5 Historical weather reports
Discover five unique weather reports that capture key moments in history
Titanic Iceberg Report (1912) by Met OfficeMet Office
1. Titanic Iceberg Report
Newspaper cutting noting that the British Steamer Titanic collided with an iceberg. This cutting along with the others in the book were used to assist with sea ice forecasting.
Daily Weather Report 14 November 1922 data (1922) by Met OfficeMet Office
2. The first BBC weather report
BBC radio began broadcasting at 6pm on 14 November 1922. One of the first things broadcast on the day was a weather forecast. This Daily Weather Report shows the weather on the day.
This full page spread shows both a data table and chart.
June Snowfall (1975-06-02/1975-06-02) by Met OfficeMet Office
3. Snowing in June
2 June 1975 was the first time since 1888 that snow had fallen so far south in June. Several county cricket matches were abandoned due to snow, the most notable were between Essex and Kent at Castle Park, Colchester and between Derbyshire and Lancashire at Buxton.
Shipping Forecast Map 1984 (this image 1993) (1993) by Met OfficeMet Office
4. The Shipping Forecast
The shipping forecast was first broadcast on 1 January 1924. It included some of the names still famous today such as 'forties' and 'wight' but continued to evolve. Since 1984 the only change has been the renaming of Trafalgar, next to Biscay, to FitzRoy in February 2002.
Weather Observation Chart at 1300 GMT on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) (1944-06-06/1944-06-06) by Met OfficeMet Office
5. Weather Observation Chart on 6 June 1944 (D-Day)
The D-Day forecasters predicted conditions just good enough to invade. This chart shows the forecast was largely correct but the area of high pressure on the bottom left of the chart had not advanced as far east as hoped resulting in windy conditions for the channel crossing.
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