HISTORY GROUP NEWSLETTER News, views and a miscellany published by the Royal Meteorological Society’s Special Interest Group for the History of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography Issue No.3, 2013 CONTENTS Forthcoming events ....................................... 1 - Earth’s climate: past, present and future ..... 1 FORTHCOMING EVENTS - The history of weather ships ....................... 1 Meeting suggestions are greatly welcomed. What - Meteorology of D-Day revisited ................... 2 kind of meetings would you like arranged? Where Hubert Lamb centenary meeting ................... 3 would you like them to be held? Are any days of the Travels in the air modern style ...................... 7 week more convenient for you than others? Would My early days in the Met Office ................... 13 you support two-day meetings? Can you The year without a summer ......................... 14 recommend a venue that could host meetings? Recent publications ..................................... 14 Please send ideas and suggestions to Malcolm Weather still remains boisterous ................. 15 Walker (contact details on page 20). History of the Greenhouse Effect ................. 18 Here are dates for your diary. Anniversary dinner ...................................... 18 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What did a recording rain gauge cost? ......... 19 2013 members ............................................ 20 THE EARTH’S CLIMATE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Thursday 9 January 2014 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, THE HISTORY OF WEATHER SHIPS London, W1B 1NT Saturday 22 March 2014, 11.00am to 5.00pm This meeting has been arranged by the Retired University of Birmingham, Geography Department Members Section of the London and South East This is a National Saturday Meeting of the Royal Branch of the Institute of Physics. Meteorological Society organized by the History PROGRAMME Group. 10:30 Arrival/coffee PROGRAMME 11:00 Welcome and notices 11:10 Chris Folland – Past climate Malcolm Walker 11:45 John Mitchell – The Intergovernmental Mid-Atlantic observatories - an idea before its time Panel on Climate Change Attempts to collect weather reports from ships that 12:20 Tim Palmer – Forecasting the future climate were far from land by means of the electric 13:00 Lunch telegraph were made before 1870 but soon 14:15 Ian Strangeways – Observing the climate abandoned. The idea was revived in 1885 but, again, 14:50 Simon Buckle – Policy considerations soon abandoned. The advent of wireless in the first 15:25 Shanti Majithia – Developments on the decade of the twentieth century allowed National Grid meteorological observations to be obtained in near 16:00 Tea and dispersal real time from ships on the high seas. Before 1938, though, when a French ship was stationed 800 miles If you wish to attend, please contact John Belling west of the Azores, there were no ocean weather ([email protected], 07986 379935, stations. 42 Cunningham Park, Harrow, HA1 4QJ). Cost: £35 with a hot lunch, £10 without lunch. PLEASE TURN OVER Registered address of the Royal Meteorological Society: 104 Oxford Road, Reading, RG1 7LL, United Kingdom Tel: +44(0)118 956 8500 Fax: +44(0)118 956 8571 Registered Charity No.208222 VAT No. GB 200 0464 39 History Group: http://www.rmets.org/about-us/special-interest-groups/history-meteorology-and-physical-oceanography-special-interest Brian Booth THE METEOROLOGY OF D-DAY REVISITED None but the brave – the men of the British wartime Saturday 17 May 2014, 11.00am to 5.00pm weather ships The Halton Gallery of the RAF Museum, Hendon In the late summer of 1940, the Admiralty chartered A National Meeting of the Royal Meteorological two steamers to act as weather ships in the data Society organized by the History Group. desert of the North Atlantic. Unsuitable for North Atlantic operations, and without any means of The meeting will not go over old ground (so to defence, they provided weather observations for speak). Much has been published over the years nine months until sunk by U-boats during the about the meteorology of D-Day. Rather, the summer of 1941. Their crews were, without intention is that we explore knowledge that has question, the bravest of the brave. come to light in the past two or three decades which helps clarify and correct who knew what about Alan Heasman weather developments in June 1944 and how they Commander Frankcom: the father of the UK Ocean knew. The meeting will consider, inter alia, the Weather Ship (OWS) network from the 1940s to the availability of meteorological data from Ireland, the 1960s. North Atlantic and NW Europe, the reliability of From the immediate post World War II period, J.M.Stagg’s book Forecast for Overlord, and the Commander Frankcom played a pivotal rôle in forecasts for early June 1944 made by the Germans. sourcing, equipping and staffing the original UK OWS fleet. This required great leadership and innovation Confirmed speakers: at a time of national shortages. Later, he oversaw Brian Booth the requirement to replace the early fleet with more Yes, a cold front has appeared from somewhere robust ships for this arduous task. In addition, it ..... ", extract from Stagg's "Forecast for Overlord". required international collaboration via the World Stagg's account of the events leading up to the Meteorological Organization, where again D-Day forecast has long been accepted as the only Commander Frankcom took a leading rôle. definitive account of this unforgettable episode of Norman Lynagh meteorological history, but just how accurate is it? Marine Weather Observations – Fact or Fiction?" Using Stagg's own diary and letters exchanged with The primary purpose of the Weather Ships was to C K M Douglas, together with previously unseen provide surface and upper air observations. I shall documents in the National Archives, this discuss the difficulties involved in making accurate presentation will explore the background to the weather observations (surface and upper air) at sea book, and its veracity. and the need to treat the observations from Anders Persson Weather Ships with some caution. The relevance of Right for the wrong reason? A critical look at some this is that there is a substantial archive of D-day myths observations from Weather Ships that can be used for research purposes. It is important that these are Donard de Cogan not inadvertently misused by assuming greater A report from Blacksod (Belmullet) was crucial in accuracy than actually exists. My talk will be light- deciding which team of forecasters had the right hearted rather than a serious critique and I shall analysis. refer to personal experience. These words, attributed to Stagg, hide an iceberg of detail. In so far as the ‘Weather War’ was concerned David Axford the Irish Free State was not neutral. It provided the The closing years of the North Atlantic Ocean Allies with exclusive access to meteorological Stations Board (1982-1990) – a UK weather ship for information while at the same time using censorship a peppercorn £1. and other means to prevent Germany acquiring any ALSO knowledge of weather conditions in Ireland. This paper reports on the current state of knowledge on It is hoped there will be a talk about wave research the subject. from aboard an Ocean Weather Ship in the late 1940s, illustrated with film footage shot at the time. Adrian Simmonds (ECMWF) will present a reanalysis of the D-Day weather situation made by means of As with most meetings of the History Group, there modern techniques. will be an exhibition, and it is hoped that there will be a reunion, too. It is hoped there will also be a talk about information provided by secret agents in Germany Details of this meeting and a booking form will be and other occupied countries. sent to History Group members in the New Year. Further details of this meeting will be announced in - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the March 2014 issue of the newsletter. 2 HUBERT LAMB CENTENARY MEETING Technical Officer at the old Croydon Airport, and he was subsequently posted to Montrose. On learning, To mark the centenary of the birth of Hubert Lamb, in June 1939, that he had to attend a practical about 70 former colleagues and students and other exercise in poison gas spraying at an RAF airfield in friends of the great climatologist gathered at the England, he resigned from the Met Office, not University of East Anglia (UEA) in early September willing to become involved in something which 2013 for a dinner and symposium. offended him on conscientious grounds. He did not, At the dinner, on Friday 6 September, it was a huge however, leave meteorology. Instead, he was pleasure and honour to have with us Moira, seconded to the Irish Meteorological Service, where Hubert’s widow, together with their son and two he remained for the duration of the war. On his daughters, a son-in-law and a granddaughter. return to the Met Office in 1946, he was posted as a meteorological adviser on a Norwegian whaling After a delicious meal of smoked salmon, smoked factory ship and served aboard it on the Southern trout and leek pâté served with a lemon and chive Ocean. His involvement in climatology increased dressing and seasonal leaves, followed by roast rack greatly through the late 1940s and the 1950s, and by of lamb (!) sliced over boulangère potatoes with the early 1960s he had become an acknowledged spinach and roasted vine tomatoes, rosemary and authority on climate and climate change.1 port gravy, followed by warm chocolate fondant pudding served with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice On Saturday 7 September, the symposium began cream, Malcolm Walker conveyed greetings from with another presentation by Phil Jones, this one the Royal Meteorological Society and thanked the entitled ‘The development of Lamb Weather Types: university for hosting the meeting. He said that he from subjective analysis of weather charts to had bought a copy of Lamb’s The English Climate objective approaches using re-analysis’.