboratory of Climatology at Seabrook, New Jersey, which became a mecca for climatologists and hydrologists from all parts of the world, and for his early leadership of the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Climatology.

He is best known in hydrology for use of the Thornthwaite formula to estimate monthly evapotranspiration rates based on temperature data.