The 81st anniversary of World War II's D-Day was Friday, June 6th, but it could have been another day. Weather and meteorologists were a huge factor in arguably the most important battle of mankind, changing the course of history.
The meticulous planning of D-Day in World War Two took years, a massive undertaking and a mission that would change the course of history. The known enemy was fierce, but was unknown or uncertain. The weather could have spelled disaster for the Allied forces. 5000 ships crossing the English Channel, thousands of aircraft, millions of troops were at the mercy of the weather.
There were no satellites, computer models or radar. Weather forecasting at the time was primitive. This is a hand-drawn weather analysis leading up to D-Day forecasts were based on communication with other weather stations and ground observations to the west. The direction which the weather generally came from. The front to the west was cause for concern, and the scheduled invasion on the sixth was almost postponed to the seventh.
Six meteorologists, comprised of members from the Met Office, Royal Navy and the United States Air Force literally argued for days about the timing of the front. Several reconnaissance flights on the 4th of June confirmed a wide area of broken clouds west of Ireland that would be estimated to reach England, and the next day, the morning of June 5th.
The team of meteorologists were able to convince General Dwight Eisenhower to allow the landings to take place on the sixth. The clearing of the front just prior to the invasion gave Allied forces the desired element of surprise. It's been called the most important weather forecast in history. If General Eisenhower postponed D-Day, the next potential invasion period would have been June 17th to the 19th.
And it just so happened that a major storm blew through the English Channel at that time.
