Editing Weather forecasting (section)

===Modern methods===
[[File:StateLibQld 1 186783 Royal Charter (ship).jpg|thumb|The ''Royal Charter'' sank in an October 1859 storm, stimulating the establishment of modern weather forecasting.]]
It was not until the invention of the [[Electrical telegraph|electric telegraph]] in 1835 that the modern age of weather forecasting began.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |author=David Hochfelder |year=1998 | url=http://www.si.edu/archives/ihd/jhp/joseph20.htm| title=Joseph Henry: Inventor of the Telegraph? |publisher=Smithsonian Institution | access-date=June 29, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060626163000/http://www.si.edu/archives/ihd/jhp/joseph20.htm |archive-date = June 26, 2006}}</ref> Before that, the fastest that distant weather reports could travel was around 160 kilometres per day (100&nbsp;mi/d), but was more typically 60–120 kilometres per day (40–75&nbsp;mi/day) (whether by land or by sea).<ref name="USPS History">{{cite web|last=Ausman|first=Megaera|title=USPS Historian|url=http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/overland-mail.htm|work=About the United States Postal Service|publisher=USPS|access-date=April 28, 2013|archive-date=March 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330073121/http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/overland-mail.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Royal Mail coaches">{{cite web|last=Mail|first=Royal|title=(UK)|url=http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/Mail-Coaches|work=British Postal Museum|publisher=Postal Heritage Trust|access-date=April 28, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318021542/http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/page/mail-coaches|archive-date=March 18, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> By the late 1840s, the telegraph allowed reports of weather conditions from a wide area to be received almost instantaneously,<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-585850/telegraph "Telegraph"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929133128/http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-585850/telegraph |date=September 29, 2007 }}. Retrieved May 5, 2007.</ref> allowing forecasts to be made from knowledge of weather conditions further [[Windward and leeward|upwind]].

The two men credited with the birth of forecasting as a science were an officer of the [[Royal Navy]] [[Francis Beaufort]] and his [[protégé]] [[Robert FitzRoy]]. Both were influential men in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]] naval and governmental circles, and though ridiculed in the press at the time, their work gained scientific credence, was accepted by the Royal Navy, and formed the basis for all of today's weather forecasting knowledge.<ref>{{cite web | author = Eric D. Craft |year=2003 | title = An Economic History of Weather Forecasting | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070503193324/http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/craft.weather.forcasting.history | archive-date = May 3, 2007 | url = https://eh.net/encyclopedia/an-economic-history-of-weather-forecasting/ | access-date =April 15, 2007}}</ref><ref name="BBC">{{cite news |title=The birth of the weather forecast |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32483678 |work=BBC News |date=April 30, 2015 |access-date=April 30, 2015 |archive-date=May 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503001458/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32483678 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Beaufort developed the [[Beaufort scale|Wind Force Scale]] and Weather Notation coding, which he was to use in his journals for the remainder of his life. He also promoted the development of reliable tide tables around British shores, and with his friend [[William Whewell]], expanded weather record-keeping at 200 British [[coast guard]] stations.

[[Robert FitzRoy]] was appointed in 1854 as chief of a new department within the [[Board of Trade]] to deal with the collection of weather data at sea as a service to [[sailor|mariners]]. This was the forerunner of the modern [[Met Office|Meteorological Office]].<ref name="BBC"/> All ship captains were tasked with collating data on the weather and computing it, with the use of tested instruments that were loaned for this purpose.<ref name="Mellersh, H. E. L. 1968">Mellersh, H. E. L. (1968). FitzRoy of the Beagle. Hart-Davis. {{ISBN|0-246-97452-4}}</ref>

[[File:Meyers b16 s0570.jpg|left|thumb|Weather map of Europe, December 10, 1887]]
A storm in October 1859 that caused the loss of the [[Royal Charter (ship)|''Royal Charter'']] inspired FitzRoy to develop charts to allow predictions to be made, which he called ''"forecasting the weather"'', thus coining the term "weather forecast".<ref name="Mellersh, H. E. L. 1968"/> Fifteen land stations were established to use the [[telegraph]] to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service. His warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861, with the use of [[electric telegraph|telegraph communications]]. The first daily weather forecasts were published in ''[[The Times]]'' in 1861.<ref name="BBC"/> In the following year a system was introduced of hoisting storm warning cones at the principal ports when a gale was expected.<ref name="Kington">{{Cite book|title=Climates of the British Isles: Present, Past and Future|first=John|last=Kington|editor=Mike Hulme and Elaine Barrow|year=1997|publisher=Routledge|page=147}}</ref> The ''"Weather Book"'' which FitzRoy published in 1863 was far in advance of the scientific opinion of the time.

As the electric telegraph network expanded, allowing for the more rapid dissemination of warnings, a national observational network was developed, which could then be used to provide synoptic analyses. To shorten detailed weather reports into more affordable telegrams, senders encoded weather information in [[Telegraph code|telegraphic code]], such as the one developed by the [[U.S. Army Signal Corps]].<ref>{{cite news |title=A woman bought a vintage dress at an antique store. It had a secret pocket with a mysterious note |first=Faith |last=Karimi |publisher=CNN |date=January 15, 2024 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/15/us/antique-dress-maine-encrypted-message-cec/index.html |access-date=January 17, 2024 |archive-date=January 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116233400/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/15/us/antique-dress-maine-encrypted-message-cec/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Instruments to continuously record variations in meteorological parameters using [[Photography#Science and forensics|photography]] were supplied to the observing stations from [[King's Observatory|Kew Observatory]] – these cameras had been invented by [[Francis Ronalds]] in 1845 and his [[barograph]] had earlier been used by FitzRoy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph|last=Ronalds|first=B. F.|publisher=Imperial College Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-78326-917-4|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B. F.|date=June 2016|title=Sir Francis Ronalds and the Early Years of the Kew Observatory|journal=Weather|volume=71|issue=6|pages=131–134|doi=10.1002/wea.2739 |bibcode=2016Wthr...71..131R|s2cid=123788388 }}</ref>

To convey accurate information, it soon became necessary to have a standard vocabulary describing clouds; this was achieved by means of a series of classifications first achieved by [[Luke Howard]] in 1802, and standardized in the ''[[International Cloud Atlas]]'' of 1896.