The Met Office is a well-respected and familiar British institution, whose weather forecasts people hear every day. News about its activities and advice are discussed at length in the media and in Parliament. It was founded in 1854 and still goes strong. Queen Victoria had personal weather forecasts from Admiral FitzRoy, the first director, for her three-mile voyage across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Office has played an important part in the history of the United Kingdom and of many other countries over this period, in both peace and war. Although it is an institution based on the application of science and technology, its outstanding staff have in fact originated some of the key developments of meteorological science and technology, a tradition that continues today.

This book had its origins in the PhD of the late Dr Jim Burton, a forecaster in the Leeds Weather Centre, who was encouraged by Sir John Houghton, then Director-General of the Met Office. His predecessor, Sir John Mason, helped the project. The necessary financial ingenuity to arrange funding for research into the history of the Office was provided by Martyn Bittlestone, our finance director, when the Office became a Trading Fund in 1996. The Chief Scientist, Professor Julia Slingo, has helped recently with her insights into developments up to 2010. I am very grateful to Malcolm Walker, formerly of Cardiff University, for accepting the invitation not only to write the book but also to listen tactfully to all the inputs from meteorologists and commentators on the text. Stan Cornford's detailed study in 1994 of the Met Office involvement in the D-Day forecast was also a significant contribution.