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weather-uk press pack

Ready-prepared articles on meteorological pioneers

• 980131 Exploring the Lake District’s rainfall We all know the Lake District is wet. The Wordsworths knew it; Dorothy’s journals are replete with descriptions of sodden days
• 990619 What is the shade temperature? His parishioners must have thought he was barking mad. The reverend Charles Higman Griffith was rector of Strathfield Turgiss for
• 991113 The Hampstead Scientific Society What do Edward Elgar, Marie Stopes, Professor Heinz Wolff, and your humble correspondent have in common? The answer is
• 991120 The Reaumur temperature scale Anyone who has toured the French country-side will be familiar with those delightful ‘relais’, little eating places found in practically
• 000401 The Royal Meteorological Society’s sesquicentenary “Whenever two Englishmen meet,” Doctor Johnson wrote, “their first talk is of the weather.” Talking about
• 000324 Edward Lowe, the ‘big snowflake’ man Edward Joseph Lowe was one of those gentleman scientists who were so typical of Victorian times but are now virtually
• 010421 The Canadian Arctic observing network When meteorologists beat the drum these days it is to show off their 21st century technology – satellite and radar, electronic
• 020615 Luke Howard, king of the clouds Clouds have fascinated amateur scientists since the time of the ancient Greeks, and many attempts have been made to design a
• 030712 Liverpool (Bidston) observatory Liverpool observatory is one of our longest-serving weather observing sites, yet is probably one of the least well known amongst
• 031122 The Brussels Conference The Maritime Conference of 1853, convened in Brussels in the autumn of 1853 by Lieutenant Matthew Maury of the US Navy for the
• 031129 Gordon Manley’s Central England Temperature series The longest weather record in the world is the Central England Temperature series, known in the business as
• 040103 Who was Mr Fahrenheit? A recent poll on a radio station in London showed that a majority of listeners – or rather a majority of those taking part in the survey – prefer
• 040110 The first TV weatherman Andy Warhol only knew the half of it. “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes”, he predicted, but these days you get famous
• 991017 Terence Meaden and British tornadoes The year 1999 marked the 25th anniversary of TORRO – the storm and tornado research organisation – and it was also
• 010520 The man who climbed Ben Nevis daily Clement Wragge first came to prominence in meteorological circles in 1881 when he climbed Ben Nevis daily from early
• 9810xx James Glaisher James Glaisher was one of the most important and influential figures in meteorological science during the Victorian era. 19th century meteorology
• 9812xx Leo Bonacina His friends sometimes called him the “abominable snowman”. LCW Bonacina was one of those gentleman scientists who grey up in Victorian times,
• 0111yy The man who invented smog Dr H A Des Voeux is little known these days although he was, in the first part of the twentieth century, a prominent figure in the fight to
• 880201 George James Symons GJ Symons was the father of British rainfall. One of those gentleman scientists who were so numerous during the 19th century but who have
• 880202 Alexander Buchan In Victorian times there were a few remarkable characters who realised that the upper air held the key to a much more complete understanding
• 880203 James Stagg If ever the expression “dour Scot” was invented with someone especially in mind, it was for a gentleman called James Stagg. Born at Dalkeith, just
• 880204 Admiral FitzRoy Official weather forecasting in Britain began in 1859 in direct response to a disastrous gale. The embryonic Meteorological Office – at that time it was