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Following the recommendations of the 1st International Meteorological Conference held in Brussels in 1853, a small office was established early in 1855 as the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade.
In 1863 the name was changed to Meteorological Office and 3 years later was transferred from the Board of Trade and placed under the administrative control of a Meteorological Committee, the members of which were appointed by the Royal Society. Subsequently in 1877 a Treasury Committee reviewed the position and in consequence the Meteorological Committee was replaced by a paid Council of six members consisting of the Hydrographer of the Navy and five members nominated by the Royal Society. No further change in the control of the Office took place until 1905 when following another review by a Treasury Committee the Office was placed under the direction of a reconstituted Meteorological Committee grant aided by the Treasury. This committee consisted of the Hydrographer of the Navy and representatives of the Treasury, Royal Society, Board of Trade, and the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Director of the Office was Chairman of the Committee and was responsible for the day to day administration of the Office.
In 1912 the Office took over from the Royal Meteorological Society the collecting of climatological observations made by private observers in England. A similar transfer from the Scottish Meteorological Society took place in 1920.
The British Rainfall Organisation was taken over by the Office in 1919.
During the First World War the requirements of the Fighting Services led to the formation of three additional Meteorological Services, viz the Meteorological Service of the Admiralty, that of the Air Ministry and the Meteorological Section, Royal Engineers. This development resulted in duplication and overlapping and on the recommendation of a sub-committee of the Research Committee of the Cabinet it was decided that the three younger services should be absorbed into the Meteorological Office and that it should become "a central State Meteorological Service" attached to the Air Ministry. This decision was implemented w.e.f. 1 April 1920 and the Meteorological Committee was re-formed under the Chairmanship of the Controller-General of Civil Aviation and the addition of representatives of the Air Ministry, War Office, Colonial Office, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and, a year later, the Scottish Office. In 1937 the administration of the Naval Division of the Meteorological Office was transferred to the Hydropathic Department of the Admiralty; from this division has developed the Naval Weather Service of today. In 1938 the Government of Saorstat Eireann took over responsibility for the Meteorological Service in Eire.
Having gone into abeyance for the duration of the 1939-45 war the Meteorological Committee held its first post-war meeting in the autumn of 1946. By this time the Meteorological Office had become an important and integral part of the Government machine, particularly so since 1939. It was, therefore, decided in 1947 that the Committee should be essentially an advisory body and its membership increased by the addition of representatives from the Universities.
There was also an Advisory Committee on Meteorology for Scotland, the members of which were representatives of the Royal Society, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Royal Meteorological Society and Scottish Government Departments and Universities. To satisfy political expediency it was absorbed into the Meteorological Committee in January 1980. Functions
On its inception in 1855 its brief was to collect meteorological and sea-current observations for the benefit of shipping and this work has remained an important part of the Office ever since. Observations made voluntarily by large numbers of British and foreign shipping have provided the basic data for the climatology of the oceans of the world.
With the backing of the British Association the then Superintendent - Admiral Fitzroy - soon extended the functions of the Department by initiating regular weather reports from a network of land stations by telegram - later on by telegraphy; early in 1861 with the aid of these observations storm warnings were sent to ports and later the same year weather forecasts were issued to the Press. The first audio broadcast to the general public by the BBC was transmitted in 1922. BBC TV began to show forecasts prepared by the Office in 1950; since January 1954 the forecasts have been presented by a forecaster of the Office.
In 1866 the issue of gale warnings and the publication of forecasts were stopped on the recommendations of a Royal Society Committee which considered that current scientific basic knowledge of weather inadequate for forecasting. Storm warnings were, however, soon resumed in response to popular request.
The Committee gave very close attention to the improvement of knowledge of the connections between weather changes and the movement and developments of depressions and anticyclones. Seven observatories were established and equipped with continuously recording instruments measuring wind, pressure, temperature and rainfall. Following a careful study of these data confidence in forecasting was regained and publication of forecasts was resumed in 1879.
A major function of the Office is the supply of meteorological advice for aviation, i.e. route forecasting for civil and military requirements.
Apart from the Naval Weather Service which is the responsibility of MOD (Navy) the Meteorological Office meets the meteorological requirements of the community generally and in particular, of all Government Departments, public corporations, local authorities, and the media. It is also the treasury of all weather records for the UK and constitutes, in fact, the "public memory of the weather"; that is to collect, process and publish climatological data for the UK and to furnish advice on the basis of that "memory". In this respect, the official observing stations are augmented by some 6000 rainfall measuring stations, several hundred climatological stations, all manned voluntarily or by employees of local authorities. Prior to 1920 this aspect of the work in Scotland was done under the auspices of the Scottish Meteorological Society.
The Office headquarters organisation is housed in a modern building at Bracknell, Berkshire. About half of the total staff of the Office (3000+) work in this building. It will suffice to mention that under the Director-General there are two Directors, one of research and one of services. The research Director controls and co-ordinates all research within the Office.- broadly under Physical and Dynamical Research. The Director of Services is responsible for observational, forecasting, communications and computing services, including services to the public, to industry and commerce.
Since 1947, under the international scheme for ocean weather ships, the UK maintained four ships staffed and equipped by the Meteorological Office at fixed stations in the North Atlantic, to make both surface and upper air observations and to provide navigational guidance to aircraft. They have been gradually reduced to one at the present time.
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