Climate pioneers founded Royal Meteorological Society 175 years ago
This month the Royal Meteorological Society celebrates its 175th anniversary. On April 3, 1850, ten gentlemen assembled in the library of Hartwell House, a grand country house near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, “to form a society the objects of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological phenomena in general”.
Originally named the British Meteorological Society, its president was Samuel Charles Whitbread, grandson of the founder of the brewing company. But the driving force behind the society was its honorary secretary, James Glaisher, a famous balloonist and notable meteorologist who made many balloon ascents to measure the atmosphere as high as a balloon would allow him.
In 1862 he and his co-pilot Henry Coxwell achieved a world record altitude for a balloon flight believed to be about seven miles above sea level. Glaisher passed out from lack of oxygen before he could take any readings, but the balloon eventually landed safely. Glaisher’s balloon flights proved that temperatures generally fell by 1C for about every 300ft of ascent. In the 1840s, Glaisher also began the first weather column in a newspaper, The Daily News, edited by Charles Dickens.
Another famous member was Luke Howard who joined the society at its first ordinary meeting on May 7, 1850. Howard was famous for naming the different types of clouds in a classification that still stands today, and he also pioneered the study of urban climates based on his 40-year record of London’s weather, showing how London was warmer than its surroundings thanks to the urban heat island effect.
The membership of the Meteorological Society grew steadily through the 19th century and in 1883 Queen Victoria granted the title “Royal”, and so the society became the Royal Meteorological Society.
Ever since its earliest days, the society was marked out for having a membership drawn from enthusiasts in the public, as well as professional weather forecasters and academic meteorologists, so that interests were wide-ranging. Today the society is a leading independent authority for all things in weather and climate, involved in education, mentoring students, and communicating about weather and climate to the public.