The Royal Meteorological Society traces its origins back to 3 April 1850 when the British Meteorological Society was formed as 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. Along with nine others, including James Glaisher, John Drew, Edward Joseph Lowe, The Revd Joseph Bancroft Reade, and Samuel Charles Whitbread, Dr John Lee, an astronomer, of Hartwell House, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire founded in the library of his house the British Meteorological Society, which became the Royal Meteorological Society.[1] It became The Meteorological Society in 1866, when it was incorporated by Royal Charter, and the Royal Meteorological Society in 1883, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted the privilege of adding 'Royal' to the title. Along with 74 others, the famous meteorologist Luke Howard joined the original 15 members of the Society at its first ordinary meeting on 7 May 1850. As of 2008 it has more than 3,000 members worldwide. The Chief Executive of the Society is Professor Paul Hardaker.[2]
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Advancing the understanding of weather and climate, the science and its applications, for the benefit of all.
Anyone with a genuine interest in the weather, its impact or the science behind it, or in the interface with related disciplines, such as hydrology and oceanography can join the Society. The Society is made up of weather enthusiasts, practitioners, students and scientists from across the world.
There are five different membership levels:
-Associate Fellow
-Fellow
-Honorary member
-School member
-Corporate member
There are Associate Fellows may be any age and do not require any specific expertise in meteorology. Fellows normally require a formal qualification in a subject related to meteorology plus five years experience and must be nominated by two other fellows. Corporate membership of the Society is open to all organisations that wish to support the Society’s charitable objectives, offering an opportunity to show corporate leadership and to play an active role in supporting the Society programme of work. Schools are also welcome to join the Society and there are many benefits available to participating schools. These include borrowing scientific equipment, education and careers resources and access to grants for meteorology projects.
Both Fellows and Associate Fellows receive the monthly magazine Weather. They may also attend, free of charge, meetings arranged by the Society and are eligible for travel and conference bursaries and to be proposed for awards and prizes. Fellowship of the Society is a formal statement of professional competence and those elected to it are entitled to use the title Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS). Both Associate Fellows and Fellows can vote at the Annual General Meeting and Special General Meetings. Members of the Society also have the opportunity to become involved in the many varied and interesting areas of work of the Society.
The Society has a very broad programme of work including:
The Society holds monthly National meetings, usually held on Wednesday afternoons, with a variety of topics throughout the year. The meeetings are open to all and more information on the meetings topics can be found here. Audio and presentations are held for the archive of past meetings and are available on the website. All day Saturday meetings are held periodically throughout the year, and are open to members, non-members and the general public.
The society has a number of regular publications:
All publications are available online but a subscription is required. However certain "classic" papers are freely available at Classic papers.
The Society recently launched theWeather CLub with the magazine theWeather
theWeather Club is a charitable organisation established by the Society in 2010. It forms the basis of their public outreach programme, and promotes an appreciation and understanding of the weather with an emphasis on educating the public, especially children, about weather and climate. The club is the first membership organisation to be launched in the UK that brings the general public together in order to share their fascination with the weather.
The Great British Weather Experiment was launched on 13 September 2010 by theWeather Club and the Royal Meteorological Society. The experiment aimed to track the onset of autumn across the British Isles by asking schools and members of the public to take weather observations over the course of a month and record them at theWeatherClub.org.uk. This was one of the largest weather experiments in Britain, with over 2,000 observations collected between 13 September and 13 October. theWeather Club toured the UK, visiting 16 cities in 8 days with Graham Smith from WeatherEvents.net getting schools and the general public involved in taking measurements. The results proved how variable the season can be with 100 mph winds, balmy Indian Summer days, torrential rain and thick fog all observed throughout the month.
theWeather Club currently has two celebrity ambassadors, who have been highly involved in meteorological and environmental work throughout their careers- they are legendary weatherman Michael Fish and Coast presenter Nick Crane.
Michael Fish, commented on the launch of theWeather Club in September 2010 and said: “In Britain we are bonkers about the weather. Maybe it comes from having such a varied climate. Foreigners certainly seem astonished at how much we obsess about the weather. I can barely walk down the street without someone wanting to have a quick chat about the weather. So I know this club will have a lot of people who want to participate. I for one am signing up!”
theWeather Club is open to anyone and everyone who has an interest in the weather and the world around them. Profits from theWeather Club are used to help meet the charitable aims of the Royal Meteorological Society, with an emphasis on education.
Members also receive a quarterly magazine with a seasonal theme, entitled 'theWeather'. The magazine contains a variety of features, news and views as well as science, presented in a non technical way and using stunning photography. In addition to the magazine is a collectable information guide to Meteorology – that builds up over the issues and a welcome pack with membership card and a free Galileo thermometer. Members also have access to the Club website where members are able to participate in weather debates and discussions, join forums, post views, propose ideas, submit images and share their experiences with the weather.
The society has several Local Centres across the UK.[3]
There are also a number of Special Interest Groups which organise meetings and other activities to facilitate exchange of information and views within specific areas of meteorology.[4] These are informal groups of professionals interested in specific technical areas of the profession of meteorology. The groups are primarily a way of communicating at a specialist level.
The current special interest groups are:
A full list of those who have served as president of the society is included in the society's web site.[5] A partial list is presented below:
In February 2007, after the release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Royal Meteorological Society issued an endorsement of the report. In addition to referring to the IPCC as “the world’s best climate scientists”, they stated that climate change is happening as “the result of emissions since industrialisation and we have already set in motion the next 50 years of global warming – what we do from now on will determine how worse it will get.”[6]