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 BBC
Weather's new Weatherwise
section has been put together to make amateur weather learning
fun and accessible to all. We've worked in conjunction with
the Royal
Meteorological Society (the BBC is not responsible for
the content of external websites) to bring you this
unique and up-to-date educational tool. The Society's Malcolm
Walker, tells us about their background.
On Wednesday 3 April
1850, ten gentlemen assembled in the library of Hartwell House,
near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. According to the minutes
of the meeting, they gathered "to form a society the objects
of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological
science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological
phenomena in general".
They called the society
the British Meteorological Society and appointed as its president
Samuel Charles Whitbread, a grandson of the founder of the
famous brewing firm. The
society they formed still exists and flourishes.
It became The Meteorological
Society in 1866, when it was incorporated by Royal Charter,
and The Royal Meteorological Society in 1883, when Her Majesty
Queen Victoria granted the privilege of adding 'Royal' to
the title. The "advancement of meteorological science" remains
the primary aim of the Royal Meteorological Society today,
with "meteorological science" including climatology, physical
oceanography and other related disciplines.
Among its 3,700 members
around the world, the Society numbers not only those who earn
their living through the profession of meteorology but also
those whose work is affected by the weather or climate and
those for whom meteorology is simply a hobby. The Society
advances and promotes meteorology through its journals and
other publications, meetings and conferences, educational
activities, professional accreditation and the award of grants,
medals and prizes.
The Society publishes
five journals, among them one of the world's leading scientific
journals, The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological
Society. The others are Weather, The International Journal
of Climatology, Meteorological Applications and Atmospheric
Science Letters, the latter an on-line journal launched in
2000. Weather is a monthly magazine for all who are interested
in the ways of the atmosphere.
 Throughout
its 150-year history, the Royal Meteorological Society has
benefited from the guidance of the many distinguished scientists
who have held high office or served on the Society's Council.
They cannot all be named in an article as brief as this. Suffice
to mention but three. In the 19th century, two giants of meteorology
ensured the Society's survival and development, namely James
Glaisher, Superintendent of the Magnetic and Meteorological
Department of the Greenwich Royal Observatory from 1840 to1874,
and George James Symons, the founder and Director of the British
Rainfall Organization from 1860 until his death in 1900.
In the years immediately
after World War II, the inspiration and enthusiasm of the
eminent climatologist Professor Gordon Manley was a major
factor in bringing about the expansion of activities that
made the Society attractive not only to professional meteorologists
but also to those for whom study of the weather is a pastime.
He helped launch Weather, first published in May 1946, and
he conceived the idea of the Society holding Popular Lectures
(which were given every year from 1950 until 1991).
He was also behind
the decision of the Society to run field courses (several
of which were held each year during the period 1950 to 1995).
Today, to quote from a leaflet produced by the Royal Meteorological
Society, membership is open to "anyone with a genuine interest
in observing and understanding processes and occurrences in
the atmosphere, or in their effects, or in related disciplines
such as agriculture, biology, climatology, hydrology, medicine
and oceanography".
These were, basically,
the people the founding fathers sought to recruit, though
there is nowadays more emphasis on applied meteorology than
in the 1850s. Were these founding fathers still alive today,
they would probably be pleasantly surprised that the society
they formed had survived for 150 years and shows every sign
of surviving for another 150.
Royal
Meteorological Society (the BBC is not
responsible for the content of external websites)
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