Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot,

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not!

Nowadays, however, we are blessed with more ways to get the weather than one can shake proverbial sticks at and, certainly in the world of aviation, it’s all remarkably accurate even if it’s presented in a rather archaic code. Of course even that is pretty advanced when compared with the early days!

Hippocrates

Galileo’s thermometer

Early weather forecasting equipment!

The wrecking of the Royal Charter on the Island of Anglesey

Robert Firzroy, the father of met forecasting.

Gp Capt Stagg who forecasted the weather for Operation Chastise

The US Bureau of Metrology

An early radiosonde met balloon

A decode aid for aviation forecasts

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, NOAA, Fenners and the RAF.