CHAPTER XXI 



FORECASTING BRITISH WEATHER 

 Dr G. C. Simpson and the Meteorological Office 



WE have all heard of the Clerk of the Weather 

 — that mythical official who is supposed to 

 look into the future in order to tell us what 

 to-morrow's weather will be like. 



Nearly every one in Great Britain reads the weather 

 forecast in the newspapers before making plans for the 

 day, or listens to the wireless forecast in the evening. 



Few people know, however, that that nightly forecast 

 is based upon meteorological observations made not only 

 in this country, but all over Europe, at 6 p.m. Greenwich 

 mean time on the same evening. Between that time 

 and the broadcast the reports have been dispatched by 

 wireless to the Meteorological Office at the Air Ministry, 

 collected there, ' plotted ' on weather charts, and dis- 

 cussed by the experts, who thus foretell what sort of 

 weather the next day will bring. 



This modern triumph of speed is made possible by the 

 fact that there is not one Clerk of the Weather, but 

 thousands. 



The observations received each day from abroad cover 

 an area extending from within the Polar Circle to North 

 Africa, and from Russia to the Azores. Within this wide 

 area weather-readings are taken four times a day, collected 

 by central stations, and immediately broadcast by 

 powerful wireless stations to all others. Also, a report is 

 received each day from the United States, giving observa- 

 tions from seventy-five stations in North America, in- 

 cluding a number of weather stations in Canada. 



237 



