On August 1, 1861, Robert FitzRoy, a British naval officer who
had been researching ways to predict the weather, published
the first known weather forecast in The Times.
The report, which included a prediction of 62 degrees and clear
skies in London, was largely accurate.
Fitzroy—who had captained the famed HMS Beagle, which
sailed around the world with naturalist Charles Darwin—
had become concerned about the massive loss of life at
sea, with more than 7,400 shipwrecks near the British
coast over a five-year period.
Fitzroy believed advance warning about rough weather
could prevent many such tragedies.
After the initial August 1 forecast, weather reports quickly became
very popular and syndicated in publications around England. It
wasn’t just fishermen and sailors, traditionally affected by the
weather, who availed themselves of the forecasts.
People involved in organizing events like county fairs and flower
shows obsessively followed them as well. Some people even
used the forecasts for more speculative purposes, like picking
which horse to bet on in races, depending on how the weather
might affect track turf.
