 |
| SEE
ALSO |
|
|
Today's
Weather Forecast
Weather
Index
The
Royal Charter Shipwreck
Fifty
years of TV forecasting
Background
to the move from Bracknell to Exeter
BBC
Weather Centre
|
|
| WEB
LINKS |
|
Met
Office
The BBC is not responsible for the content
of external websites. |
|
| Milestones
in the development of the Met Office: |
|
|
1854
The Met Office formed as a small department within the Board
of Trade, under Captain Robert FitzRoy (famous for commanding
HMS Beagle on Charles Darwin's historic expedition), to provide
meteorological and sea current information to mariners.
1861
Sufficient numbers of regular observations were being received
by telegraph from Great Britain and France to permit the issue
of storm warnings to ports and forecasts to the Press. These
services were stopped in 1866 on the recommendation of a Royal
Society committee. Storm warnings were rapidly reinstated
but published forecasts did not reappear until 1879.
1912
Rapid developments in meteorology led to the establishment
of the first outstation at South Farnborough to give advice
to pilots.
1914-18
During the Great War, meteorological services were developed
in the separate parts of the armed forces but in 1920, all
four were combined into one organisation under the auspices
of the Air Ministry.
1922
Forecasts were first broadcast by the BBC in 1922 and
captions were shown on TV in 1936.
1937
The Admiralty took over the weather service for the Royal
Navy
1939
The start of World War II saw the introduction of a system
for obtaining data from the upper air by 'radiosonde', balloon-borne
sensors transmitting pressure, temperature and humidity data
to receiving sites on land. There was a huge increase of staff
during this era, with numbers rising to 6,900.
1962
The modern era was said to have arrived in when an electronic
computer was installed at the Met Office HQ in Bracknell.
1964
The first cloud pictures from satellites became available.
1981
The first supercomputer, the CDC Cyber 205 was installed,
and a 15-level atmospheric computer model was introduced
1990
The Cyber was replaced by a Cray Y-MP machine, allowing the
introduction of a new 19-level model and improved representation
of atmospheric processes. The Met Office becomes a MoD Executive
Agency in April 1990. A month later, the Hadley Centre
for Climate Prediction and Research opened.
2000
A new corporate identity was launched, signifying a change
in direction. The Met Office will no longer be focusing on
'just the weather' but will look at the impacts of the weather
on the environment and will expand into environmental sciences,
such as hydrology and oceanography.
2001-2004
Construction and completion of the New Met Office headquarters
in Exeter
|
|
| PRINT
THIS PAGE |
|
| View
print friendly
version of this page.. |
|
 |
|
|
|
"The
'Royal Charter' was it's name,
lost, destroyed, a storm to blame.
Families
returning home with their hard earned wealth,
fruits of their labour, honest work,
no underhanded stealth.
Ingots
of gold, down in the hold,
money belts filled with nuggets,
around their waists and in their pockets,
riches from where they had dug it.
A
rough and rocky journey home,
fatal endings in a storm.
Only
40 men survived that night
when the 'Clipper Ship' plunged out of sight.
Hitting the rocks and splitting in two,
when cyclonic winds battered and blew."
Audrey Taylor from Llysfaen, Colwyn Bay
|
An
extract from a poem written about a great maritime tragedy, considered
perhaps to be the turning point in the evolution of the met office
today.
 |
| The
Royal Charter |
In
October 1859, four years after the fledgling Meteorological Office
was formed, the passenger vessel Royal Charter was wrecked off the
coast of Anglesey in the midst of a violent storm, 459 people perished
many retuning from overseas with their families and wealth.
The
tragedy forced Captain Robert FitzRoy, Royal Navy as head of the
Meteorological Office, to consider ways of being able to warn his
fellow mariners of impending storms, which resulted in the first
gale warning service.
 |
| Today
computers are to the fore in weather forecasting. |
By
1861 he had established a network of 15 coastal stations from which
visual gale warnings could be provided for ships at sea.
From
these coastal stations FitzRoy thought it would be possible to forecast
the weather by gathering their information. Crucially, the invention
of the electric telegraph in the 1870's meant information could
be exchanged much more quickly, increasing the usefulness of the
forecasts.
INFORMATION
EXCHANGE
Wireless
telegraph in 1901 opened up the possibilities for international
exchange of weather information and was the platform for the pre-eminent
position of the modern Met Office.
The
British Meteorological Office (now the Met Office) was founded in
1854 and on Monday the 21st of June 2004 the office celebrates 150
years of continuous service providing forecasts to shipping, aviation
and to the public.
 |
| The
Met Office now has a futuristic new home in Exeter. |
It
started as a very small department in the Board of Trade, under
Captain Robert FitzRoy (famous for commanding HMS Beagle on Charles
Darwin's historic expedition) and was set up to provide meteorological
and sea current information to mariners.
By
1861 it was issuing gale warnings to shipping: harbourmasters, on
being telegraphed with a warning, would hoist north or south cones
up a mast.
Regular forecasts to the press began in 1879 and published forecasts
have continued since that date.
|
