In this issue ofWeather

Abstract

Weather was first published seventy years ago this month, the Royal Meteorological Society and its members clear that, in the year following the Second World War, there was a new era in the provision of – and interest in – weather services to customers. The Society and the Editorial Board of this journal wish it a very happy birthday! In our first paper (on p. 108), Dennis Wheeler focuses on the extreme disturbance of the weather in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1816, part of a cool year across the globe that was the result of the eruption of Mt Tambora in Indonesia the previous year. It may come as a surprise to some that the injection of aerosols and ash into the tropical atmosphere, halfway across the world could have a significant effect in North East England, but the signal for this teleconnection was particularly evident 200 years ago, when it was said that it was a ‘year without a summer’. On p. 118, we move on to the ‘Analysis of rainfall events over peninsular Malaysia’ by Ren Jie Chin and his co-authors. Around the world, it is increasingly evident that we need to know the likely maximum rainfall in a day or number of days, in order to be prepared for its effects on the population and infrastructure. This paper presents the results of a study over more than 40 years using a newly developed ‘event mining tool’. Finally, we move on to a report of a ‘Violent thunderstorm in Toulouse – 13 June 1854’ on p. 123, translated from an article in French in the Chronique de Jersey by Frank Le Blancq, who also comments on the serious effects of the event. News of loss of life and damage due to the weather would only have been available from the newspapers 162 years ago and reports such as this were a spur in the development of meteorological services, many of which were founded around this time.