Portal:Weather/Selected biography

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Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy (July 5, 1805 - April 30, 1865) achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle and as a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate weather forecasting a reality, also proving an able surveyor and hydrographer as well as Governor of New Zealand.

FitzRoy developed charts to allow predictions to be made using observation stations connected by telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times. The first daily weather forecasts were published in The Times in 1860, and in the following year a system was introduced of hoisting storm warning cones at the principal ports when a gale was expected. The Weather Book which he published in 1863 was far in advance of the scientific opinion of the time.