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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.
About this time, the first international meteorological congress
in Vienna established an International Meteorological Organization
to further essential international co-operation. This eventually
transformed into the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO), a specialised agency of
the United Nations.
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.
1942
The Met. Research Flight is formed, providing detailed measurements
of a wide range of atmospheric parameters from Royal
Air Force aircraft.
1952
After the war, a Directorate of Research is formed to control
and direct the practical and theoretical investigations that were
being carried out.
1954
First live TV weather forecasts started.
1959
London Weather Centre opened.
1962
The modern era was said to have arrived in when an electronic
computer was installed at our new HQ in Bracknell.
1964
The first operational cloud pictures from satellites became available.
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1981
Our first supercomputer, the CDC Cyber 205 was installed,
and our 15-level atmospheric computer model was introduced.
Read more about the history of computing
at the Met Office. |
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 an MoD
Executive Agency in April 1990. A month later, the Hadley Centre
for Climate Prediction and Research opened.
1991
A second Cray Y-MP was installed to support the climate research
programme carried out at the jointly-funded (Met Office/DETR)
Hadley Centre. Both machines were replaced by a single Cray C90
in May 1994 with a resultant six-fold increase in the speed of
processing.
1996
On 1 April, the Met Office became a Trading Fund. A Cray T3E
supercomputer was installed. The T3E is five times more powerful
than the Cray C90 machine. |
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1999
A second T3E was installed, increasing speed and processing power
yet again.
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.
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2001
Construction of the New Met Office headquarters in Exeter
began by the Stratus consortium comprising Costain-Skanska
and Group4 Falck Global Solutions. |
2002
The NEC Corporation was named by the Met Office as the supplier
of its next
supercomputer. Eventually, this will provide six times the
power of the existing supercomputer.
The Hadley Centre
reported to UN Climate Change Conference in New Delhi that the
damage already done to the climate by man's greenhouse gas emissions
would affect us for the next 1,000 years.
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