In Admiral Robert FitzRoy locked himself in his dressing room and cut his throat His grand meteorological project had failed Yet only a decade later FitzRoys storm warning system and forecasts would return the model for what we use todayIn an age when a storm at sea was evidence of Gods wrath nineteenth-century meteorologists had to fight against convention and religious dogma Buoyed by the achievements of the Enlightenment a generation of mavericks set out to decipher the secrets of the atmosphere and predict the future Among them were Luke Howard the first to classify clouds Francis Beaufort who quantified the winds James Glaisher who explored the upper atmosphere in a hot-air balloon Samuel Morse whose electric telegraph gave scientists the means by which to transmit weather warnings and FitzRoy himself master sailor scientific pioneer and founder of the UKs national weather serviceReputations were built and shattered Fractious debates raged over decades between scientists from London and Galway Paris and New York Explaining the atmosphere was one thing but predicting what it was going to do seemed a step too far In when a politician suggested to the Commons that Londoners might soon know the weather twenty-four hours in advance the House roared with laughterPeter Moores The Weather Experiment navigates treacherous seas and rough winds to uncover the obsession that drove these men to great invention and greater understanding.
