FitzRoy and Maury (continued)

when rise begins after low,
squalls expect and clear blow,
and long foretold long last,
short notice soon past.

A great storm in the Black Sea in 1855 which sunk a number of British ships engaged in the Crimean War also alerted responsible men to the advantage of forewarning of such events. In 1859 a very intense storm wrecked the Royal Charter on the Anglesea coast with a total loss of life. This storm and its results affected FitzRoy profoundly. He realised that forewarning was only possible by gathering a series of observations from widely scattered places, recognising that weather phenomena, especially large depressions, retained their identity for a considerable time. Luckily earlier in the century Morse had invented the telegraph and this had provided a means of exchanging this information. FitzRoy began a weather forecasting service for the coasts of Great Britain. He set up 24 stations from which weather information could be telegraphed to him in London. Six of these were in Europe from Copenhagen to Lisbon. He began producing what he called and have ever since been called 'synoptic charts'. In due course he made his forecasts available to the newspapers and they, including The Times, issued for the first time in history a daily weather forecast. FitzRoy also introduced a system of warning cones which were hoisted at ports and harbours and fishing villages when a gale was expected. It is even recorded that Queen Victoria personally made a request for a private weather forecast.

Bureau of Meteorology