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Malcolm Walker tells the story of the UK's national meteorological service from its formation in 1854 with a staff of four to its present position as a scientific and technological institution of national and international importance with a staff of nearly two thousand. The Met Office has long been at the forefront of research into atmospheric science and technology and is second to none in providing weather services to the general public and a wide range of customers around the world. The history of the Met Office is therefore largely a history of the development of international weather prediction research in general. In the modern era it is also at the forefront of the modelling of climate change. This volume will be of great interest to meteorologists, atmospheric scientists and historians of science, as well as amateur meteorologists and anyone interested generally in weather prediction.
List of contents
1. Seeds are sown; 2. Statistics and storms; 3. Inquiry and criticism; 4. The fight over forecasts; 5. Squalls and settled spells; 6. The emergence of science; 7. A decade of change; 8. The Great War; 9. The inter-war period; 10. The clouds of war; 11. Aftermath of war to forecasting by numbers; 12. Global meteorology; 13. Winds of change.
About the author
Malcolm Walker was an academic at Cardiff University from 1967 to 1998, first as a Lecturer, then, from 1983, as Senior Lecturer and, from 1996, Deputy Head of the Department of Maritime Studies and International Transport. He was Education Resources Manager of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1998 to 2007. He is a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and a Member of the American Meteorological Society. He co-authored The Ocean-Atmosphere System (with A. H. Perry, 1977). He chaired the Royal Meteorological Society's History Group from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2007 to the present. He was awarded the Group's Jehuda Neumann Memorial Prize in 2001 and the Royal Meteorological Society's Outstanding Service Award in 2007. Since 1980 he has had a strong scholarly interest in the history of ideas in meteorology and physical oceanography and the people behind those ideas. He has published numerous articles and lectured many times on this subject.
Summary
The book tells the story of the UK's national meteorological service from its formation in 1854 to its present position as a scientific and technological institution of national and international importance. It will be of great interest to meteorologists, atmospheric scientists, historians of science and amateur meteorologists.
