Weather forecasting for Operation Overlord

<p>The <a href="/facts/Operation_Overlord/fcx7BD00">Overlord</a> planners for the invasion of Europe in 1944 specified suitable weather (wind, cloud, tidal and moon conditions) for the assault landing; with only a few days in each month suitable. In May and June 1944 frequent pre-assault meetings were held at <a href="/facts/Southwick_House/B0DfIm9L">Southwick House</a> in Hampshire near <a href="/facts/Portsmouth/JxMGK6jC">Portsmouth</a> by <a href="/facts/Dwight_Eisenhower/a21WXe8r">Eisenhower</a> with Group Captain <a href="/facts/James_Stagg/PtCeLRbY">James Stagg</a> of the <a href="/facts/Royal_Air_Force/P10CbL5H">RAF</a>, the Chief Meteorological Officer, <a href="/facts/SHAEF/gCQmDyHX">SHAEF</a>, his deputy Colonel <a href="/facts/Donald_Norton_Yates/8yhbDq5S">Donald Yates</a> of the <a href="/facts/United_States_Army_Air_Force/0mtva6Cw">USAAF</a>, and his three two-man teams of meteorologists. Stagg was a "dour but canny Scot.. " He had been given the rank of group captain in the <a href="/facts/Royal_Air_Force/P10CbL5H">RAF</a> "to lend him the necessary authority in a military milieu unused to outsiders". The senior commanders  were General <a href="/facts/Bernard_Montgomery/Jlo77RF1">Bernard Montgomery</a>, Admiral Sir <a href="/facts/Bertram_Ramsay/6PG3nItR">Bertram Ramsay</a> and Air Marshal Sir <a href="/facts/Trafford_Leigh-Mallory/0QnyHUq9">Trafford Leigh-Mallory</a>, plus Eisenhower's deputy, Air Marshall <a href="/facts/Arthur_Tedder/uBqQMhbk">Arthur Tedder</a>, his chief of staff <a href="/facts/Walter_Bedell_Smith/S4oCp7xh">Walter Bedell Smith</a> and his deputy chief of Staff  Major General <a href="/facts/Harold_R._Bull/nqQQhbz3">Harold R. Bull</a>.
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<p>Stagg reported the team consensus, although this has been glossed over in popular memory. Admiral Sir <a href="/facts/George_Creasy/n3gYd02v">George Creasy</a> remarked on 4 June: "Here comes six feet two inches of Stagg and six foot one inch of gloom....." (1.88m & 1.85m).  British general <a href="/facts/Frederick_E._Morgan/Hzl7jrb3">Frederick Morgan</a> (head of COSSAC) had half-jokingly said to him "Remember, if you don't read the runes (or signs) right, we'll string you up from the nearest lamppost".
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Weather forecasting for Operation Overlord open-in-new

Weather forecasting for Operation Overlord