In the first four articles of this series we have learnt about the origins of the iconic Shipping Forecast, starting with the wreck of the Royal Charter and Robert Fitzroy’s dedication to stop the loss of unnecessary life through early storm warnings transmitted around the British Isles via telegram, accompanied by barometers in busy ports. To follow on the story, this month we will explore how this visionary man made the information accessible to all with the first ever national forecasting system.
In 1861 Fitzroy organised with newspaper to ‘furnish certain meteorological returns in the paper’, with the first one published on July 31 (appropriately enough, my birthday!). This followed an article
